Guest Blog: Ray & The Travelling Circus Go Biking

Our good buddy Ray Beimel in Pennsylvania sent this story about a biking adventure he went on. Ray is a professional photographer in St. Marys, PA. We've known each other since high school.

Warm greetings to all my friends,

    October was a very pleasant month for me. My old friends (and we are old friends now that we have known each other for 42 years and been travelling together for 40) Chris and Brad planned a biking trip so we could fill in the gap in the GAP, the Great Allegheny Passage. This is a rail trail that runs from near Pittsburgh to Cumberland Maryland where it connects with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath which takes you right into the Georgetown section of the District of Columbia. Over the years we have done all of it except the part from Adelaide outside of Connellsville to McKeesport. Since Brad operates a very nice bike shop right near the trail in Confluence, it is good for him to be familiar with the trail. And Chris and I just like riding with him.

    I drove to Confluence on Wednesday night figuring to spend a couple of nights with Brad and Maureen and then a couple of nights with Chris and Brad in the RV. Thursday is Brad's day off when biking season slows down so we went down the trail to take a look at the Pinkerton Tunnels. One of them is active on the B&O mainline.

 The other one on the Western Maryland line is closed pending repairs to make it safe to bike through. We got on the trail at Markleton and rode west toward the tunnels. Just after the trail crosses the Casselman River, we got off the bikes and made a short hike to the east portal of the active tunnel. It is curved, very much curved. We walked into it as far as we could before we were in cave-like darkness. In earlier years we might have continued despite having no lights. But this time we turned around, figuring to come back on day when armed with a big light. 

     There is a "shoofly" around the closed tunnel that is actually the original line of the B&O Pittsburgh line. I came around a curve and right in the middle of the trail were four black bears. I have no pictures, alas. It was a mother, a yearling, and two cubs. I came to a fast stop and Brad nearly hit me. It was the funniest thing. I yelled and the bears put on a chinese fire drill. They turned in circles then Mother Bear went up the hill. The yearling and one cub followed her. The other cub climbed up a tree, decided that wasn't a good idea, dropped out of the tree, ran down the hill, noticed no other bears were going that way, turned around and ran up the hill to join the others. It was falling off the bike funny to watch. We waited and wondered if it was prudent to continue but then two bikers came the other way and didn't see anything so we continued to the tunnel. The active tunnel is scheduled to be daylighted soon and we wondered how they could do that with the other tunnel so close. If not for the curve, the tunnels would intersect. We stayed long enough to watch a long coal train come by. This is a view of the Casselman River with the B&O (now CSX) mainline up on the hillside. You just gotta hate being out on fall day like this one.

    That night Brad's wife Maureen made a delicious pork roast and a big bowl of her really fine potato salad. She treats me sooooo good. The next day I minded the store for a while they went to a funeral. Then I went over to visit with one of the great colorful characters I have ever met, Bill Metzger. He was a freelance photographer for years in Pittsburgh, was the moving spirit behind the rail trails in the Pittsburgh area, and is now the cartographer for TRAINS magazine. Some years ago, a mysterious malady took away the function of his legs and he is wheelchair bound. As you might imagine, he and I have much to talk about. He told me to tell him the next time the Teaberry and Southern and Bucksgahuda & Western were running.

    Friday afternoon Brad and I did the car switch, dropping his truck off in Boston PA. We didn't go into McKeesport because there is no safe overnight parking in the old mill town unless you come early enough to get a permit to park in the garage or some such thing. The directions given took us the long way around, involved a long wait at the Monroeville toll booth on the Turnpike. We took a faster way back to the campground where Chris was already set up and waiting for us. It was Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Resort and Campground. We couldn't see much of it at night. Brad cooked up a pot of what he calls "Things in Tomato Sauce." The things being smoked sausage, zucchini, yellow squash, black olives, and rotini. Fill in your own synonym for tasty here.

    In the morning we walked around the campground. It was off season but we could imagine the place on a summer weekend crawling with small children.

     The tram was out of service. We did not take pictures with our faces in BooBoo and Cindy Bear cutouts. We did sing the song, "Yogi has it better than a millionaire, that's because he's smarter than the average bear. He will sleep to noon but before it's dark, he'll have every picanick basket in Jellystone Park..." The water slide hadn't seen water since Labor Day but it looked like it would be fun. There is a little carousel, a swimming pool, a mediocre miniature golf course, a camp store, restaurant, and other amusements we didn't have time to check out. It was an odd place for crusty old woodsmen like us to be camping but it was the only one open that was close to the trailhead. There is a nice campground right at the trailhead in Adelaide but they were closed early for construction.

   The game room was open. We played air hockey, Chris beat me, just like he did in the old days. The guys did not do well at Ms. Pac-Man. There was no one traditional pinball machine to be found. However, Brad was a big winner at the Deal or No Deal device. But the redemption center was closed so he couldn't turn his tickets into nasty rubber novelties. We were in Site #1 with complete hookups and a short walk to the shower house. 

     This was all very well but the objective of the day was the bike ride. Once the sun came out and warmed things up, we hit the trail. It is well constructed on the grade of the abandoned Pittsburgh, McKeesport, and Youghigheny Railroad, part of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, commonly called the P Mickey. It is pretty much dead flat and alternates between being in the woods and passing through old coal mining towns. At one place the ruins of a coal processing plant are right by the trail. We had to stop and explore a bit.

 The graffiti here was a cut above the usual, but that would expected near Andy Warhol's hometown.

     We stopped in West Newton for lunch. You gotta love a rail trail with a nice bar/restaurant within site of the trailhead. And with a converted railroad station with open restrooms.

    My old digital camera is getting cranky and doesn't always focus properly so some pictures I took are not good enough to publish. And as always happens, I get engrossed in the ride and don't think about pictures. We did about 30 miles altogether. The trailheads are done well, there are two nice campsites in this stretch, the trail surface is in good shape. The objective is to have the trail reach the point in Pittsburgh by 11/11/11 so they have a year to get it all connected.

    No Travelling Circus trip is complete without the inevitable Cinch tournament. I won 1, Brad won 5, Chris won none.

    There are more stories to come. Thanks for reading.    Ray