Riding the Great Allegheny Passage - Day 1

Pittsburgh to Connellsville

After biking the complete length of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath eleven years ago from Washington, DC to Cumberland, MD, I looked for other long trails to ride. The next obvious choice was the Great Allegheny Passage. Now complete, it offers a continuous trail between Pittsburgh, PA and Cumberland, MD. Since age makes me increasingly fragile, and my ability to do long bike trips might not last much longer, I was keen to ride the Great Allegheny Passage trail this year. 

On September 7th we drove about 380 miles to our hotel near the starting point in Pittsburgh. The long drive was not as tiring as I expected. While traveling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike C reminisced about childhood trips to visit relatives in Pittsburgh.

After checking in at the hotel, we navigated unfamiliar, gritty, urban streets to a Primanti Brothers franchise in North Versailles. We wanted to try the famous Primanti Brothers sandwich, a Pittsburgh specialty. Pittsburgh Steelers banners hung from the ceiling, and one wall was devoted to a mural depicting Pittsburgh sport heros like Franco Harris and Jack Ham. Four pierogies in butter and onions took the edge off our hunger. Monumental sandwiches came next, too high to fit in one bite. My over-the-top sandwich had kielbasa, cheese, coleslaw, tomato, and french fries between slices of Italian bread. It was a great sandwich, but there were way, way too many fries. Flavors of all other ingredients were diluted in an ocean of fries. Three fries would have been plenty.

Since nothing else could fit in our bowling ball stomachs, we headed back through more grim neighborhoods to the hotel located in the Homestead Waterfront section of Pittsburgh, a fairly new reclaimed industrial site that was once an enormous steel mill. Here's what the site looked like in 1910. Notice the line of parallel smoke stacks on the left.

The steel mill is completely gone now, replaced by a modern shopping center, restaurants, offices, and nice apartment buildings. Only a few previous structures remain, like the smoke stacks, gantry crane, and pump house with US Steel logo seen below.

The next morning, September 8th, I began my ride at 8:35 am from the hotel parking lot next to the enormous gantry crane. I had approximately 141 miles of enjoyable biking ahead to Cumberland.

Although formerly an industrial site, the Homestead is now an attractive area located next to the Monongahela River. From my chosen starting point the trail began behind apartments and restaurants for the first mile. While riding this stretch I saw a river barge moving along the Monongahela to my left.

Pedaling was extremely easy for the first 10 miles or so because the trail was paved. I didn't expect to ride on pavement, so I was pleasantly surprised. The first miles parallel to the Monongahela passed by rail yards and industrial facilities, some rusting, and some functioning.

Weather conditions were excellent - not too hot or too cold. Sweat never dripped in my eyes or soaked my clothes. There were lots of interesting, though not very beautiful, things to see during the early miles. It was fun to ride on the winding, twisting trail going up over bridges and down under roads. While crossing bridges above railroad tracks I had clear views of rail yards and belching industry.

The trail briefly passed through a green stretch where this rock slide blocked part of the pavement. I cruised happily by.

Before McKeesport the trail crossed the Monongahela on this bridge.

The next two pictures show views from the bridge, first towards Pittsburgh, and next towards McKeesport.

As I approached McKeesport I worried about navigating through many turns on city streets. The route was hard to follow on Google Maps during my scouting investigation before the trip, but, on the ground, the trail was very clearly marked and easy to follow. Here is one section parallel to train tracks in McKeesport.

In McKeesport the trail leaves the Monongahela River and begins following the Youghiogheny River. WHAT river? It's pronounced YOCK-EH-GAIN-EEE, according to locals I asked. The picture below is very near where the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers diverge.

Shortly after McKeesport I came upon piles of scrap metal twinkling in the morning sun. It looked like the evolution of scrap to me - first the rough scrap, next the pulverized scrap, and, finally, cubical scrap.

I passed many abandoned steel mills, factories, and coal mines along the first half of today's trip. It felt like riding through ruins of an industrial society. Just south of McKeesport, past the scrap metal plant, I pedaled down this last fairly unattractive stretch of road before encountering a more scenic trail.

Finally, I came upon some green trail on the way from McKeesport to Boston.

Below are two scenes at Boston, about 11 miles or so into the journey. Click on the image below to see mileage values.

The trail was much nicer from Boston to Dravo with the Youghiogheny River seen through trees on my left. It was a smooth ride on the well-maintained trail of hard-packed base dusted with very fine gravel.

I checked the mileage at Dravo. It was about 8 miles to my halfway point at West Newton. The trail was not crowded, but there were a good number of people biking on a nice Sunday morning.

On the way to West Newton I passed the Red Waterfall. Water with elevated levels of acid and iron comes to the surface here from underground coal mines. The water causes rocks to have a rusty color.

I arrived at West Newton after approximately 25 miles of pedaling.

According to the blue clock above, it took 3 hours to travel 25 miles to West Newton. At this point I was averaging only 8.33 mph. As usual, my goal on trail rides is enjoyment, not speedy travel. I had stopped every five minutes or so for photos, so my average speed was quite slow. I like to mosey along and take everything in.

Below is an example of nice informative signs posted at many towns along the route. It shows the trail map forward to my destination for the day, Connellsville.

After leaving West Newton I encountered this interesting example of erosion called the Mailbox Formation. Click on the image below for a closer look.

The trail continued pleasantly. Suddenly, a loud hissing noise erupted from my front tire. I thought I had a flat and prepared to curse, but there was no softening of the tire. Instead, I discovered a dead leaf, stuck in one of the front brakes, rubbing continuously against the tire. Whew! My good luck streak is unbroken. I've never had a flat on any of my trail rides.

While passing Cedar Creek Park, about 31 miles into my journey, I heard the overhead sound of a jet plane and noticed several people looking up. It was a radio controlled model jet doing loops and rolls. The flying field was up on a neighboring hill. The model jet was really noisy. It sounded almost as loud as a Blue Angel F18.

The Great Allegheny Passage trail has a gentle uphill slope from Pittsburgh to the continental divide about 117 miles east. Pittsburgh is 720 feet above sea level and Connellsville's elevation is 905 feet. So the trail rises only 185 feet during the 51 miles from Pittsburgh to Connellsville. The slope is very, very gentle indeed. I didn't notice any gradient today.

I passed several trailside memorials to coal mine disasters as I pedaled along. Below are three scenes between miles 31 and 44 of my trip.

I saw little wildlife along the way, mostly chipmunks scurrying across the trail. I did see an eagle perched on a rock by the side of the river. Unfortunately, I had no telephoto lens, and the eagle could only be seen at a distance across the river through a break in the leaves. You might barely make out the eagle sitting on the rock in the middle of this picture. Click on the picture for a better view.

Once away from the Pittsburgh vicinity I frequently passed small clusters of homes, most of which had seen better days. Today's portion of the trail was not as remote as some I've ridden. I always seemed to be within a few miles of houses or small towns.

Mile markers were placed along the trail. Only a few were missing. At this point in my journey, according to the marker, there were 95 miles to Cumberland, and I had completed 46 miles since the start. During the first part of the trip old concrete railway mile markers also appeared near the modern markers.

I found some inconsistency between mile markers and mileage figures on signs. This lack of precision offended my quantitative nature. The mileage values I quote are all probably uncertain by plus or minus one mile.

As I approached Connellsville I noticed what initially looked like caves on the hillsides to my right. They were too perfectly hemispherical to be formed by erosion. A trailside sign soon told me the caves were old abandoned coke ovens. Converting coal to coke was a major industry in the Connellsville area.

I arrived in Connellsville at 1:55 pm having traveled about 51 miles in 5 hours and 20 minutes. My overall average speed was 9.6 mph. I covered the final 26 miles at 11.2 mph because I did less photography after the halfway point. C was waiting for me in Yough River Park in Connellsville where she took this picture.

The first day of my three day trip to Cumberland left me pleasantly tired, but certainly not exhausted. I've ridden more than 2,500 miles on my road bike so far this year, so I'm in fairly good biking shape. I didn't need the sweat gutter stretched across my forehead in the picture above. It does a good job keeping sweat out of my eyes on hot days, but it makes my head ache if I wear it for more than three hours. I rode the next two days without the sweat gutter.

While driving from Connellsville to our hotel my spirits were high, and I looked forward to continuing the trip from Connellsville to Rockwood the next day.