Written by: Mike Rutherford
The team had a great overnight at the Faith Bible Church on Monday night and the chore teams were getting used to the daily routines of breakfast duty, church cleaning, trailer loading, and most importantly snack preparation. A beautiful dawn sky foretold a day of plentiful sunshine and light breezes.
After our morning roundup, oyees, and, saying goodbye to the neighbor dog; Larry we headed down the hill and rolled back onto the Great Allegheny Passage. Today’s ride was our big climb day with 2600 feet of climbing over 58 miles. The team had two options to get to Meyersdale; ride from Connellsville all the way or visit Fallingwater outside of Ohiopyle and ride the rest of the way. Several members went the Fallingwater route and others elected to ride the GAP the entire way.
Our first scenic rest stop was at Ohiopyle and that entailed two scenic bridge crossings over the rapids. Deacon Don from Faith Bible rode with us to Ohiopyle and headed back down the trail to wrap up a day of stories about life, cycling and church. Our Fallingwater riders joined back in at Ohiopyle and we all continued to head towards Meyersdale.
More destinations on our route included the Pinkerton Tunnel, Confluence, Rockwood, and the amazing Salisbury viaduct which is 1900 feet long, 100+ feet over the ground, and crosses the Casselman River. We attempted to get some amazing drone footage but our drone skills are still a work in progress. Stay tuned to see if we get the hang of the drone.
We had a great meal with Amity United Church of Christ and some of us walked around and found ice cream at Donge’s Drive-In and Hotel. The team curled up for the night with thoughts of climbing to the top of Savage Mountain on the following day.
Thanks so much for your prayers and support as we continue to travel to DC.
