You, Sir, are an inspiration!Okay, Mister Coffee's fall bike tour by the numbers:
Start: Olympia, WA
Finish: Smith River, CA
11 1/2 days
522.2 miles on-route. Side-trips totaled about 120 additional miles.
18733 feet of elevation gain on-route. Side-trips added about 5500 feet of additional climbing.
2 flat tires.
What a cool trail! Thanks for sharing.One of the most bizarre places I've ridden a bike is the Pike 2 Bike trail near Breezewood, PA. It is a 9 mile stretch of interstate highway abandoned in 1968 by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. The trail passes through the 2532' Rays Hill and 6782' Sideling Hill tunnels which are (for me anyway) the highlights of the trail. You experience absolute total darkness when you switch off your light in the center of the Sideling Hill Tunnel!
Unfortunately, the tunnel walls are covered with graffiti. I made an attempt to edit out the offensive stuff in my pictures.
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It has been 50 years now since the highway was abandoned and it is interesting to see how mother nature is slowly recovering her own.
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Despite it's desolate look, the trail is visited by more than a thousand cyclists each year. Anyone interested should check out the website:
http://www.pike2bike.com/
Spooky cool!
The trail passes through the 6782' Sideling Hill tunnel. You experience absolute total darkness when you switch off your light in the center of the Sideling Hill Tunnel!
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Entering that tunnel, then having your lights go faulty, flickering/sputtering, before going out totally at the half-way point, is the stuff of horror movie plots...! Just thinking about that prospect now makes my neck hairs stand up...
Stony Creek Trestle Bridge
East Gippsland Rail Trail, Victoria, Australia ...
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- Stony Creek Trestle Bridge is the hidden attraction of the East Gippsland Rail Trail in eastern Victoria - extreme SE of continental Australia, about one-third of the way between Melbourne and Sydney via the scenic coastal route, Highway One.
- I rode the 94 km trail in one day. It's perfect ebike terrain (most rail trails are!) but its location is away from major centres (1700 km one way for me).
PDoz ...We stopped in at the Nowa Nowa store on Saturday - returning from Tathra which is recovering really well after the fires.
Yes, I'd love to do that one day!PDoz ...
Fortunately, I've never been caught up in fires or their aftermath. I can't help but wonder whether relics like the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge will meet their end in bushfires.The historic trestle bridge across the Myra Canyon the Canadian Kettle River Rail Trail was destroyed by fire about fifteen years ago but has been rebuilt. Maybe, some Canadian forum members can add a few photos of their adventures.
... David