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Drove up to Philly yesterday to check out the Star Wars, Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Franklin with my buddy Leo. It was damned nice to have a change of scenery, so I took the camera along...
On the way up, I took a detour off of Rte 95 into Havre de Grace, MD to get some breakfast at Java on the Bay. Yet another coffee shop in a quiet little historic town, but with none of the yuppified feel of most that I visit. It was a very appropriate spot to spend a few moments perusing Garrison Keillor's Good Poems for Hard Times while wolfing down a carrot cream cheese muffin and spiced chai.
The weather forecast included the chance of thunderstorms, but those never materialized. The day was a tad bi-polar, though, with cirrostratus clouds streaking across a blue sky one moment, and almost totally grey overcast the next (which made for wacky lighting conditions, so all of these shots are in solarized camera mode to give them a little extra oomph).
After picking up Leo, the first stop we made on the way down into Philly was at the very excellent InFusion Coffee and Tea shop (sensing a theme yet?). Fantastic place in the Mt Airy district of Philly, with a great spinach and lentil burrito.
Germantown Ave, Mt Airy
The Star Wars exhibit and the Franklin Science Museum were very cool. Climbing around in the giant heart exhibit was as much fun as displaying what a total nerd I am by deluging Leo with geeky trivia at each of the Star Wars displays. Afterwards, we wandered up towards Eastern State Penitentiary. There wasn't time to tour the prison, but we did hit up Mugshots CoffeeHouse and Juicebar (I really can't pass one up at this point, I think it's an addiction) before heading back to the car with three minutes to spare on the meter.
An apartment across from Eastern State Penn. Awesome windows with an eerily terrific view.
One of the highlights of the day was having the chance to cruise through Valley Forge National Park again. If I lived anywhere around the King of Prussia area, I think I'd spend every spare moment in that park. Absolutely wonderful place. I took advantage of being there to finally snag photos of the Kennedy Supplee mansion. All in all, a very excellent day-trip.
A software training class for work sent me back up to Pennsylvania this past weekend, this time to King of Prussia, home to the East Coast's Premier Shopping Destination. From what I could see, there's almost no town to speak of in K of P, just a bunch of industrial/office parks and that frighteningly humongous mall. But... The location of the training class was less than half a mile from the entrance to Valley Forge National Historical Park. Wow. I didn't know what to expect, and ended up just blown away by this park.
I drove up Sunday morning, arriving about noon, checked into the hotel, then immediately drove over to the park. As with July's Philly weekend, I had considered bringing my bike. The park map showed a handful of miles of paved multi-use trail, and the Schuyllkill River Trail was smack-dab across the river from the park (back in July, the waylaid plan was to ride from Philly to Valley Forge on the Schuyllkill). Again, though, the weather forecast was iffy and I didn't feel like worrying about wet bike components so far from home (and from proper cleaning/lubing supplies). So, the bike stayed home and I ended up regretting that decision. The park and its trails were fantastic.
Like the US Civil War battlefield parks closer to home, the landscape is absolutely beautiful.
Rolling hills rise up south of the river, and in the center of them lies the valley of Washington's encampment interspersed by woods and open meadows. At the last minute, I did decide to bring my camera in place of the bike. Unfortunately, though, I didn't think to bring the battery charger. Went through both batteries Sunday afternoon, and kept finding spots that I was dying to photograph but couldn't. Knowing that the training sessions on Monday and Tuesday let out at 4:30pm, I was severely tempted to pop into the freaking humongous mall and buy a new camera just so I could shoot those two afternoons, but managed to restrain myself (found out that Sony's discontinued both my camera and the batteries it uses, dammit). So, I didn't get all the photos I wanted, but did spend a lot of time driving and wandering around the park. Of note:
- There were deer everywhere. Now, I'm used to seeing a lot of whitetails. I've had deer right outside my suburban front door on several occasions. So when I say there were a lot of deer in this park, I mean there were a lot of deer. They wandered in pairs and groups across the road and stood grazing just along the edge as cars and pedestrians cruised right by them. The most blasé, nonchalant deer I've ever seen:
- Drove through the park at 6:30am Monday morning, heading to a breakfast spot recommended by an old-timer working in the visitor's center. The valley was filled by a thick, cottony-white blanket of fog that had totally dispersed by the time I drove back an hour later. The breakfast spot was very cool: A place called the 'G' Lodge, that's temporarily going by the name of "Filbert's". Apparently, M. Night Shyamalan recently filmed scenes at the restaurant for the upcoming film The Happening, and the owner hasn't yet taken down the signs used for the movie. The food is unfortunately only mediocre, but the atmosphere was very M. Night. Very rustic and lodge-like inside, the place has obviously been there for a long time. It looks cozy from the exterior, but inside is vaguely creepy. Adding to that sensation were the four regulars at the counter, gentlemen who appeared as old and rustic as the 'G' Lodge itself, and who sat and ate their breakfasts in stone-cold silence. I've never eaten in a quieter place. Wanted to get a photo to show that I ate in the restaurant that's going to be in The Happening, but because the camera batteries died you'll just have to take my word for it.
- Another spot that had me fuming over the camera batteries was the Washington Memorial Chapel. Wandering over from Varnum's Quarters on Sunday afternoon, I found a very pretty cemetery tucked into the woods behind Route 23:
Turns out, it's part of the chapel. And, of course, there were deer:
Wandering back toward the car, I stopped for some photos of the old rectory:
Continuing down the road, I almost gave myself whiplash when the chapel itself came into view. It was already closed by that time, but the architecture and grounds are the real draw:
It was at this point that I really began cussing. I managed one single freaking photo of this beautifully haunting statue before the camera died on me:
Reason number 1 that I need to go back for another long weekend: to do a full photo study of that statue. Reason number 2 is the gorgeous Kennedy Supplee mansion across from the visitor's center. Apparently once a restaurant, the building now sits shamefully empty and abandoned. I'd really love to know why. And, reason number 3 is to ride my bike!!!
Also of note on this trip was having dinner with a new on-line pal (one of the folks I met at the Philly Chris Cornell show in July). I've been on quite the friend-making spree this year, between my cycling/kayaking buddies and the people at the Cornell forum. So far it's been fun getting to know these people and spending time with them, but I still can't get used to the scheduling issues. My calendar for the next couple of months is getting pretty crowded and I need to make sure I leave some days to be on my own. All this socializing leaves little time for introspection, which means less self-absorbed blogs. And that'd be a pity 
More and larger photos here.
The Great Allegheny Passage is actually two trails that will soon be connected to form one 335 mile trail from Washington, DC, to Pittsburgh, PA: The C&O Canal National Historical Park towpath that runs 184.5 miles from Washington, DC, and the Cumberland & Pittsburgh Trail that will run approximately 150 miles once the section between Cumberland and Frostburg, MD, is completed in late 2006.
I had made my annual pilgrimage to Cumberland in mid-October this year, with the intention of pedaling as much of the GAPT as I could in a few days. It was pouring down rain the first day, so rather than subject my bike (and myself) to getting drenched, I took a ride on the Western Maryland Scenic Railway, which parallels the uncompleted final portion of the GAPT from Cumberland to Frostburg.
On the second day of the trip, under overcast skies, I drove out to Ohiopyle, PA (near Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater), to pedal the 11 miles from there to Confluence, PA, and back. I rode this section last year and loved it. Apparently, I'm not alone in that feeling: That 11 mile stretch is considered the most popular section of the PA portion of the trail. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the car.
On the third day, I began my ride at about 2 in the afternoon, heading NW from Frostburg, MD, under a partly cloudy sky. The plan was to ride roughly 17 miles to the Salisbury Viaduct just beyond Meyersdale, PA.
The uphill gradient from Frostburg is approximately 1.75% all the way to Deal, PA. From Deal to Meyersdale is then 0.8% downhill. Which means the best way to begin this ride, theoretically, is from east to west so that the last several miles coming back east are an easy downhill. We'll see about that...
Borden Tunnel, just a little blip of a tunnel compared to the one to come.
The first 4 miles from Frostburg are bordered on the left by the upper slopes of Big Savage Mountain, and on the right by a deep valley that you can almost see through the trees. Once you cross the state line into PA, though, there's a break in the trees that affords a nice little view. Unfortunately, by that point the sky wasn't quite as blue.
Savage Tunnel. Approximately a 1/2 mile long and normally lighted. Today, though, the lights were not functioning. No biggie, though, as I've walked through the Paw Paw Tunnel on the C&O several times. What was more unnerving was the fact that the weather turned totally grey and windy in the time it took to walk through the tunnel. I came out the other side and immediately wondered how long I had until it would begin raining. Oh well, so the bike and I might get wet. We came to ride, and ride we did.
One of the cool aspects of riding through this section of PA is the wind farms (which would be more easily visible in this photo if the sky had been blue). And, as I realized on the way back, one of the not so cool aspects of riding through this section of PA is that it's a very appropriate place for wind farms.
This ride was the first on which I've actually remembered to bring my camera, so I finally got some photos of my pony.
On the far side of the Salisbury Viaduct is a cow farm and a tiny little cemetery.
A portion of the viaduct is visible in the background of this shot.
Either the old train depot at Meyersdale or the far end of the viaduct are good places to stop for a break. At 16.5 miles and a little after 4 p.m., this was my turnaround point. I would have liked to have explored Meyersdale and taken more photos on the way back to Frostburg, but the fact that I'd made so many stops on the way up and had only about 2 hours till sunset meant no dilly-dallying. But I was confident that I could pick up some speed on that lovely downhill between Deal and Frostburg...
Coming out of Savage Tunnel on the way back to Frostburg. What wasn't visible in the first photo of the tunnel was the massive metal doors at each end.
Looking back up through the tunnel just before the end. Fatigue had set in on the way back, in spite of the downhill from Deal, and all I could think about during this second walk through the tunnel was those doors swinging shut and trapping me inside. This dark and creepy walk was too appropriate just a week and a half before Halloween.
And that lovely downhill from Deal wasn't so lovely. No matter what gear I was in or how hard I pedaled, I just could not get above 19mph. I was blaming it on the wind I felt pushing against me, until I looked up and realized the leaves on the trees were perfectly still. Must have been the rolling resistance from the crushed gravel trail (yeah, that's my story and I'm stickin' with it).
In spite of the grey sky, the black tunnel, and pushing myself to the point of fatigue coming back, it was a great ride of 37 miles. Next year, though, I'll start earlier in the day, and hope for clearer skies and lights in Savage Tunnel.
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