Days 7 and 8: Recovery, and leaving Pittsburgh

Sunday, April 27, 66 miles

Monday, April 28, Pittsburgh PA to Colliers, WV

Sunday was a true day of rest. Nobody really slept in, but we tried not to exert ourselves. We spent the morning dealing with things that are hard to do on tour, like laundry and bicycle maintenance. Then we had a day in Pittsburgh.

Sue and I went for a walk in Frick Park. Then we all went shopping for odds and ends at Goodwill and REI, then rode the Duquesne Incline for great views of the city. 

In fact, we had a view directly to "The Point" where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers become the Ohio. That is where the Great Allegheny Passage officially ends, just a few miles from where we turned off to go to Sue's. 

Also included in the day was a trip to East End Brewing, Sue's favorite brewery in the city.

And then, of course, Sure made us another great meal. We could not have had a better recovery day.

But we had to leave Monday. We thought of staying another day, but we have a long way to go. So we packed up and hit the road, me in long pants for the first time on the trip: I think it was about 45 degrees.

To get out of the city we had to backtrack a little to the Great Allegheny Passage. This time we followed the route we should have taken coming in, where we discovered why we missed the turn off the trail. We headed south from her house on the east side of Pittsburgh to cross the Monongahela on the Rankin Bridge. The GAP runs along the Monongahela so we just had to get down to it. But that involved a quarter mile of densely overgrown broken pavement that looks nothing like a bicycle trail. It did drop us onto the GAP, but if we had looked at that turnoff on Saturday, riding into the city with no idea where we were going, there is no way we would have pushed our bikes up what liked like a trail to a homeless camp. (In fact, there was evidence of one we had to pass through.)

We backtracked along the GAP through McKeesport, then left the it behind for good. We headed south through Glassport and crossed the Monongahela to get to the eastern terminus of the Montour Trail, a 63-mile rail trail that runs along the southern and western side of Pittsburgh. It's a great resource for the people of Pittsburgh that even has free primitive campsites for cyclists and hikers. But did I mention we had a long way to go? 

We took the trail from milepost 63 to milepost 17 where we hopped on the Panhandle Trail, named for the West Virginia Panhandle. We rode on that for a while, getting a little desperate for a soda and something besides a Clif Bar or Energy Beans. We finally found a convenience store the Midway, PA.

We had no idea where we could camp for the night. We were close to where we would get off the Panhandle Trail and onto the roads of West Virginia, and campsites seemed scarce. So we texted a Warm Showers host in Colliers, WV, about 16 miles down our route.

Warm Showers is an organization that pairs cyclists with people willing to host them for a night. I joined last year hoping to bank some good karma for this trip, and Lynn and I hosted three cyclists last year. Maybe it paid off because I got an immediate response from April who said she would be happy to have us.

We had a bit of trouble finding the house, including a climb up a very big hill where I learned I cannot pedal my fully loaded bike up a 13% grade. But we did eventually arrive, where April and Mike and their children welcomed us into their home.

We set up our tents in their back yard, relaxed a bit in the shade of a peaceful little courtyard on the side of their house, and had showers. April had prepared a great meal of pesto pasta and today chicken, the pesto made from wild ramps their neighbor had found.

After dinner John and I relaxed in the back yard, and we were eventually joined by April and Mike when they finished the chores I imagine are numerous. We chatted until well after dark, with John and I heading to our tents around 9:30.

It was a long day, but there were no difficulties beyond a little hill, and the last few hours were quite wonderful.