Dolly's Bike Blog

This ride ranks as one of my all-time favorite rides of this tour: the weather was picture-perfect, the roads were smooth, the hills were manageable, the countryside just beautiful.  And I can say all that despite a flat tire (the first since Miami, FL) in the first 7 miles.  Thanks to riding partner Susan R. who coached me patiently through the process, I was able to take off the rear wheel and change the tire, after discovering the errant piece of wood that had caused the flat.

In Wrightsville at mile 12, we crossed the Susquehanna River – no arch to this bridge as the many rocks below make the river not navigable in this area.

We stopped at a Turkey Hill gas station for a nature break and I couldn’t help but laugh at the implication that the local police were guarding the oversized cow.

Police “guarding” the cow – they were actually in the service station buying sodas.

While some of the cyclists stopped at a Subway for lunch in Manheim, Susan, Janet and I continued a bit further to Molly’s service station and enjoyed our PBJ sandwiches with chocolate milk.  Also loved this sign.

The photos of the farms don’t do justice to the expanse of greens we saw – lots of dairy farms as well, though most of the cows were in barns.

Outside Manheim, we passed evidence of an Amish church service.  I was discreet in my picture taking, so focus is not good, but it reminded me of the area around Shipshewana, Indiana.  My favorite 5 miles was along Brubaker Valley Road, with more gently rolling hills and a family cemetery with grave stones dating from 1750.

Mileage: 50.38, 2546 ft of ascent, maximum speed 40.25 mph!!

I will start with today’s blog and work backwards – I have been frustrated by poor internet connections, plus busy schedules, so I have not been consistent in my postings.

The weatherman forecast a warm today, warm enough at the start to shed my jacket even before leaving the hotel parking lot.  Our route was taking us through Lancaster County and into the outer suburbs of Philadelphia. Early on we passed a young Mennonite girl pedaling strongly along the road – she too commented about the early heat of the day.  We missed a turn about mile 5 and climbed an extra hill before discovering our mistake – there are plenty of hills in this area so we really didn’t need any extras. As we entered Bowmansville we heard something resembling fireworks and discovered it was a gun salute, part of a Memorial Day celebration.  I was glad that my riding partners Susan R. and Janet were interested to stop and observe.

Part of the Bowmansville Memorial Day observation was the playing of Taps.  By coincidence, the Morning Reflection I received today from Rev. Glenn McDonald included this historical information about Taps:

During the summer of 1862, while the Civil War was raging between North and South, Union General Daniel Butterfield was searching for a new way to signal “lights out” at the end of the day.

Butterfield wrote a simple tune that his bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, first performed at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia.

A few months later a highly regarded member of a Union battery was killed in combat. It was tradition at the time to fire three volleys after a soldier’s burial. But the unit occupied an advanced position, and it was determined that gunfire might compromise their security.

Someone suggested that Butterfield’s new bugle call – “Taps” – be played instead.

That was the beginning of a tradition that has endured for more than a century and a half. “Taps” is sounded at the burial of America’s veterans.

Here are the three verses originally penned to accompany those 24 lyrical notes:

Day is done, gone the sun

From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest
God is nigh.

Fading light dims the sight
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright
From afar, drawing near
Falls the night.

Thanks and praise for our days
Neath the sun, neath the stars, neath the sky
As we go, this we know

God is nigh.

Around mile 19, the cue warned of a 1.2 mile climb, with 8-10% grades. Susan R. is a great motivator and our mantra is “see the hill, be the hill, take the hill.”  It didn’t prove to be anywhere near as daunting as we had feared (many other hills during the day were of much steeper grade – and I pedaled them all!).

Janet and Susan “taking the hill.”

After encountering some local riders, we took a “variation route” to get to St. Peter’s Village, with notations on the cue sheet for ice cream and a bakery (both closed), as well as a restaurant.  Quite a group of us stopped at the restaurant for some lunch.  It must be a destination spot as the restaurant filled up while we were enjoying our meal.  There is a river behind the restaurant and people were enjoying climbing on the rocks (very little water).

Here are some other fun photos from today:

While it was in fact warm, there was a gentle breeze from the south – and we were heading east. As we neared Phoenixville, we missed a turn and decided to use Google maps to get us to the hotel.  We pedaled through historic downtown Phoenixville, which looked interesting, though not near to the Hampton Inn where we are staying.  We crossed the Schuylkill River and came in from a different direction than the other riders.

A hiccup or two on my Garmin so mileage not totally accurate – Susan R. reported 45.5 miles, 3200 ft on ascent.

Today’s ride was quite a contrast to yesterday’s: nothing more than 3% grade, hard-pack dirt and rock surfaces, limited sight lines.  We started from the hotel and wandered from Owings Mills to Hunt Valley, both outer suburbs of Baltimore, past what appeared to be large horse farms.  At mile 15, after a pleasant sag stop, we entered the Northern Central Railroad Trail, also known as the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail.  The surface was hard-packed dirt with crushed stone.  We were on the rail trail through a canopy of forest for much of the time, making it cool as the sun was blocked.  Our first stop was in Monkton, where a Maryland Park Ranger greeted us, with a mini-museum and clean restrooms.

Along a section of the trail, someone had placed American flags to celebrate Memorial Day this weekend.

At mile 35, we entered Pennsylvania (another margarita night!) at New Freedom.  I was not aware that the Mason-Dixon Line was plotted between Maryland and Pennsylvania due to a boundary dispute dating to the 1760s; I associated it with the Civil War and ultimately with the “dividing line” between North and South.

The trail surface in Pennsylvania was still hard-packed dirt with pea gravel on top, and we were headed downhill.  We had lunch at the Rail Trail Cafe in New Freedom and enjoyed the replica Civil War steam engine coming into town.  There were a lot of rail crossings on the Pennsylvania part of the trail.  We stopped in Hanover Junction at another mini-museum and were informed that Abraham Lincoln had ridden a train through the town going to and coming from Gettysburg.  And we passed through the Howard Tunnel, considered one of the oldest railroad tunnels in the U.S.

By the time we entered York, Pa, our destination for the night, we had spent over 40 miles on the rail trail – our legs had been spared but our hands and shoulders had suffered, and, in many respects, the scenery had become boring.

Mileage for the day: 59.63 – about 1400 feet of climb.