Today was an interesting ride. The Montour Trail, which is actually an extension of the GAP, and took us around Pittsburgh, had a little more up and down to it, although we are now out of the Allegheny Mountains. The scenery is changing - a little more open areas, meadows, and not as many thick forests. We had to ride about three miles on roads to get to the trailhead, including a long hill, which neither of us wanted to pedal up first thing in the morning, so we walked the bikes up. This was followed by a nice downhill however, and at the bottom we were at the trailhead. In about 7 miles we came upon what turned out to be the only place to eat right on the trail. It couldn't have come at a better time, because we were both starved since we didn't get much breakfast atthe Super 8. We spent almost an hour there as it was no fast food place and the two cooks started from scratch to prepare your food, including chopping veggies. It was one of those interesting tastes of the local culture though, and the food was good.
After about 9 miles on the Montour trail, we headed in a more westerly direction on the Panhandle trail,which took us here to Steubenville. This trail was a little rougher for the last 6 miles. In fact it turned into a double-track mountain bike trail! Lots of big loose rocks, some big muddy water puddles, sharp rocks sticking out of the dirt, ruts, etc.etc. I thought it was kind of fun, but Bill wasn't very happy with it. His recumbent bike doesn't so very well in conditions like that. It gets a little tippy. Had to ride on a high speed four lane highway for about four miles to get inton the city of Steubenville where we found another Super 8 motel. We were very hot and tired after climbing a half mile up a rather steep hill to the motel, and the heat and humidity arrived today - the temperature was in the high 80's.
Have to go now, it's actually Thursday morning now and we need to have breadfast and get on the road.
I found my pictures, by the way, but do not have the time to post any right now. Maybe tonight.
Riding on,
Carol & Bill
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