A trail runs through it

Ohiopyle Falls on
the lower Youghiogheny

The Youghiogheny River isn't the only game in town in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania where the Vacations From Home team went on a recent car camping vacation. The upper and lower Yough have some of the best white water east of the Mississippi and the town is a popular destination for those who like to endanger their lives in rafts or kayaks in the class III and class IV rapids.

The Ohiopyle House Cafe's
Marriettaville Tavern

Though Ohiopyle is a charming, rustic river town where many local's conversations at the downstairs bar of the Ohiopyle House Cafe, The Marriettaville Tavern, center around the river, a lengthy bike trail called the Great Allegheny Passage, or GAP, is another great attraction of the area. The GAP is a well maintained rail trail that runs from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland for 141 miles. In Cumberland one can then travel the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath, C&O Canal, all the way into Washington, D.C., for a 325 mile stretch of interrupted biking. Because the GAP is a series of converted train rail beds, it is very level, making for lesiurely traveling. The outfit we went to for our rafting zaniness, Wilderness Voyageurs, not only rented bikes by the hour, but offer guided biking tours from Pittsburgh to D.C., fully catered with support vehicles meeting at various points. Although, I just checked W.V.'s website and they say all 2012 bike tours are sold out.

the GAP

There were several bike rental places in Ohiopyle, but we stayed with W.V.. They were more expensive per hour, $6.00 per, rather than $5.00, but they stopped charging after 3 1/2 hours, making the total $21 plus tax. The others stopped charging hourly after 5 hours, making the daily bill $25. We liked our time rafting with W.V. and we liked the Cannondale Mountain Bike they offered for rental, so Team VFH went with them.
http://wilderness-voyageurs.com/

Make sure you know
where you're going

I'm not a bike rider like Janet, but because the GAP is level we figured I could make the 20 mile round trip to Confluence, PA, despite the mid-90's temperatures of the day. A large part of the trail is shaded. There was something alluring about the town, Confluence, who's town motto is "where the mountains touch rivers," is a vacation community that is divided by the Youghiogheny and Casselman Rivers. Brochures said there was riverside dining and a "lovely" town square. It sounded charming and we decided to steer our rental bikes to Confluence.

Well, 17 miles later we had not yet reached Confluence. We did travel along some spectacular countryside with amazing views of the Yough. For a long time we could hear the rapids we had bounced along by raft just the other day thundering below us. We traveled over both the low and high bridges of Ohiopyle, the second majestically soaring far above the river. We peddled and peddled and peddled .... and peddled .... until, dripping with sweat we reached .... Connellsville,. We had headed in the wrong direction! Connellsville was a town still mired in the Rust Belt of western Pennsylvania, but they were trying really hard to make it. The town had embraced the GAP and there were bike lanes decorated with flowers and maps of loops one could take through town if one chose to deviate from the Great Allegheny Passage for a spell. There was also a lot of traffic and it was in the mid-90's and my butt was sore, so the review of Connellsville may be tainted in this report. Dripping with sweat but happy with our accomplishment of peddling as far as we had, we stopped for waters and iced-t at a dreary convenience store that was closing it's doors permanently in a few days and rehydrated in a park carved out of a parking lot.

Where the hell am I?

I withered on the way back; the psychological effects of besting the greater distance to Connellsville had worn off. Spirited talk of continuing on past Ohiopyle to also reach the shining jewel of Confluence and it's "lovely" town square faded with every crunch of my buttocks onto the seat. Ugh...Janet was barreling down the path with her competitive zeal. I was hurting, but we decided to try and make Confluence after a stop back in Ohiopyle. Afterall, we are Team VFH and we wanted to get our money's worth on the bikes. We didn't need to have them back until 8 pm. It was just 5! Well, after rehydrating in Ohiopyle we set out in the heat once again, but I had no heart to continue after just a few miles. Janet said she was willing, but was kind and we returned to Ohiopyle and the bike shop at Wilderness Voyageurs.

We decided then to drive to Confluence. Afterall this is what we had started out to see this morning. It's where "mountains touch rivers". It boasts a "lovely" town square and riverside dining. We had to see it...even if we needed to drive.

Boy, am I glad I didn't try to muscle it through to Confluence on the second leg of the trip. Perhaps it was the sweat still glistening in our eyes from our 40 plus miles on the bikes, but I missed a lot of the charm and couldn't find the lovely town square that was boasted about in the brochures. Sure there were some nice homes ... next to some nice double-wides ... and we did drive by the charming looking River's Edge Cafe, but there wasn't a whole lot more. Had we gone in the correct direction earlier, we would have had time and the inclination to explore, but we were gassed and happy that we only drove here. Instead we hightailed it back to our favorite watering hole at the Ohiopyle House Cafe. We slept soundly that night.