August 6 Bedford to Gettysburg, PA 102.8 miles

The lake at Cowan Gap State Park

View from the top of a climb

Diana reaches the top of a climb

What a day to oversleep! I set my alarm last night for 4:30am, which is only 15minutes earlier than I normally get up, but for some reason, I slept through my alarm. So there I was laying in my tent wondering why everyone was unzipping their tents when I realized… maybe its time to get up! But it worked out ok. I was able to get everything loaded up and on the truck in time. We had a thundersquall last night and everything got soaked but we didn’t mind too much, especially us “golden girls” as we have our little cabin to sleep in tonite.

First road sign to DC!

The climb was worth it!

But about the day–the ride is billed on the cue sheets as “Huge day on the bike. This is the “final exam”. The first 40 miles features several big climbs and descents and the last 60 miles is more rolling”. But we weren’t scared off. We’ve been riding 7 weeks now and if we aren’t in shape for what PA can dish out, we’ll never be! Its true that the ride does have some huge and VERY steep climbs that first 40 miles. I definitely worked hard to get up them but the scenery was so pretty that I didn’t mind. And these last 7 weeks have gotten us into good enough shape that we can grind our way up anything. Hills that would have scared the !@#$ out of me a few weeks ago don’t daunt me at all– just gear down and go!

Samuel reaches the top of a climb

Today we mostly followed the “S” Pennsylvania DOT bike route that was developed by Tom Ridge, a former governor who is an avid cyclist. Many of the roads are great for travelling but a few have very high traffic and marginal shoulders.

Jason and his snapping turtle

I rode most of the day with Janet and Darrell joined us close to the end. We had our first stop at Breezewood and went through the second busiest truck intersection in the country. I had to wait for what seemed like forever for the stoplight to change– they must extend them so that all the trucks can get through the lights. It was worth it once I finally got through the light and could reach our rest stop because Sharon had put it in front of a Starbucks! We hadn’t seen a Starbucks in several days so I went in for a chai latte which powered me up the long climbs that came after we moved on.

Janet, Samuel, Rosie, and Liz at first lunch

Douglas (for his family!) and our wonderful mechanic, Nick

About the time we came to the Hustontown area, there was a little country store where Janet and I decided to stop, along with some of the others. We started talking to Jason, who is a local, and he showed us the snapping turtle he’d caught, which he plans to have for dinner sometime soon. I got a great turkey sub at the store for just $2.50 and it was so big that it fed me, Samuel, and Janet. Fortified, we headed out down the road.

The grist mill outside Burnt Cabins

Later in the day, we rode through Burnt Cabins, where British soldiers burned settler’s cabins in the pre-Revolutionary War days in order to appease the Indians of the area who were unhappy about losing their lands. This was followed by a view of an old grist mill and then, we rode  toward Cowans Gap State park on a beautiful road alongside a creek. It was so pretty that we didn’t even want to hurry. Lunch was  at a lake at the State Park where I had my daily ice cream, and then we headed out as there were still 50 miles to go and it was 11:45am.

Documentation-- there ARE big hills in PA!

Gettysburg memorial of the Civil War

Happily, by then we were through the big climbs but there were still plenty of rollers. Its true that there are lots of hills in Pennsylvania and for a while today, it seemed like we were going over all of them. We stopped at Nick’s rest stop at 75 miles and filled up with water but knew that we’d need to make another stop so at 85 miles Darrell, Janet, and I stopped at a grocery store for a cold drink. We also decided that since camp was so far out of town, that the best thing to do would be to eat in town, then head out to camp. Soon after we left the store, we crested a hill and began a long, long glorious descent into Gettysburg that was made even better by the tailwind. Janet stopped us at the Appalacian Brewery and Restaurant where we had a great meal before travelling the last few miles into camp.

So…. WE DID IT!  We passed the final exam! We’re in Gettysburg in our little camping cabin. Its pretty rustic: just a queen bed and 2 sets of bunk beds but we are thrilled to be out of our tents for 2 nights. This means when we leave here, its just 1 more night of camping out and then we’re at DC. Our tents have been dried out in the sun and we’re doing laundry. It will be nice to enjoy our last rest day tomorrow. We are pretty far from town here– about 2 1/2 miles so we’ll have to ride our bikes to get our meals. One task for tomorrow is to figure out what to do about dinner, as in who will deliver here so we don’t have to go back into town for dinner.