Great Allegheny Passage Day 2

A very loud train went by blowing its whistle the whole way at 10:30 last night, right as we were going to sleep. It happened again at 3:30, 4:30, and 6 AM. It took me a little longer to get back to sleep after the last one. I found out this morning that I missed at least one other train at 2 AM.

Jeremiah got up just after 7 and started making tea and oatmeal so I got up soon after. It was still in the 30s but the sun was out and it warmed up quickly. We rolled past a pizza joint and restaurant right after getting on trail which would have been nice to realize last night. We had actually planned to go into town to the brewery last night but decided to skip it since we got in late and it was a long day.

The town looked really nice and friendly though, as did all the towns and people we passed today.

I noticed some Dutchman’s breeches, a spring ephemeral flower, on the side of the trail at a break, and then noticed a couple of white trillium, then red trillium, spring beauties, and all the sudden there were tons of the flowers everywhere. I get so excited seeing spring ephemerals because I learned about them in Vermont and can actually identify some. They are always a very welcome sign of the season finally changing after the long winters there.

We rolled into Connellsville for a late lunch at the Kickstand Kitchen, a very biker friendly place. The tacos were delicious! After lunch, the trail started going uphill a little more noticeably so the miles took a little longer. We took a few breaks to look at the river and saw some whitewater rafters and kayakers going by.

We passed through Ohiopyle State Park but were there so early we decided to keep going, even though it was going to rain. It seemed like we’d have enough time to get to the next campground before we got wet. Of course, right as we stopped at the visitor center, it started sprinkling. I took a look at the radar and it looked like it would keep coming so we put all of our rain gear on before continuing.

Luckily, it never rained very heavily and we arrived at the Outflow Campground in Confluence before dinner. There wasn’t anyone staffing the registration booth so we found the hiker/biker sites and paid online.

We rode back into town to look for dinner and there were not many options. One cafe doesn’t open until next month. One had signs that led nowhere. We decided to at least check out the gas station before heading back to camp and cooking dinner and we found a great little restaurant in Mitch’s Food & Fuel.

Riding back to the campground we saw a couple of other bikers setting their tent up in the rain and chatted for a few minutes. We decided to hang out in the picnic pavilion, and sleep there too if no one bothered us. The other two bikers joined us shortly after their tent pole broke so we had some friends for the evening. 53.7 miles today.