BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Adam, ditto. I took the train back from Harrisburg about a month ago, and it was perfectly pleasurable - if slow.

Yeah, I figured I would look into it since I figure if they roll out the TSA into the train stations, Union Station would most likely be the first place they do it.

I really enjoyed the train ride back to Pittsburgh the last time I did this (we sat in the bar-car and got ripped watching the same scenery pass by we had just biked through).

It is so much fun to wave and laugh at the cars stuck at the railroad crossings vs. being one of the cars waiting for the train to pass for once!

Maybe we should chat. I've got the 22nd - 31st of july off of work and was planning to do the ride to D.C. and amtrak back.

Mostly planning on cheap / free light camping.

I'll PM you my contact info.

may I ask, how many days are you considering for the trip? Camping or motels? Thanks!

OT: Anyone know if Edward M. is taking Amtrak for his return trip?

The last time I rode to DC it took me 4-5 days (we arrived in 4 days but too late to take the train on day 4 so we hung out just outside DC before rolling in the next morning).

I have ridden from Pittsburgh to Philly before in 3 days.

The first DC ride I was overloaded with gear I never used.

If I do this, I plan on light camping along the way. Someone PM'd me saying they had a friend in Ohiopyle they could crash with and I have a friend in Harper's Ferry I could crash with for a night as well who I will see this weekend and discuss with him.

I plan on taking a backpacking tent and enough gear to camp along the trail since I can definitely ride farther than Ohiopyle on day one but probably not from Ohiopyle to Harper's Ferry in a day.

Feel free to send me a PM or respond to the thread.

So general question, a little OT - I was riding the GAP around West Newton recently, and saw signs that gave me the impression that the GAP was "closed" from dusk till dawn. Is that real, if so is it enforced, if so how, and how would that affect "light camping along the trail" (what I picture as "shit I'm tired, look, flat grass, *pitch tent, sleep*")

Or was that just one municipality's attempt at something like 'controling the riffraff'? The official web site has the trail "universally accessible from dawn till dusk" but I don't know what that means. I was on it at night, but just through lack of planning and not criminal intent, and nobody seemed to notice or care (including other bipedal nocturnal users)

I've seen those "Dawn to dusk" signs, and I've been out there plenty after dusk. I've never seen nor heard of anyone being bothered by that regulation.

My guess is that it's aimed at kids with beer and homeless people.

I've rolled through at 3 AM before and the only ones to complain were the deer.

Kayla and I took an Amtrak train last August, and I don't think I will ever take a train from DC again. The whole experience was a gigantic pain, and every employee we dealt with had a miserable attitude.

RE: GAP after dark. The one region in which I've heard of active harassment is Ohiopyle; at least one of my rando-buddies was told by the park ranger last year in no uncertain terms that you need a permit (or at least explicit permission) to sack out or pass through after dark.

I was told to leave Ohiopyle by a ranger a few years ago. We ended up camping out next to Wilderness Voyagers.

Was just in Ohiopyle last weekend - as crazy as that place gets when it's nice out, I believe it.

Good to hear people haven't effectively "closed" the "outside" after sunset

My friend and I who rode to DC the last time I did it made our best time after sunset. We ended up riding until about 3am most nights and were never bothered by anyone the entire ride.

The worst "legal B.S." we encountered the entire way was arriving at Harper's Ferry at 10am Sunday to the microbrewery only to be told they are not allowed to sell us alchohol until 2PM. Well, I guess you could combine that with getting kicked out of the "When Pigs Fly" bar in Cumberland one night at 12:30 because that's when the bars close there.

In hindsight since we could not ride in a straight line after drinking 2 pitchers of beer each (I have found long distance cycling GREATLY increases the amount of alcohol I can consume before being completely drunk) — that was probably a good thing for us.

We did see a bunch of teenage vampires having a little Twilight gathering under the full moon a couple miles past Cumberland where you get back on the trail! They hissed at us as we passed by but no harm otherwise...

BTW, I know the rangers at Ohiopyle are pricks but we literally climbed up the hill and camped in one of the "walk-in" sites for the night, got up, took showers, and since we were too lazy to ride all the way up to the pay booth we just took off. Nobody bothered us, so maybe that is a better option than sleeping along the trail HAHA!

We also had a run-in with a sasquatch (or at least that's what we eventually figured it was)... Some animal sounding like a monkey screaming at the zoo was making all this noise and every time I yelled towards it, the thing would answer us. After awhile of harassing this thing by yelling at it, we figured being isolated on a patch of dirt between the Potomac river and a rotting cesspool of stagnant water wasn't a good defensible position so we stopped LOL.

When we took the Amtrak train everyone at Union Station treated us like crap. I deal with so many assholes on a daily basis that it doesn't bother me.

However, dealing with pricks who eventually do let you on the train and give you a box for your bike is easier to tolerate than being fondled by some former McDonalds french fry technician wearing the same rubber glove from the last 10 people who had his finger up their arse.

It would be cool to know if I will be biking home or sitting in the bar car watching the scenery go by LOL.

The last time I took Amtrack was from Portland to Seattle the weekend after Thanksgiving. In fact, it was the day after the bomb threat in downtown Portland, just a handful of blocks from the train station.

There were no pat downs or metal detectors, but they did have a dog sniffing the luggage while people were waiting in line to board. At least one person was asked to open their bags for further inspection. I'm not sure if these were drug-sniffing or bomb-sniffing dogs, but I vaguely remember TSA uniforms, so I would guess the latter.

I share your frustration with the TSA searches, although we may have different reasons for taking offense at them.

Even though it may seem like a futile gesture, I hope that you will take a few minutes to call or send email to your congressperson to tell them what you think. Whether or not you vote, the congressperson in your district is supposed to represent the needs of his/her constituents (of which you are one!), and the House of Reps are the ones to authorize things like Homeland Security. You can easily find out who your Congressperson is from the web site http://congress.org

I hope that you have never been raped - I am guessing from your choice of words that you find the TSA searches to be very intrusive and disempowering.

The Amtrak Police at Harrisburg regularly use dogs too. I'm pretty sure it's a drug dog, but maybe it's cross trained?

I saw a Police dog demonstration recently. Many are trained for multiple uses: tracking missing people/suspects, sniffing drugs, and sniffing explosives, etc.

Well, then I will just remember to not have anything in my bags that the doggies can smell.

And yeah, I think it is rather obvious that I am against this TSA garbage. In any other scenario sticking your hands down a strangers pants to feel around would be considered a sexual assault and get your ass on the sexual predator list.

The only way you can make them stop at this point is either a violent uprising or better yet, not using the damn planes. Since too many yuppies need to fly every day for business and no yuppie in their right mind is going to deny his children a visit to see Mickey Mouse after shelling out $3000+ they just say "Go ahead litte Jhonny and let this nice man stick his hands down your pants and we will be on our way to see Mickey Mouse..."

Well, I will not use the planes in spite of the fact that I'm sure they will never be boycotted enough to get them to cut the crap.

Yep. I've concluded that the TSA pretty much exists to be security theater. Its real purpose and reason for existence is based in a decision by the Federal govenement to protect a favored/chosen industry (the airline industry) from liability in case of another 9/11. They figured they could throw the 4th Amendment out the window and get away with it if they sold it as making the public "safe". And so far they've been right. When I hear people being interviewed and say they are willing to go along with this because it makes them feel safer, frankly I am torn between wanting to puke or getting a club to hit them up side the head to see if it will knock some sense into them.

I think we're just about at the point that parents would microchip their children with GPS to "keep them safe". Might as well just link that up to your driver's lisence, credit cards and criminal record too, you know "for convenience"

yep, safety and convenience will be how we willingly give up all rights to privacy.

Rand Paul feels your pain.

I do submit to the searches because airplane travel is a necessary aspect of my vocation. However, they do not make me feel safer and I'd rather see the $ spent elsewhere (random example: I'd feel safer knowing that no fracking fluid was part of the drinking water system. I drink water every day).

And to reference abracadabra's recent pic in the Tag-o-rama thread, the sickening disgusting Orwellian threat level sign, keep the population frightened and they will allow you to grope their nuggets, in the name of "safety". Uggh.

That's ego stroking. "If you're not threatened, you're not important."

Agreed. You can't just outright take away the rights of the American people all at once or you have riots and an overthrow of the government on your hands.

Its like they say — they have to "boil the frongs... (or sheep in this case)."

If you throw a frog into a boiling pot of water it is going to freak out and jump right out of the pot... However, if you put a frog into a cool pot of water and light a fire under it he will just start swimming around and before he realizes its getting hot in there it's too late.

I don't want to get all political but this government is a complete F-ing joke. I don't care which party or candidate is in control. The South Park episode — would you vote for a giant douche or a turd sandwich is how I look at this.

I find it really "ironic" that some guy shows up on a terrorist watch list and the state department says "Put him on the plane..." and then surprise surprise he tries to light his underwear on fire.

Then gee whiz, they put the naked body scanners in the airports that Michael Chertoff had been trying to sell to the government before he became head of homeland security — surprise surprise...

So people of course are not happy about this so what do we do? PUNISH anyone who resists by mocking them in full public view and then groping their genitals and humiliating them so that the rest of the sheep will see what is going on and keep their mouths shut.

I hope they finally pass the law in Texas making it a felony for them to grope people even if the Feds decide to shut down all the airports.

The idiots in this country are pretty much willing to give up their freedom and sell their souls in exchange for a McDonald's Happy Meal it seems.

I'd be willing to bet a Berkey water filter would remove fracking fluid from the water LOL... Not an advertisement but I use one and it removes Flouride and just about everything else.

I think if I peed into the thing it would come out clear and drinkable but I'll try it with someone else's before I do it to mine

No, I disagree, I would definitely try it with my own pee first.

Oooh, I forgot, I'm visiting Canada next week, so everything I say I'm just kidding. I love homeland security. I <3 u Ms. Napolitano.

She prefers to be reffered to by her nickname — "Big Sis."

I'd be willing to bet a Berkey water filter would remove fracking fluid from the water LOL

Maybe. I know that the Britta & PUR filters don't catch some of the new chemicals that are created when some of the fracking byproducts mix with chlorine.

In any case, I think every person (animals, too) deserves unhindered access to clean drinking water, not just those who can afford it.