(Riv content: no Riv bikes, but much Riv gear and Riv inspired bike set-ups. I really doubt this ever would have happened without the knowledge and encouragement I have received from this group. Thanks!)
On Father's Day, we loaded the bikes on the car and drove three hours to Cumberland, Maryland to begin our five-day family trip on the Great Allegheny Passage (http://www.atatrail.org). Early on Monday morning the good folks at Cumberland Trail Connections ( http://www.ctcbikes.com) drove us to McKeesport, PA to begin our ride west to east. There were five of us: my wife, my 11 and 13 year old sons, and a family friend age 12. I settled on riding the trail west to east so that the climbing would be gradually spread over three days, so the last day would be a fast downhill ride, and so each day we were a bit closer to home. We also slowly increased the mileage so as not to overwhelm the youth too soon. The mileage each day worked well for our group and left the boys tired but neither exhausted nor burned out. We stayed mostly in B&Bs with one night in a cabin at a KOA campground. The whole trip was great. The boys asked at the end when they could do another bike trip! That makes it a success in my book. We only experienced an hour of rain, and on most days the temperature peaked around 85*F. The GAP itself is a well maintained treasure that traverses a beautiful section of the United States. Here was our trip itinerary, inspired by a tour offered by Adventure Cycling Association: http://www.adventurecycling.org/guided-tours/family-fun-tours/2014-family-fun-great-allegheny-passage/ : Sunday-Drive to Cumberland, MD - Fairfield Inn and Suites Monday-McKeesport, PA to West Newton 19 miles Lodging: http://www.brightmorning.net/ Tuesday-West Newton to Connellsville, 22 miles Lodging: http://www.campriversedge.com/cabins Wednesday -Connellsville to Confluence 31 miles Lodging: http://www.riverviewkitchenettes.com Thursday -Confluence to Meyersdale 31 miles Lodging: Gram Grams Place http://www.gramgramsplace.com Friday-Meyersdale, PA to Cumberland, MD 32 miles Lodging: Home I highly recommend all the places we stayed, except the campground outside of Connellsville. They have a pool, which I thought the boys would use more than they did. I might look into a B&B in Connellsville if planning this again. The campground was fine, but it was located 3 miles outside town. Being in town would have worked better for us, and we wouldn't have needed the sleeping bags. If you wanted to camp each night, the Adventure Cycling itinerary (link above) would work well, as would the KOA campground. Finally, I took immense pride in watching my family make the trip on bikes that I had built-up from just frames. A feat I could not have done without this group. So many, many thanks! This group is a treasure, too. Photos from the trip are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/86975051@N08/sets/72157644880466610/ Here is a photo of the boys indicating our progress on the elevation map inside the tunnel at the Eastern Continental Divide. The last 20 miles from the divide to Cumberland were all downhill and a fun reward for a few days of gradual climbing. <https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_p2Dy2h8VRc/U6YyBAH2AbI/AAAAAAAAAQY/3LpU91d1REc/s1600/14289825107_daf046b408_o.jpg> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
