Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-18 Thread Patrick Moore
As usual, an entertaining report.

Kudos on ~4K miles for 2025; it has been 15 years at least since I rode
that much.

Patrick “Instagram? What’s that? I’ll have to ask my daughter” Moore

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[RBW] Checked off the List: GAP Trail

2025-10-18 Thread asc pgh
My Rambouillet displays an even heavier collection of physical experiences,
I call it beausavage.

Dings to the Joe Bell orangesicle color seem to count double to casual
observers.

I rode it with Lone Wolf on the GAP in 2012.

Andy Cheatham
Pittsburgh

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[RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-18 Thread Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!
Hi Friends,

I had the best year of riding. Ever. This was the year I took up bike 
touring and camping, and it has ignited an insatiable hunger in me to do 
more of it. I was on a club ride, riding next to Katie, and I said, Club 
riding is good, but it is not my favorite kind of riding. I want to do 
adventure riding, but I need a friend to do it with, and I need to have 
riding chemistry with her. 

“I want to do a bike trip out East,” she said.

“Want to do the GAP?” I asked.

“Ok,” she said. “What’s the GAP?”

And that was how this trip came to be. 

Now, we were quite the pair. She rides a carbon Trek Domane and I took my 
most favorite raspberry Rivendell. I offered her a Platypus but she 
declined. She had never ridden anywhere loaded; she has done a lot of 
“tours” where she rides in a group but has all her stuff hauled. She is 
resourceful and managed to get enough bags on her bike to make a 150 mile 
ride work. She was nervous about her tires (maybe 38s?).

I made all the arrangements. Pam is the boss of me, and she said I had to 
try Warm Showers, and here were the hosts to contact. I had to sign up, and 
then with zero reviews on my profile, hope the hosts would let me pass 
simply because I am Pam’s friend. (Have I mentioned how much I and everyone 
else adore Pam Murray?) We drove to Pittsburgh and stayed at a WS house our 
first night. The couple was lovely and everything was as Pam said, and we 
had a great late evening chat. We were out the door at 0430 to catch Amtrak 
to Cumberland. 

I was so nervous about getting our bikes on the train. What a dumb setup 
Amtrak has for this. I had to unload the bags and then was supposed to lift 
the bike aloft into the waiting hands of a woman attendant who was up on 
some platform, rolling the bikes onto a train car. Katie’s light Trek was 
no problem, but my Rivendell with its wide bars and heavier weight made 
this very awkward. I had left some things on the bike because I couldn’t 
carry all of it. At home, I lift the bike overhead onto a storage rack, but 
this was different. Now, men have this way of magically appearing and using 
their God-given strength to save the day, and that’s what happened here. 
This man was riding the C&O and he was not to be deterred from lifting my 
bike. HERO. With the bikes safely on the train, we took our seats.

We arrived in Cumberland and it was raining. It would rain for the next two 
days, with nary a pause. We rolled into town starving and in need of real 
coffee.The restaurant was darling and we were immediately swarmed by a 
group of retirees who had been chatting over breakfast. “Larry” was the 
trail president (or something) and he had a lot he wanted to tell us about 
the GAP. This set the tone for the whole trip - it would be the people we 
met that marked our adventure, not the ride. We took a selfie with Larry 
and now fortified, began our 23 mile climb out of rainy Cumberland. 

The trail is beautiful, though we missed a lot of beauty as we fought 
through rain. The trail was soaked and the mud was formidable. I felt like 
my pedal bearings had gone bad, but it was the mud and debris that were 
cycling through my drivetrain. We shifted cautiously, as we were worried 
our derailers and chains would snap. The bikes were absolutely thrashed. 
Katie had no fenders, but the seat bag she had took a lot of the damage and 
she had only a small mud stripe up her back. My Backabike bags kept all my 
things dry, which was a relief as I did not use any plastic liners. 

Our next WS host met us at Fort Hill in his pickup. I unloaded the bags on 
my Riv and as I was warning him that the bike is heavy, he effortlessly 
lifted it and set it in his pickup. “See?” I told Katie. Men with their 
generous strength, showing up and sharing it again. 

We pulled up to a gorgeous log home in the woods of Pennsylvania. “D” gave 
us a hose so we could at least attempt to clean up our drive trains. We 
were disgusting. The bikes were worse. Our hosts did not mind. We headed 
straight to the shower. “A” had set out a charcuterie board and drinks. D 
put our bikes in the garage. After we were clean and changed they announced 
that they would take us out to dinner, their treat. Dinner was lovely, but 
our hosts were lovelier. I slept like a baby in my own room in a queen bed. 
The next day we awoke to a huge breakfast. We were sent out the door with 
“fry pies”, a glazed pastry with fruit filling, shaped like a half moon and 
with crimped edges. “The hunters go crazy for these,” said A. Meanwhile, it 
was pouring outside. We waited for a break in the rain, and then D dropped 
us back off on the trail.

The day was more of the same; rain and mud. We were warm and there was no 
wind, so it was bearable. We made it to Smithton, where the hosts at 
Adele’s B&B awaited us. The rain had stopped and they had a hose and rags 
ready for our bikes. When the bikes were clean, they stored them in the 
cellar. We took showers and headed to t

Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-17 Thread Leah Peterson
Oh, you must be looking at my other Instagram reels. Yes, the purple bike has a ton of custom rainbow. It was my most over-the-top-what-little-girls’-dreams-are-made-of bike.On Oct 3, 2025, at 10:27 PM, Patrick Moore  wrote:I was gobsmacked by the custom rainbow anodizing. Nicer than the neon purple and other violent colors I recall from early to mid-90s anodizing.On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:37 PM Leah Peterson  wrote:Those levers faded so fast, Patrick. You should have seen them in true rose, in their heyday…On Oct 3, 2025, at 9:12 PM, Patrick Moore  wrote:No, Paul.On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:09 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:??? Did I see Avid Tri-Aligns in neon anodizing???On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:06 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:As usual, an entertaining report.Kudos on ~4K miles for 2025; it has been 15 years at least since I rode that much.Patrick “Instagram? What’s that? I’ll have to ask my daughter” Moore
-- Patrick MooreAlburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum---Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services---When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.
-- Patrick MooreAlburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum---Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services---When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.



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Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-06 Thread Leah Peterson
Well, Josh, I love it and I can write your story in my own head, lol. We would have been TWINS out on that trail with our saddle sacks and Backabikes. All very familiar. Even our outfits could be considered comparable. Was it fantastic? !LeahOn Oct 6, 2025, at 10:42 AM, Josh C  wrote:Leah, That's awesome. Love the write-up. I enjoy reading about your adventures and seeing all of the pics. I just finished the OTET yesterday, but am too lazy to write it up like you did, HA. Here are a few pictures. On Saturday, October 4, 2025 at 5:07:51 AM UTC-4 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:Oh, you must be looking at my other Instagram reels. Yes, the purple bike has a ton of custom rainbow. It was my most over-the-top-what-little-girls’-dreams-are-made-of bike.On Oct 3, 2025, at 10:27 PM, Patrick Moore  wrote:I was gobsmacked by the custom rainbow anodizing. Nicer than the neon purple and other violent colors I recall from early to mid-90s anodizing.On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:37 PM Leah Peterson  wrote:Those levers faded so fast, Patrick. You should have seen them in true rose, in their heyday…On Oct 3, 2025, at 9:12 PM, Patrick Moore  wrote:No, Paul.On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:09 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:??? Did I see Avid Tri-Aligns in neon anodizing???On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:06 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:As usual, an entertaining report.Kudos on ~4K miles for 2025; it has been 15 years at least since I rode that much.Patrick “Instagram? What’s that? I’ll have to ask my daughter” Moore
-- Patrick MooreAlburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum---Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services---When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.
-- Patrick MooreAlburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum---Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services---When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.



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Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-03 Thread Patrick Moore
I was gobsmacked by the custom rainbow anodizing. Nicer than the neon
purple and other violent colors I recall from early to mid-90s anodizing.

On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:37 PM Leah Peterson 
wrote:

> Those levers faded so fast, Patrick. You should have seen them in true
> rose, in their heyday…
>
> On Oct 3, 2025, at 9:12 PM, Patrick Moore  wrote:
>
> 
> No, Paul.
>
> On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:09 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:
>
>> ??? Did I see Avid Tri-Aligns in neon anodizing???
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:06 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:
>>
>>> As usual, an entertaining report.
>>>
>>> Kudos on ~4K miles for 2025; it has been 15 years at least since I rode
>>> that much.
>>>
>>> Patrick “Instagram? What’s that? I’ll have to ask my daughter” Moore
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Patrick Moore
>> Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing
>> services
>>
>>
>> ---
>>
>> *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,*
>>
>> *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,*
>>
>> *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.*
>>
>
>
> --
>
> Patrick Moore
> Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum
>
> ---
>
> Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing
> services
>
>
> ---
>
> *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,*
>
> *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,*
>
> *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.*
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the
> Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
> To unsubscribe from this topic, visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/sbMBKREG6jM/unsubscribe
> .
> To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to
> [email protected].
> To view this discussion visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgsR%3Dmq%3D4AwLuJFrhLtKvkRJWDt%2BsLb6P7tuyk%2B6m1-TRw%40mail.gmail.com
> 
> .
>
> --
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> 
> .
>


-- 

Patrick Moore
Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum
---

Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing
services

---

*When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,*

*But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,*

*I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.*

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Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-03 Thread Leah Peterson
Those levers faded so fast, Patrick. You should have seen them in true rose, in their heyday…On Oct 3, 2025, at 9:12 PM, Patrick Moore  wrote:No, Paul.On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:09 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:??? Did I see Avid Tri-Aligns in neon anodizing???On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:06 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:As usual, an entertaining report.Kudos on ~4K miles for 2025; it has been 15 years at least since I rode that much.Patrick “Instagram? What’s that? I’ll have to ask my daughter” Moore
-- Patrick MooreAlburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum---Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services---When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.
-- Patrick MooreAlburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum---Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services---When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.



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Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-03 Thread Patrick Moore
No, Paul.

On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:09 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:

> ??? Did I see Avid Tri-Aligns in neon anodizing???
>
> On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:06 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:
>
>> As usual, an entertaining report.
>>
>> Kudos on ~4K miles for 2025; it has been 15 years at least since I rode
>> that much.
>>
>> Patrick “Instagram? What’s that? I’ll have to ask my daughter” Moore
>>
>
>
> --
>
> Patrick Moore
> Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum
>
> ---
>
> Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing
> services
>
>
> ---
>
> *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,*
>
> *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,*
>
> *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.*
>


-- 

Patrick Moore
Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum
---

Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing
services

---

*When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,*

*But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,*

*I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.*

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Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-03 Thread Patrick Moore
??? Did I see Avid Tri-Aligns in neon anodizing???

On Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:06 PM Patrick Moore  wrote:

> As usual, an entertaining report.
>
> Kudos on ~4K miles for 2025; it has been 15 years at least since I rode
> that much.
>
> Patrick “Instagram? What’s that? I’ll have to ask my daughter” Moore
>


-- 

Patrick Moore
Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum
---

Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing
services

---

*When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,*

*But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,*

*I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.*

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Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-02 Thread Dale Click
OTET is on the schedule for next year.  My group had enough of wet camping 
conditions on this years C&O/GAP ride.  Even with improvements to the trail 
surface, it was work!   Also looking at ‘around lake Michigan’ if I can figure 
out logistics.

Rusty

> On Oct 2, 2025, at 1:50 PM, Eric Daume  wrote:
> 
> You could take a look at the Ohio to Erie. Not very rugged, but it’s 
> reasonably close. 
> 
> Eric
> Partial OTET rider, one of these days I’ll finish it. 
> 
> On Wednesday, October 1, 2025, Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! 
> mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> Thanks, everyone! 
>> 
>> To answer Matt’s questions….
>> 
>> I am not really interested in doing the C&O. It is a priority for a lot of 
>> people, but reports I’ve gotten are that it is remote and that mud is a 
>> problem. I don’t feel like I need to re-do the GAP, either. 
>> 
>> I like a clean trail dotted with little towns that allow us to stop and 
>> eat/drink.I would love to do parts of the Empire State Trail next summer. I 
>> would repeat my Michigan trip that I did with my son this summer; I’m sure 
>> there’s more we could see. It was the prettiest trip I’ve ever taken. I’m 
>> keeping my ears open to other ideas; if anyone has them, please share them!
>> 
>> I like the idea of mixing camping and hotel stays. Warm Showers is also 
>> nice, but it is a little stressful because you are a guest in a stranger’s 
>> house. I want to be places where you can stop and eat. I want to climb into 
>> bed/my tent clean after a shower. I haven’t ventured to the Upper Peninsula 
>> because of its remoteness. I also think taking trails where you can is 
>> important; I did my first camping tour on 55 mph 2 lane roads. I have had 
>> enough of THAT.
>> L
>> 
>> L
>> 
>> On Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 2:46:15 PM UTC-4 Rusty Click wrote:
>>> Leah, 
>>> I'm so glad you two made it down to ride the GAP!  An ambitious 3 day 
>>> itinerary with WS hosts, and another ride checked off. 
>>> 
>>> Rusty
>>> Pgh, PA
>>> 
>>> On Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 6:55:18 AM UTC-4 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! 
>>> wrote:
 Hi Friends,
 
 I had the best year of riding. Ever. This was the year I took up bike 
 touring and camping, and it has ignited an insatiable hunger in me to do 
 more of it. I was on a club ride, riding next to Katie, and I said, Club 
 riding is good, but it is not my favorite kind of riding. I want to do 
 adventure riding, but I need a friend to do it with, and I need to have 
 riding chemistry with her. 
 
 “I want to do a bike trip out East,” she said.
 
 “Want to do the GAP?” I asked.
 
 “Ok,” she said. “What’s the GAP?”
 
 And that was how this trip came to be. 
 
 Now, we were quite the pair. She rides a carbon Trek Domane and I took my 
 most favorite raspberry Rivendell. I offered her a Platypus but she 
 declined. She had never ridden anywhere loaded; she has done a lot of 
 “tours” where she rides in a group but has all her stuff hauled. She is 
 resourceful and managed to get enough bags on her bike to make a 150 mile 
 ride work. She was nervous about her tires (maybe 38s?).
 
 I made all the arrangements. Pam is the boss of me, and she said I had to 
 try Warm Showers, and here were the hosts to contact. I had to sign up, 
 and then with zero reviews on my profile, hope the hosts would let me pass 
 simply because I am Pam’s friend. (Have I mentioned how much I and 
 everyone else adore Pam Murray?) We drove to Pittsburgh and stayed at a WS 
 house our first night. The couple was lovely and everything was as Pam 
 said, and we had a great late evening chat. We were out the door at 0430 
 to catch Amtrak to Cumberland. 
 
 I was so nervous about getting our bikes on the train. What a dumb setup 
 Amtrak has for this. I had to unload the bags and then was supposed to 
 lift the bike aloft into the waiting hands of a woman attendant who was up 
 on some platform, rolling the bikes onto a train car. Katie’s light Trek 
 was no problem, but my Rivendell with its wide bars and heavier weight 
 made this very awkward. I had left some things on the bike because I 
 couldn’t carry all of it. At home, I lift the bike overhead onto a storage 
 rack, but this was different. Now, men have this way of magically 
 appearing and using their God-given strength to save the day, and that’s 
 what happened here. This man was riding the C&O and he was not to be 
 deterred from lifting my bike. HERO. With the bikes safely on the train, 
 we took our seats.
 
 We arrived in Cumberland and it was raining. It would rain for the next 
 two days, with nary a pause. We rolled into town starving and in need of 
 real coffee.The restaurant was darling and we were immediately swarmed by 
 a group of retirees who had been chatting over breakfast. “Larry” was the 

Re: [RBW] Checked off the list: GAP trail

2025-10-02 Thread Eric Daume
You could take a look at the Ohio to Erie. Not very rugged, but it’s
reasonably close.

Eric
Partial OTET rider, one of these days I’ll finish it.

On Wednesday, October 1, 2025, Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Thanks, everyone!
>
> To answer Matt’s questions….
>
> I am not really interested in doing the C&O. It is a priority for a lot of
> people, but reports I’ve gotten are that it is remote and that mud is a
> problem. I don’t feel like I need to re-do the GAP, either.
>
> I like a clean trail dotted with little towns that allow us to stop and
> eat/drink.I would love to do parts of the Empire State Trail next summer. I
> would repeat my Michigan trip that I did with my son this summer; I’m sure
> there’s more we could see. It was the prettiest trip I’ve ever taken. I’m
> keeping my ears open to other ideas; if anyone has them, please share them!
>
> I like the idea of mixing camping and hotel stays. Warm Showers is also
> nice, but it is a little stressful because you are a guest in a stranger’s
> house. I want to be places where you can stop and eat. I want to climb into
> bed/my tent clean after a shower. I haven’t ventured to the Upper Peninsula
> because of its remoteness. I also think taking trails where you can is
> important; I did my first camping tour on 55 mph 2 lane roads. I have had
> enough of THAT.
> L
>
> L
>
> On Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 2:46:15 PM UTC-4 Rusty Click wrote:
>
>> Leah,
>> I'm so glad you two made it down to ride the GAP!  An ambitious 3 day
>> itinerary with WS hosts, and another ride checked off.
>>
>> Rusty
>> Pgh, PA
>>
>> On Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 6:55:18 AM UTC-4 Bicycle Belle Ding
>> Ding! wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Friends,
>>>
>>> I had the best year of riding. Ever. This was the year I took up bike
>>> touring and camping, and it has ignited an insatiable hunger in me to do
>>> more of it. I was on a club ride, riding next to Katie, and I said, Club
>>> riding is good, but it is not my favorite kind of riding. I want to do
>>> adventure riding, but I need a friend to do it with, and I need to have
>>> riding chemistry with her.
>>>
>>> “I want to do a bike trip out East,” she said.
>>>
>>> “Want to do the GAP?” I asked.
>>>
>>> “Ok,” she said. “What’s the GAP?”
>>>
>>> And that was how this trip came to be.
>>>
>>> Now, we were quite the pair. She rides a carbon Trek Domane and I took
>>> my most favorite raspberry Rivendell. I offered her a Platypus but she
>>> declined. She had never ridden anywhere loaded; she has done a lot of
>>> “tours” where she rides in a group but has all her stuff hauled. She is
>>> resourceful and managed to get enough bags on her bike to make a 150 mile
>>> ride work. She was nervous about her tires (maybe 38s?).
>>>
>>> I made all the arrangements. Pam is the boss of me, and she said I had
>>> to try Warm Showers, and here were the hosts to contact. I had to sign up,
>>> and then with zero reviews on my profile, hope the hosts would let me pass
>>> simply because I am Pam’s friend. (Have I mentioned how much I and everyone
>>> else adore Pam Murray?) We drove to Pittsburgh and stayed at a WS house our
>>> first night. The couple was lovely and everything was as Pam said, and we
>>> had a great late evening chat. We were out the door at 0430 to catch Amtrak
>>> to Cumberland.
>>>
>>> I was so nervous about getting our bikes on the train. What a dumb setup
>>> Amtrak has for this. I had to unload the bags and then was supposed to lift
>>> the bike aloft into the waiting hands of a woman attendant who was up on
>>> some platform, rolling the bikes onto a train car. Katie’s light Trek was
>>> no problem, but my Rivendell with its wide bars and heavier weight made
>>> this very awkward. I had left some things on the bike because I couldn’t
>>> carry all of it. At home, I lift the bike overhead onto a storage rack, but
>>> this was different. Now, men have this way of magically appearing and using
>>> their God-given strength to save the day, and that’s what happened here.
>>> This man was riding the C&O and he was not to be deterred from lifting my
>>> bike. HERO. With the bikes safely on the train, we took our seats.
>>>
>>> We arrived in Cumberland and it was raining. It would rain for the next
>>> two days, with nary a pause. We rolled into town starving and in need of
>>> real coffee.The restaurant was darling and we were immediately swarmed by a
>>> group of retirees who had been chatting over breakfast. “Larry” was the
>>> trail president (or something) and he had a lot he wanted to tell us about
>>> the GAP. This set the tone for the whole trip - it would be the people we
>>> met that marked our adventure, not the ride. We took a selfie with Larry
>>> and now fortified, began our 23 mile climb out of rainy Cumberland.
>>>
>>> The trail is beautiful, though we missed a lot of beauty as we fought
>>> through rain. The trail was soaked and the mud was formidable. I felt like
>>> my pedal bearings had go