Day 1 was 74 miles, all along the GAP, which I now know stands for Great Allegheny Passage. Ironically we didn’t really ride along the Allegheny river much today, but we were by river(s) the whole day, surrounded by what Ted called a “tunnel of green”. I rode for a while with Ginger and Fred. We stopped at a bench that Fred had installed to honor his older brother who passed away, installed on an overlook at the start of the rapids in the Youngegheny river. Ohiopyle, the town we are in, is a little tourist town that’s here mostly to service whitewater rapids tourists who get in this river and then go down about 5 or 6 miles to a pull out and do some class 3 and 4 rapids. There are some falls in town that I went to look at.
The riding itself was nice, if perhaps a bit dull. I am having a bit of trouble with my lower back so I was glad to get off the bike. But it was a nice day of riding along some pavement and then a lot of hard packed gravel, so hard that it was fine on my road bike. We hit a little bit of mud but nothing special. Had lunch in a bike-themed place called the Kickstand Kitchen, where I had a polish sandwich with pierogies and sausage on a bun. Tasty but heavy.
I talked to Chet and Phil at dinner (pizza) about fundraising and how I got involved with the organization. All in all, a very pleasant day. Looking forward to more tomorrow as long as my butt doesn’t hurt.
