BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I would reconsider a trip in March.

Farmer's Almanac calls for a protracted winter and most, if not, all of the seasonal businesses along the trail in PA aren't open until April or May.

In addition, the Big Savage Mountain Tunnel will not be opened until April .

Other than all that, good luck and have fun.

Mt. Washington up from South Side?

Washington DC?

Washington State?

I want to go up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. That's the fun one.

I rode (mostly) Pittsburgh to DC over last year's spring break, the second week of March. You can read about it here. It sucked pretty hard.

Don't forget Washington, PA !

If they wanted to go there, they'd say "Washpa". It avoids a lot of confusion.

i rode to ohiopyle in the middle of march a couple years ago. the weather was great, but NOTHING is open. i illegally camped in ohiopyle (the sites dont technically open til april). the water wasnt on so i had to go fill my bottles at the bar in town, which is down (and then back up) a very steep hill. i know not to do that again.

If you mean DC, I have been thinking of also doing a DC trip, but maybe more like mid-May. If you want a travelling compañero for then, I'd love to have a larger group! (Right now I have one 'maybe' other than myself).

i also want to ride to DC this summer.

as for march i would say NO WAY, due to winter, and due to spring rain that make it an all out mudfest. I went part of the way in October once and it was totally great then! Lots of people between Connelsville and Ohiopyle though.

My brother gave me this book a couple years ago and I really liked it, though I havent looked at it in a while. There is another one that was just published in October 2009 though. But then I like having a route and a natural history lesson side by side, plus if you go alone you can read about stuff that you are sitting next to.

I would consider going in May or June if I can get the time. Not having tried the full trip, I am not sure how long it most people budget for it.

If your new to biking you'll have to kind of break your body to your bike before you take on a long ride. You might want to try some group rides, somebody on this message board should be able to provide more info on them etc.

There was a good thread on DC trips a while ago. The links to tip blogs were particularly valuable.

http://bike-pgh.org/bbpress/topic/dc-bike-trip

If I found people to do it with, I would be up for a round trip later in the spring. The last two weeks in May seems really good Two weeks, three weekends, and memorial day. There's a waxing moon and the weather is often great then.

You might also want to try the MS150, June 12-13.

From the website:

Moraine State Park or Edinboro University to Conneaut, Oh.

The bike MS: Escape to the Lake (Erie) event is a two-day, one-way tour that takes cyclists over 150 scenic miles throughout Western PA. Each year, nearly 1500 cyclists participate in this journey. It is an adventure that you do not want to miss!

MS 150 is awesome and I will do it this year.

This will be my third MS150 in 4 years. The first time around was my first distance bike ride ever (aside from the 50mi loop I did in Boy Scouts way back when), so I jumped on my dad's old Univega and took off without any practice, without any maintenance, and without any common sense. The 80mi first day took me 9 hours. Last year I finished the first day before 4pm. It doesn't take long to get up to speed if you're a new rider.

I'm down for the MS150 and joining ya'll on what is becoming a crowded pittsburgh to D.C. trip.

Thanks for the heads up about the MS150, just registered...

Not sure if I want to admit the last time I did it was the 10th anniversary - this year it's 25

Just thought I would throw this up, REI presentation about the GAP trail, in case you missed the January one on the South Side;

http://www.rei.com/stores/store_event_detail.jsp?pid=B4A2FC8E3D26FE885AFA44C630530CDA&template_id=14&template_family=webDetail&ignore_cache=1