September 20, 2023
Confluence to West Newton on the GAP: No Tea for Carole, Apple Pie for Me
The Final GAP Ride for 2023
The original plan was Carole and her friend Andi would drop me off in Confluence PA (a three hour drive from where we live in Maryland) and continue west to Belle Vernon PA where they would partake in the tea service at the Serendipity Tea Room and Cafe while I biked west with the goal of meeting back in West Newton at the end of the day.
Instead, they met up with another friend, Martha, who had retired and moved to Chalk Hill PA not far from Confluence. So, we lost the tea motif for this series of rides on the GAP, but I gained an awesome apple pie to consume after riding 53 miles.
Like the last leg of the trilogy (Confluence to Cumberland) I started at Confluence at about 1130, with four differences:
- I'd be heading west/north not east/south.
- It was about60 degrees out, not 80.
- I had bought a new helmet on sale, which made me look like the Toad in Mario Brothers games.
- I got a bit cocky and packed lightly, carrying fewer tools and no pump.
That last one would come back to bite me a bit.
A pair of small (EF-1) tornados had hit the GAP at the end of August and there were piles of sawed-up blowdowns between Confluence and Ohiopyle, and a lot of active chain sawing going on near the Baptist camp outside of Connellsville. But the view of the Youghiogheny River from Ohiopyle was still awesome.
At the 28 mile mark I stopped at the Connellsville rest stop, filled up my water bottles and sat on a memorial bench to enjoy the fine weather.
I reached Cedar Creek Park with about 4 miles to go and pretty quickly the bike started feeling bouncy. Two miles later I stopped and checked -sure enough, I had a slow leak flat. Since I had skimped on tools and was so close to the end, rather than stop and put in a new tube I just slogged on at an increasingly slow rate - but reached the West Newton visitors' center pretty much on time to meet Carole and Andi before the final few air molecules escaped from the tube.
We drove from West Newton back east to Deep Creek Lake and had a great dinner with the "Hippies on the Hill" at Moonshadow in McHenry.
The next day, my flat-inflicted Jamis gravel bike stayed on the car and we hiked in Swallow Falls, the Rock Maze and the Cranesville Swamp Nature Preserve west of the Lake.
In our three trips to the GAP since June, I biked 147 miles on the GAP but only 120 unique GAP miles - never did the West Newton to Pittsburgh segment. I might sneak that part in if climate change gives us a warm November.
Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 147 miles (237 km)
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Well, actually: I did NOT forget. I have two multi-tools and the newer one has a #6 but for this ride I just swapped saddle bags with my road bike that DOES have handles on the thru-axles and that had the old multi-tool and no #6!
The Donnnelly MSO 40MM that flatted are pretty easy to get on/off - on multi-day road rides I'm usually on Schwalbe Marathons that are NOT and carry a bead jack and a pump.
7 months ago