What goes down must go up!

   Sue and I are in western Maryland enjoying some cooler temperatures and some cycling on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail. She was feeling a particular need to get away and recharge before facing the chaos that is going to be a new school year in the face of the continuing pandemic!

   I thought it was particularly appropriate to come here, since my father passed away this May, and this was the site of a particularly enjoyable cycling experience with him during the autumn of 2011. You can read about four of our wacky trips to complete the over 300-mile route from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath and GAP Trail in my Trail Tales section.

   My father did not like to ride uphill and was sure to plan this particular section of the trail from the summit of the mountains down into Cumberland, MD. Sue usually reads my blog entries, and she certainly researches the trips we take together, so I was very surprised when we headed off from the trailhead near the Frostburg Depot, and she said, "I didn't realize it was so long and so steep." Now I usually would say, "It's not that steep - it's a railroad grade, after all" (and this portion of the trail shares the right-of-way with the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad), but in this case it is fifteen miles of hill, so her point was valid. Sue hasn't been riding this spring as much as she normally does, mainly because she has been doing constant trips to Chadds Ford to do cleaning, painting, yard work, etc. to prepare her parents' large property for sale.

   As were were coasting along, she admitted that having the return trip hanging over her head was not allowing her to enjoy the ride down to Cumberland. Before we started the outing, I had figured she was only going to want to go part way, and I had counted on doing the rest of the ride by myself. I had planned on riding the uphill pretty hard in any case, so I offered to let her relax down at the station near Canal Place (western terminus of the C&O canal) and go back to fetch the car for her "rescue".

   Of course, she immediately wished she had brought along a book, but I told her that the historic district in Cumberland is rather attractive, if she wanted to explore. I also suggested that, since this leg of the ride didn't require a whole lot of hard pedaling, she could always pedal a short distance east on the C&O Canal Towpath.

   We knew there were some thunderstorms forecasted in the area later in the afternoon, and she warned me to take cover if the weather turned. Because there actually isn't a lot of shelter out there, I joked, "Like under a tree or maybe one of those tall, metal wind turbines?" She suggested I could time it right and stop in one of the tunnels.

   As it turned out my timing couldn't have been worse, as the skies let loose about a half mile from our Airbnb apartment. I was riding from the Frostburg trailhead into town up a very steep hill, right into a wall of rain. By the time I got to the top I was completed soaked, and I was pedaling through rushing water about four inches deep, as it seemed all the runoff from Main Street was flowing into this intersection with Depot Street.

   Since I was already wet, I quickly jumped in the shower and then changed into street clothes before going to pick up Sue. It was pouring hard when I reached Cumberland, and I found her hiding out in the pedestrian underpass at the Western Maryland Station. I couldn't tell what Sue was gesturing about as she ran to the car, but it turns out I had parked in a huge puddle - everything just looked wet to me.

   Speaking of moisture, we were absolutely smacked at home Tuesday by Tropical Storm Isaias, with some areas around us seeing 3-4 inches of rain. I had originally planned on going out on a night ride into Philadelphia with a few friends the night before we were leaving for Maryland, but we were wondering if that was wise. Most of the Schuylkill Trail is high enough up on the bank of the river, but areas like Manayunk had a foot of water on the street.

   We figured if it got too bad, we could just turn around, but it turned out that most of the water had receded by Wednesday night. There were a few low areas with some sticky wet mud, but once we made it across Falls Bridge, the riding was quite enjoyable to the art museum. You can't beat the four lanes of traffic-free riding on West River Drive (MLK Blvd.), which has been closed to cars for recreational use since March, in response to the virus situation.

   Faced with the idea of riding back through the mud, we decided to loop up over the Girard Street bridge via Sedgley and Poplar Drives and cycled past the Philadelphia Zoo and the Please Touch Museum (housed in the Centennial Expo's Memorial Hall). We veered right on Parkside Avenue to Belmont Avenue and headed up to Conshocken Avenue to reach the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.

   I wasn't aware that the big curved arch bridge to Manayunk was closed at night - apparently it is a safety concern because it is currently unlit. Seriously, if you can't find your way across that bridge with all of the ambient light in the area, you have a LOT to be concerned about!

  Anyhow, we were blocked by a large gate at the south end of the bridge and had to bear left to head down the hill so that we could cross the Schuylkill on Green Lane. Well, we had effectively avoided the muddy streets, but that was an incredibly long detour to do so!

   I had a rather quiet couple of weeks in the shop leading up to my vacation, but I did clear out a couple more bicycles, again nearly wiping out my stock of finished bikes. I'll sign off with photos of the completed Cannondale R4000, which lasted all of two days after I listed it!

I included this extra photo angle so you could really see the gold color change!