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Reverse Cycleology - From the Cemetery to the Hospital
Friday, July 9 to Dravo Cemetery (near Boston, PA)
This morning, Glen Pawlak, the owner of Big Bang Bicycles, picked me up and took me back to the store.
I readied my bike, then bought a couple of the new Polar water bottles.
The Great Allegheny Passage will eventually reach Pittsburgh. I decided to try the unfinished portion.
From Big Bang Bicycles to where the trail would start at the Sand Castle Waterpark
was a fast downhill ride in morning traffic. A fragment of the trail was in place,
but nearly all of my ride to McKeesport was on sidewalks or roads, and is not all that pleasant.
s Waterfront Drive goes uphill over some railroad tracks to intersect with
8th street (aka busy PA837), there is a narrow sidewalk with a guardrail on the right,
a chainlink fence on left, ragweed in sidewalk cracks, glass shards under the ragweed,
and sharp edges on the guardrail support beams. It's that, or contend with the
stop-and-go traffic reacting to the green light.
At the top is a traffic light with a crosswalk. To cross, I needed to make a
sharp turn inside the guardrail, then go through a narrow opening in the guardrail,
a multi-step process with my loaded recumbent bicycle.
I had 4 good showers in the afternoon. (NO, I didn't sweat that much.) I'd stop
and raise my umbrella. For a short shower, my rain poncho took too long to retrieve
and put on to keep from getting wet.
After 20 miles, saw my first wildlife - an adult deer that stopped on the trail,
then crossed in front of me.
At Dravo Cemetery, although a nice formal campground area (including pit toilets
and a well) had been developed by a Boy Scout as his Eagle project, I set up my
tent under the picnic pavilion to assure a drier tent to pack the next morning.
Saturday, July 10 to Roundbottom (near Perryopolis, PA)
As I went to pack my tent, a butterfly landed on the bottom of the door frame.
The Great Allegheny Passage is wonderfully surfaced with crushed limestone "dust".
It is about the consistency of sand. It is rolled, making the surface just like
concrete without the expansion joints.
Yesterday's rain did produce this nice little waterfall.
Here are less than 30 minutes of views taken July 12, starting about 2pm.
During my planning, I made notes of what might be interesting along the way,
with references to mile markers, and printed a copy. I also had a copy on a memory
stick. When I discovered I'd left that list at my sister's house, I stopped in Van Meter.
While someone went to make me a printout, I chatted with Dave, a local authority on the
Darr coal mine disaster of 12/19/1907. When the explosion happened, 239 miners were
over a mile and a half into the mine. Only one miner survived. More amazing, over a
hundred Greek Catholic miners were celebrating a Greek holiday or they too would have died.
Although that many men and boys killed seems a lot, that same month over 3,000 coal miners
were killed in the US.
Dave walked me up to the closed mine entrance, sort of. It was steep, and my cleats
didn't like it, so I only got within about 15 feet.
We went back to get his bike. As we rode on down the trail, I got a guided tour of the
old mining operation, and an ear-full of his passion for Marxism, all the way to the
old mining town of Whitsett.
Sunday, July 11 to Outflow (Confluence, PA)
I got a lot of advice along the way. When I told a bicyclist my last day would be
50 miles, he offered a way to break it into two days. From Ronald Reagan airport,
take the Old Dominion trail west about 18 miles.
Problem was that at that point, I was only 26 miles from my destination. So, to
save 8 miles one day, I had to ride an extra 36 miles AND take an extra day AND
pay $28 AND make reservations a day early. The trail was paved and follows a
power line right-of-way, so it was really enticing (not).
Connellsville had a memorable stained glass archway over the trail. Beyond that,
it had a big downhill and construction with no signs. I had to wander through town
to pick up the trail again. Going out of town, I found the trail to be soft, rutty,
and sandy. In addition, some areas were patched with coarse limestone.
The trail to Confluence looks to be a lot downhill, but isn't, gaining about 200 feet.
The Great Allegheny Passage proved to be extremely trash-free. Once I got on the
trail, I took this picture of "trash" because after 48 hours, it was the first I
had noticed.
As I approached Ohiopyle State Park, I was hit by a cold blast of air. It only
lasted for about 50 feet. Had I known that, I would have stopped there for a break,
but my mind was on food in Ohiopyle. I ate at Fox's Pizza Den. It was good, but I heard
from a friend later that the Firefly Grill was great. (Sorry - no picture of the
cold blast of air is available.)
At Confluence, the outflow campground was $8. With warm showers, you can't complain
about it, but I got in for half price with my Fed Gov Senior Pass. There was a common
area for hikers/bikers and I had the whole area to myself.
Monday, July 12 to Uniontown Hospital (Uniontown, PA)
Overnight, I had used my urine collection bottle. In the morning, I saw that the
content was quite dark - a sign of a possible kidney problem. I was feeling like
I didn't want to ride, or even pack.
Another camper came over, and I found myself slurring my speech. I asked him if he
might take me to a medical center. He reported my condition to the lady at the front
gate, who called an off-duty employee who had EMS experience. He recommended I take
a ride in the red truck with the flashing lights.
The nearest hospital was 28 miles away in Uniontown. Tests were done and a treatment
plan was started. I stayed overnight.
Tuesday, July 13 to M G Motel (Uniontown, PA)
They watched me thru lunchtime. On the bright side, it was my birthday and they
included a cake with my lunch. They wanted me to stay another day but, after some
discussion, I was released.
Now, I had to figure how to get back to the campground. There were no taxis.
Public transportation could take me only half the way to a point where I might
be stranded - not a workable plan. I called the campground and got the son of the
lady who had taken care of me. Tomorrow would be his mom's day off, and she called
to tell me she could pick me up in the morning. I had checked into a motel to wait
overnight.
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