My Favorite Bike Ride:(Warning Picture Heavy)

[happyslug]

My Favorite Bike Ride, first an overview of the Conemaugh River Gap:


Approaching the Gap:


The Dog Leg before you enter the GAP:



Across the Conemaugh to PA 403 (The Return Road):


Approach to Hefley Springs:


Hefley Spring (In the GAP):


People fill water jugs at this Spring all the time. Talked to people who have tested the Water and report it is drinkable, but The Pennsylvanian Department OF Environmental Resources says it is not for it is a Shadow well not a deep well and as such could be subject to period of Contamination, but people drink from it all the time.

The State's "great" Improvement to keep the hillside from falling onto the Road way:


Further up Crammer Pike (PA 56): This looks steeper than what it is, do to the road trying to stay at a set level while the river it is following is dropping in height:




Final hill just past the Laurel Hill Trail:


Going Down Hill To Seward, Pa:



Across the Main Line of the old Pennsylvania Railroad (Now Norfolk and Southern):


And then to the Conemaugh River itself:



Then the Norfolk Branch that more or less follow the old Pa Canal:


I then cut right onto PA 711 and go up one more hill:

and then back down and follow 711 for about two miles:






Then the another dog leg and a right turn form 711 onto PA 403:



Then Past the Charles nature Area :




Then down 403 to Johnstown:



Next Trip I plan to take better pictures, but I wanted these done for it was a nice Sunny Day.

[Kolesar]

1. The PT Cruiser in the second frame gives it all a very 1940s retro look

As do the homes in the next two frames and the riveted truss bridge. Being in the natural world is a lot of the appeal of cycling to me. Thanks for posting this.

[happyslug]

2. All we have in Johnstown are Riveted Bridges.

Along with some Depression era Concert Bridges.

[Kolesar]

5. I was sad when the Kinzua Viaduct blew down in a tornado

BTW, how much do you pay for image hosting?

[happyslug]

6. Photobucket is Free

But I Subscribe to the Premium Service for $25 a year. I am just playing with it right now.

http://www.photobucket.com/

[Kolesar]

7. I was using freeservers, but it would not allow remote linking. thanks

[happyslug]

8. I was up in Kinzua when it fell

Always wanted to go see it, but the day I had a chance was the day after the Tornado went through.

Anyway did some research and found the problem was NOT the rust on the Bridges but when the Bridge had been upgraded from iron to steel the upgrade did NOT include a completely new connection with the concrete bases, instead they did a a patch job that gave way under the tension caused by the Tornado. For more see the following:

http://www.kinzuabridgeonline.com/news.php?action=press&id=20

[bvar22]

3. Nice ride!

Is the traffic always that light?
I love rides through rural America, but am distressed by traffic.
How many miles?

[happyslug]

4. According to the Tour de Toona over 20 miles

Found the MAP in HTML format after I wrote what is below (With Elevation):



http://www.tourdetoona.com/Stage2JohnstownZamiasmap.asp

The Tour de Toona web site has a map of this route on page 15 of its 2005 manual: (Warning PDF format):
http://www.tourdetoona.com/pdf/2005_Stage_Race_Manual.pdf

Now in the Tour De Toona the racers go up PA 403 and down PA 56, I go up 56 and down 403 for 56 climbs quicker than 403 and I like to get my hill climbs done quickly.

As to Traffic 403 and 56 go along opposite sides of the Conemaugh River Gap, thus are both used quickly to get to PA22 and Pittsburgh. Thus Traffic varies, sometime light sometime heavy. Now over the last ten years both 56 and 403 have been Rebuilt adding "berms", which make biking both a lot more enjoyable than they were just ten years ago, but big trucks do travel on them and even passenger car traffic gets heavy at times (Through you must remember Johnstown has lost 10% of its population in every decade since the 1960s, thus it is a mere shadow of what it was when the Steel Mills were going). Furthermore do to the Conemaugh River Gap being on its West end, suburban Development happened on its other side where the Local Mall is. Thus you leave the City of Johnstown and go right into the Gap barely passing through any other municipality.

One last note, the Traffic Pattern in Pennsylvania basically follows the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which passes SOUTH of Johnstown in Somerset Pennsylvania and thus all the major limited access highways go SOUTH to the Turnpike or East to Altoona NOT west to Pittsburgh.

[keith the dem]

13. Thanks for the info

I'm usually out there sometime in the fall visiting family. I'm riding a lot more this year, I hope the wife lets me bring the bike.

I went to PSU many years ago. Most Penn State Grads will reminisce about the campus life, I reminisce the great cycling roads in central PA.

[happyslug]

9. This is going to be part of the "West Penn trail"

Which will go from Altoona to Johnstown to Pittsburgh roughly along the old Pennsylvania Canal:

Part of it will use PA56 above, part will use the "Staple Bend Tunnel".
Picture of Inside the Tunnel:


Picture of the entrance of the Tunnel at the National Park Service site:
http://www.nps.gov/alpo/myweb/staple_bend_celebration.htm

At the end of the Tunnel the trail presently ends at a bridge:


But about two miles south of this Bridge is where the Trail will connect with Johnstown (Picture from where the Trail connects):


Between the Bridge and the above view is an old dirt mountain road:
A picture from last Summer:


A picture from last week:

[atomic-fly]

10. Nice monitor tour....

Looks like a fun and painful ride. How far is it?

[happyslug]

11. The Conemaugh River Gap ride is about 20 miles

Which is the first set of pictures I took, the last set is the Staple Bend Tunnel trial, which is four miles from Downtown Johnstown by city streets, than up a hillside till the path through the woods and then to the tunnel.

I had to go to the Courthouse today so I took the trail from the Trail head on the other side of the Tunnel. When the tunnel was built Railroads engines were not as powerful as they would be ten years later, thus the path used on the Portage railroad is very flat almost 0% grade from the trail head to the Tunnel. It is now 2 miles long (it had been longer when the railroad was built in the 1830s but subsequent construction had built over the rest of the route). At the end of the tunnel had been an incline plan to haul the cars up to the tunnel and the flat train route (to the next set of inclines, which was how the Old Portage railroad worked, five inclines up and then five inclines down).

My bike is again in the shop, someone smashed in the front gear on the front socket, so I had to use a Phat City Bike:




Here is the uphill side of the Staple bend tunnel, notice it is closed for some reason:


I thus could not go through the tunnel, so I took the old bypass to the tunnel, built when the tunnel was built in the 1830s and used to go from one side to the other while it was being built:




Not in bad condition for a road not used since the 1830s.


I then was on the downhill side of the Tunnel, notice the decorative arch around the Tunnel. When built both sides had this decorative arch, but the uphill side was removed sometime after the tunnel was abandoned in 1854.


Here is the Tunnel as seen from the bottom of the Incline:


I then walked across the Bridge and took some picture along the stakes where the trail is to continue:








Now when I bike this trail (which I did not do today, for I had the Phat City Bike is NOT an off-road bike) I do NOT go this way, I go along the railroad to an old mountain path then the the path in my previous series of pictures regarding the Stable Bend Tunnel.

Whenever this trail is completed to Johnstown it will be a nice trail, but a lot of work has to be done before it is usable and until then the road along the railroad and then the mountain path is the only way to go from Johnstown to the Tunnel by Bicycle.

[happyslug]

12. Kicking to keep my pictures together