Many thanks, Stan... That's great to hear firsthand from someone who's enjoyed the trail.
BTW, I heard back from Bill Yacovissi, the owner of the http://www.pinecreekbikerides.com/ website, who (in this excerpted message from him) said: =================== Hi BB: Your plan sounds great and I believe Wellsboro will suit your group and your plans. If you've not been in this part of Pa before I would say most people underestimate how rural and remote north central Pa is which, is what makes it a great place to visit. Also, Wellsboro is a particularly nice town, unusually prosperous for a Pa small town in an otherwise economically depressed area. I will say weather in the spring can be iffy. Compared to downstate and coastal areas winter here hangs on through March. I would try to arrange your event as late in May as possible. Typically summer arrives instantly the first week in May and the weather is very nice all summer, cool evenings, refreshing mornings, hot afternoons. Motels, B&B, and such will be fine as well as restaurants and places for evening repasts. The only issue here is the area is in the midst of a natural gas drilling boom and a lot of people have come up from Texas to work on the rigs and are occupying some of the motel rooms. I think riding with your group will be fun and I will be happy to consult with you on routes. If you look on a map of Pa you'll see a huge area of state forest land just too the west and south of Wellsboro. The state maintains roads throughout the forest. While these are public roads, on most of them you won't have a car pass you all day, on some you might have 2 or 3 cars in a day. You can ride all day through beautiful forest totally unmolested by traffic. The surface on the roads is good for bikes, much like you find on a rails trail. The rides on my bike page are all on roads. If you look at the topo maps you'll see trails there as well. It certainly is easy to do a ride on all trails or a combination of roads and trails. I typically don't ride trails so the rides are there, just not on my bike page. Also if you look at the topos you'll see the area is really a plateau cut up by canyons. It's a full 1,000 feet from the canyon floor to the top of the plateau. Once you get on top it's surprisingly flat. The gradient on the roads is not steep but it can seem a long 2 or 3 miles uphill to get to the top. Of course the 4 mile downhill run at the end is something different. Anyway you might consider ferrying weaker rides a mile or so up the hill then drive back down and park at the bottom. Hope this helps and you plans work out. Bill Yacovissi ==================== Back to your point, Stan. As far as the rail trail being easy, I think that clearly works in our favor, since we will likely have folks who prefer a shorter, easier ride that others. We can always add distance to our route to make it more challenging, especially when there's supposedly 60+ miles of beautiful scenery along the Pine Creek Trail ALONE. Additionally, the way some of the rides (on Bill's website, http://www.pinecreekbikerides.com/) are set up adjacent to the rail trail, I could easily see linking one or more of these loops into our route for riders wanting more of a challenge. In fact if we have a large turnout we can survey the group and possibly split up into groups to offer easier or more challenging rides. We could do the "core ride" together (like a typical organized club event), but then the longer distance riders could split of on a spur/loop to add a little extra mileage and challenge. I am confident there's plenty of challenge if we want it... We just need to be a little creative. Shortly I will be sending out some hotel information along with the proposed dates (May 6-8, Fri-Sun). But since I have asked a few individuals to consider other locations in NY State, and want to give them a chance to come back with other ideas, I will wait another day to hear back from them; otherwise we can proceed with making plans for Wellsboro. Peace, BB On Nov 15, 7:46 pm, <stanwas...@bellsouth.net> wrote: > My wife Cindy, a boyhood chum Jeff and I did the Pine Creek Trail this past > summer. I can't imagine that any bicyclist who has a love for the outdoors > would be disappointed. The countryside is beautiful and the wildlife is > abundunt - deer, fox, bald eagles, rattlesnakes, heron. We saw two pairs of > bald eagles working with their fledglings. That was great! One thing to > bear in mind is that riding the trail is not at all challenging. The grade > is roughly 2 - 3% and the trail itself is very well maintained. There is a > very firm base covered with just about the right amount of cinder / fine > gravel for bicycling. Cindy rode her old S600 Cannondale shod with 27 x > 1-3/8 Paselas and had nary a problem. > > I understand that there are more challenging bike trails in the area, and I > can attest that there are many nice roads as well. We used to live outside > of Philly and spent many hours riding motorcycles up there. > Oh, and if I can pull it off, I plan on joining as well. > > Stan Wasser > Columbia, SC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
