Songs kept running through my head all day such as Climb Climb Climb, that great county western song, How high is the elevation Mama? 1600' and rising or The road goes on forever and the climbing never ends!! The theme today was climb!! 60 miles of nothing but up! But if you think that was hard, keep reading.
The day started out a little overcast with an occasional sprinkle. We woke up around 6:30 to the pleasant sound of a garbage truck emptying, the dumpster but it was time to get up anyway. Lucy our host served us a great breakfast at 7:30AM. We were quite pleased with the Connellsville B&B. We found out that it purchased in 2008 and completely remodeled and has been open for about a year. It really is very nice and the owners are very nice!
We started out around 8:30 and started riding uphill to Ohio Pyle which was 17 miles away. We stopped and had our coffee at a little cafe along the river. We started up again and I mean that literally. It was another 11 miles to Confluence and we wanted to stop at the River's Edge B&B for lunch. The ride was very pretty as we climbed our way up the river. We saw several rafts as people made their way downstream to Ohio Pyle. It was still pretty much overcast but at least it was cool. We arrived in Confluence at 12:30 and pulled into the B&B and sat at a table outside overlooking the gardens and the river. As we sat down, it began to rain. We congratulated ourselves on our timing to have lunch during the shower except that it wasn't a shower and it never stopped raining for the next 32 miles which if I haven't mentioned was all up hill!
Our pleasant little ride turned into a very tough day. The trail turned into a sort of soft mud which grabbed at the tires and tried to keep them from turning. Up until today I haven't been sure which was better, a trailer or bags on the bike, now I know if it rains on the trail, you have three wheels in the mud instead of two if you are (literally) dragging a trailer. Did I mention that the trail was all up hill?
We still managed to see some pretty nice scenery along the way even if there were raindrops falling on my head ( another song!).
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| Only 279 miles to go! |
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| A view of the river |
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| Fantastic view |
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| Flowers at the Rivers Edge B&B |
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| Rainy Day |
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| Interesting view from the trestle into Meyersdale |
We finally made it to Meyersdale and just as we were getting there, I got a call from Helen who is the motel manager wondering if we were still coming. I assured her that we were and asked her if she had a hose to clean our bikes. She suggested the coin operated car wash which we pass on the way to the motel. It was good advice as were able to get most of the mud off the bikes before we got to the motel. Helen got us settled in and we walked to a local pub for dinner. We had a very good steak dinner for $10.95. As were were waiting for our food, a couple came in who looked like bikers so we struck up a conversation. They were coming from Cumberland Maryland. The wife stayed and talked to us for quite a while but the husband went and sat down. After awhile, we realized why. She complained about everything that had happened for the past couple of days. We decided that he knew what she was going to talk about and he had heard it all more than once that day. We did enjoy her storied though as she was pretty funny.
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