Ride Report: Pine Creek Rail Trail
The Pine Creek Rail Trail is a 60+ mile gravel trail in north-central PA, which follows the Pine Creek Gorge riverbed and cuts up through the "PA Grand Canyon." It's immaculately maintained and littered with amazing views, pristine campgrounds and sprawling state forests.
This ride has been on my list since August 2020 when I hiked a section of this rail trail on a backpacking trek on the PA mid-state trail. At the time I lusted over the gravel cyclists passing by and would've given my left leg for a bike to ride. Alas, that ride had to wait...
Visiting Jesse's family in Williamsport had been a rushed affair for the past few years; we'd be in town for a few days at a time on weekends or breaks from work and I'd rarely get to explore the area by bike in the ways I'd wished I could. This visit, however, was different. We were in town for over a month and I had the time and space to explore some of the beautiful roads around Williamsport.
Unfortunately, due to poor planning, we realized we needed to leave Williamsport on only a few days notice, so this ride became a morning-of commitment for me. Luckily, my bike setup was mostly dialed and I had all the nutrition I needed to tackle the day. I had researched the Strava Segment and knew my power target (200W for ~3 hours), but wasn't exactly sure of where that power would put me in terms of speed, and I wasn't sure how my fitness would hold up given that my training has been lacking recently. The aero bars certainly gave me a leg up on the others from the leaderboard, but the third place guy averaged 321W for 3hrs, 15min; beast.
I rode to the start from Williamsport, which ended up being a real doozy. Both Strava AND Google Maps routed me over the same ridge with the same road down into Jersey Shore. I turned off the main road over the top of the ridge and started down this valley between two ridges.
The road progressively got worse and somehow I ended up on a rough, grassy double-track road surrounded by Private Property signs; thanks Google. I hopped a few fences like the one below and about 30min later I was back to the main road. Not exactly the best start to a 85mi ride, but "c'est la vie."
