Wednesday, June 26, 1996
Day 46
Washington, Pennsylvania to Ohiopyle State Park, Pennsylvania
Today's Miles: 60
Cumulative Miles for the Tour: 3051
Degree of Difficulty: Difficult
Terrain: Steep, Rolling Hills
Find of the Day: Frank Loyd Wright Fallingwater House
I knew it was going to be a solid day of hill climbing, so I got an early jump and left camp at 7:30am. It was a good thing I did because it was a long day with the most hills we've seen since the beginning of the trip.
The area we are riding through is generally, economically depressed. The main part of the population is blue collar workers that have been laid off since the steel industry went into the dumps. It was a pleasant surprise to top a hill early during the day and be surrounded by a cute little town called "Scenery Hill".Scenery Hill is a strip of a town that sits on a ridge between two valleys. When you ride down the street, you can look in either direction, between the shops, and see the valley drop off in both directions. There is an inn that was built in 1794 that has been turned into a bed and breakfast. The whole town looks as if there is a pride throughout that you don't see in a lot of places.The climb out of Brownsville is a 3 mile grade of 6%. At the top is the Summit Inn, built in the first part of the century. It has quite a history, housing such luminaries as Thomas Edison and the founder of the Hilton Hotel chain. It reminded me a lot of the feel at the "Inn at Yellowstone" that sits next to Old Faithful, where we stopped several weeks ago.The ride down from Summit Inn was the fastest downhill of the day, maxing out at 47.5mph. It almost made it worth the climb, but not quite. There were too many hills on the other side of it.The rest of the day was spent climbing and eating. I stopped four times for food at various places. There was nothing much as far as food goes, but it kept me going. The final climb of the day was in Ohiopyle State Park. What a grinder.We've done a lot of hills since leaving Seattle...the Cabinet Mountains, The Rockies, The Black Hills...but nothing prepared me for the final ascent into the park. When I told the park ranger where I was headed and asked how to get there, she just looked at the floor and said "It's UP", and left it at that. Yeah, I consider a 16 to 18% grade "UP".I spent the final hour of the day, grunting up that hill, sometimes only a couple hundred feet at a time. Dave Blair was not high on my list by the time I reached the top. I was the first biker in, Lee and Adam having taken a different road to pass by Fallingwater, a house designed by Frank Loyd Wright in 1937. That's where they found the "Find of the Day".Adam and Lee were stunned by the house. It is built on a small waterfall, so that whenever a window is opened, the sound of the waterfall comes into the house. I'll leave it to them to fill in the details for you.We've got about 200 miles to DC. That's all that's left since leaving Seattle 3300 miles and 50 days ago...
Bike America Tours
dblair@wtp.net
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