In a last-minute decision, Kroody and I biked most of the way to Thanksgiving dinner in Pittsburgh. After realizing that we weren’t going to be able to bike all the way there from Baltimore, we scrambled on Friday (the 16th) to find the best way to get ourselves a good head start. Johanna (generously) offered to drive us up to Frederick or Harper’s Ferry, but we wanted to get a little further on. Amtrak goes to Cumberland (a perfect starting point) but we couldn’t take our bikes on the train because it’s too small a station and they don’t have access to the baggage car there. We ended up renting a car (“Drive for climate“, Kroody kept mumbling) and driving a small (gulp) SUV one-way out to Cumberland where we dropped it off at Wayne’s Citgo, loaded up the ponies and rode out along the Allegheny Passage rail-to-trail path headed uphill.

Two days, two cold nights, 150 miles and one flask of moonshine later, we rolled into Pittsburgh up to Kip and Aaron’s front door. It was a sweet trip. It snowed when we were at 2300 feet. It was 55 on the last day. On Monday, we got up at 4:30AM, were on the trail by 5, had a few hours of night biking punctuated only by the loud trains huffing and puffing along the other side of the Youghiogheny River with their bright front lights backlighting leafless trees and shining eerily off the early morning misty water.

Check out the photos from the trip.

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