The start of the tour today – in the rain!

We took Bill’s Taxi from our hotel to the start on the GAP trail at Boston, PA.

It is a gentle rain, sort of, and the temperatures are cool, fortunately not cold. Our guides, Jim and Anna, unload the bikes and make the assignments giving us plenty of time to check out the bikes and load the bikes with our water bottles and personal items. After a safety talk, demo of our E-bikes, we are ready to ride. The other 5 people on the tour with us are riding road bikes and quite experienced riders.

Our group separates and rides the first 14 miles at our own pace.

The trail is crushed limestone and easy to ride. It is beautifully tree lined so even with the rain, it is peaceful and easy to pedaling along. Each day a white board is posted at the start of the ride with the day’s schedule.

Boston to West Newton. We make the stops suggested by our guides. They also provide some history and background about what we will see. First a cemetery that goes back into the 1700’s.

Next the “Red Waterfall” where the water is red from the rock that it is running down from above on the mountain.

The snack/water stops and the lunch stop are welcome! Anna is the set-up of the food and water stops while Jim follows as the ‘sweep’ at the back of the group. Guess where I am?! Thankfully, Russ joins me to make the time go by.

The trail is lined with tall sycamore, maple, and other (not identifiable to us) trees. There are scenic places to stop at. An old railroad bridge over the river and an amazing overlook down to the river. Did I mention we are following along a river the entire way?

The towns along the trail take responsibility for maintaining the trail. If it wasn’t for this trail, some of these towns surely would not exist. Well-maintained houses next to some ready to fall down or be taken over by vines.They are quite creative in making people want to stop.

This area of the country you can still see the remnants of the steel industry. There were over 40,000 coke ovens in the hillsides. Most cannot be seen anymore but a few are easily able to be seen from the trail. Cannot imagine what it must have been like when there were 40,000 coke ovens churning away.

Last stop is Ohiopyle where the headquarters of Wilderness-Voyageurs is located. Lots going on at the store – bicyclists, rafters and lots of outdoors merch. Our van is there waiting for us to drop off our bikes to be washed and put up before we travel to the hotel.

Tonight we stay at the Summit Inn historic hotel up on a mountain overlooking the valley below. The rooms are nice, the shower amazing and the dinner with the group delicious. We will definitely sleep well tonight – 56.6 miles!

And this phone in the lobby was interesting! We did not try it….maybe in the morning! (Steve – does this look familiar!?!)