Play in PA Ride Recap
By Wanda Carlisle - Ride Leader and Chapter President
Departure Day Friday, August 13th, (yes we planned a trip to leave on Friday the 13th, what were we thinking!) started with cancellations and scrambling to reorganize rooms with new roommates. A couple people got scared by the 50% chance for rain across the entire route on Friday, but 50% chance to get wet also means 50% chance to stay dry…which we did…sort of.
Four bikes and five riders (Wanda C, Mike J, Jerry D and Dennis S and wife Val) met at Sheetz at 4:00 sharp to start the ride with tanks full and bladders empty. The clouds were threatening and temps were 95 degrees with, let’s just say “high” humidity and leave it at that. We were just signing the waivers and trying to roll out early to beat the rain when the drops started to fall, so on went the gear and away we went. Our rider leader (Wanda C) had routed us away from the chaos that is now the 77/76 interchange and instead took us down what was supposed to be an easy ride to 44 and up to 76. We got hung up on 44, though, when a truly WIIIIIDE load was coming through, complete with multiple police escorts that cleared the entire road on to residential driveways, but allowed us to stay on the road in single file and all the way to the right. Once we actually got a look at what was coming, our definition of “all the way” to the right became clearer, and bikes got nudged over even further. Did any of us take out a phone to get a picture of the monstrosity? No, we just watched it come within inches of our bikes, but I can tell you it looked like they were bringing the Big Muskie Bucket through from the size of it! The miraculous thing was once the wide load moved through, the skies ahead of us had cleared and we were dry all the way to Dubois. Along the way, we picked up David W at our gas stop in Hubbard, OH.
We arrived at the Best Western Hotel and Conference Center in Dubois right on schedule at 7:30; the front desk staff was ready for us and it seemed that Day 1 would be smooth sailing. We put our gear in our rooms and walked to The Hitchin Post, which was the only restaurant near the hotel open past 8:00 pm. Unfortunately, open did not equal fully staffed, so it was a long wait for our food. On top of that, the restaurant had no air conditioning. By the time we had finished our dinner sweat was rolling down our faces and we were anxious to get back to air-conditioned rooms at the hotel. When we got to the door though, we discovered it was now pouring, so after basically staying dry the whole way there, we got drenched in less than 5 minutes walking back to the hotel.
Day two dawned to cloudy skies and cooler temperatures and looked like rain again, but with the ride captain promising sunshine and blue skies, we rolled out at 8:15 to top off at Sheetz in Dubois and meet up with the treasurer of Pittsburgh IMRG 2043, Alan Saunders. Since we were going to be in PA, Wanda had reached out to the PA chapters for meet ups; Alan was not only interested in meeting us, but since he lives in nearby Brookville, he wanted to ride with us as well. So 5 bikes became 6 and we headed up 219 out of Dubois to historic Ridgway, then it was into the Allegheny National Forest on the beautifully scenic, curvy and freshly repaved 948…first stop Kinzua Bridge State Park, the site of a scenic railroad bridge that was destroyed by a tornado in 2003. Ride Command took us up 66 into Kane and to where it thought Kinzua Bridge State Park was…in the middle of a residential street. It was not there, but Wanda soon found the bridge (and the aforepromised sunshine) in Mount Jewett (which was holding its annual Swedish Festival). Ride Command Tip: ALWAYS use a street address, do NOT put in a landmark name to search for a waypoint. Good thing Wanda knows the area. The Kinzua Bridge State Park and Visitor Center did not disappoint. We were even directed immediately to motorcycle parking upon our arrival. The Kinzua Sky Walk is a short walk from the parking lot and gives spectacular views of the gorge and of the ruins of the bridge towers that still lay were they fell, twisted, rusted hunks of metal overgrown with foliage, left by design to illustrate the forces of nature at work. Here is a link to the history of the bridge and the tornado that took it out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinzua_Bridge Highlight of our Kinzua stop: Mike J photobombing a kind family as we returned the favor for taking our group picture. Too bad we’ll never get to see that picture!
From Kinzua we were off to Coudersport to meet up with another PA IMRG chapter officer, Doug Baxter, President of Nittany Valley IMRG 1984. Doug had brought 4 bikes along with him; 6 bikes became 11, and with now 3 chapters coming together, an impromptu Regional Ride was born! The next destination was to have been PA’s Grand Canyon. Wanda had already scrapped this plan, however, due to the combination of a rainy night and a dirt road detour around a closure on PA 414 that runs through the Grand Canyon (Pine Creek Gorge). Since rain and dirt usually equal mud, Wanda decided to err on the side of safety and instead led us down the equally scenic and wonderfully twisty 144 through the Susquehannock State Forest, where the front bikes saw, believe it or not, a bobcat! And I don’t mean the kind that moves dirt! Here’s how the play by play in the Sena went down: “What’s that up ahead? It’s not shaped right for a coyote, not moving like a dog…Holy Crap! It’s a bobcat!” And apparently is was a big one for the area, so say our new friends from IMRG 1934.
We lunched at Deb’s Cross Fork Inn in the so small it’s barely a town of Cross Fork and got to know our new PA IMRG brethren a little better over Bubba Burgers. What’s a Bubba Burger? A 1/3 lb burger topped with ham, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion…meat topped with meat…YUM! From Cross Fork, we continued down 144 parting ways in Renovo, where the Nittany Valley folks headed east and we continued south on 144 all the way down to Snow Shoe. By this time, it had warmed up and we were ready for some ice cream, so Wanda started making calls to find sugar free options for one of our riders, but to no avail. So back on the bikes we went, headed to Elk Country, with hope that we might find some ice cream along the way. We made it all of a couple hundred yards, when Wanda signalled right to turn into the Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Shop, which was connected to a very interesting old barn, and was right next to the gas station we had just left! Wanda was feeling lucky and lo and behold, they had sugar free ice cream and a log in the shade for us to sit on and enjoy our sweet treats! As Mike J put it, “I love it when a plan comes together.” The elk were waiting, however, and so were Chris and Maria W who were meeting us at Elk Country. If you’ve been following along, the ride started as 4 bikes, then 5, then 6, then 11, back to 6, back to 5 (Alan from IRMG 2043 had to leave us after ice cream), then up to 7. Got it? Good.
We made it to Elk Country after a scenic ride on the Quehanna Highway just in time to buy some elk jerky (we didn’t get to feed ‘em, but we did get to eat ‘em!), sign our waivers and board the horse-drawn wagon. Our wagon was drawn by two beautiful Belgian workhorses and included a guide who told us fun facts about the elk that we were about to see and Elk Country itself. It was a little smoother ride than the bed of the pick-up truck at the Boss Bison Ranch, but just as fun. Fun fact: mature male elk make use of “mud holes” by urinating in them and then wallowing in the liquid and mud, coating themselves in a “cologne” to attract the females. A less ewww fun fact: all elk in the US came from Europe across the Bering land bridge. Their ancestors are the Norwegian red deer. We got to see a lot of elk, including a few young males just starting their racks. And the wagon ride was a relaxing way to end the day. We made it back to the hotel just as it was getting dark for dinner number two at The Hitching Post. With cooler temps, it was a much better dinner. Overheard on the wagon, “How is the West Virginia trip going to top this?” Hmmm. We’ll have to see about that.
Day 3 brought us another beautiful morning of blue skies, sunshine and cool temps. Wanda again revamped the route since the rerouting on Day 2 had stepped on the planned route for Day 3…what is that they say about the best laid plans? We headed east on 322 to PA 504 Black Moshannon Rd/Rattlesnake Pike for a ride through Black Moshannon State Park. Thankfully we didn’t see any rattlesnakes, but we did climb to 2,350 feet above sea level (so said the altimeters on our bikes) for a photo op. Then it was PA 150 skirting yet another state park (Bald Eagle State Park) over to Lock Haven to pick up one of Wanda’s favorite roads in PA, 120 from Lock Haven to Emporium. Traffic was a little heavy around Lock Haven, but we soon had the road to ourselves. PA 120 has everything you could ask for in a road: beautiful scenery (a river, rock outcroppings, a railroad and rusty old railroad bridges), twisties and no stops; it’s about as relaxing as it gets. So many of the state routes in PA are like this, you can ride for a couple hours with no stop signs, stop lights and virtually no traffic. We continued on 120 to our lunch stop in St. Mary’s, Ricks Dough Boys. To say it has an interesting ambience is an understatement. Where else can you enjoy pizza, hot subs and salads with homemade bread in the company of classic show cars? Don’t believe me? Check out the pix. Lunch was oh so tasty, too. We continued on from St. Mary’s to wind our way down to the freeway on 949, another wonderfully curvy road, that led us to a county road that felt like home, with horse apples and buggy signs to boot. Once we got to Brookville our playtime was over and we got back on 80 to head home. What a weekend. 800 miles, so many fantastic roads (through one national forest, one state forest and three state parks), interesting stops and new friends…and the price of admission was just a couple hours of freeway to and from and the courage to brave a rainy forecast on Day One. It was oh so worth it… Food for thought for our next and final overnight trip, the 4-day, 3-night WV Leaf Ride in October. The reservation window will open very soon. I hope you’ll join us.
