Day One Pittsburgh to Connellsville-GAP Trail

I woke up early and to my surprise, when I looked out the window, the street was dry. Based on the weather radar I was seeing, I figured I should seize this opportunity to start. If it had been raining, I don’t know if I could have pulled out a start.

I got on my bike around 5:10 AM and headed out w/o breakfast. My plan out of town was to get to the Eliza Furnace Trail, keep going east and cross the Glennwood Bridge. I started out from the hotel riding north on Liberty Ave. till I reached Grant Street and headed down to the trail. There is something really cool about riding in the city in the early morning. It is like city is yours and how it could be if there were more pedestrians and bikes than cars and trucks.


When I got down to the start of the Furnace Trail I started thinking, hmm it would have been a good idea if I had brought the light I had in the van for the Paw-Paw Tunnel. I start the trail which I assume is nice but in the dark, it seems more challenging than enjoyable. As I pass by the greyhound bus terminal, I notice a person in a wheelchair and two more sleeping on a bench. This was a little disturbing as I passed. There are a lot of underpasses and dark shadows where people may be hanging out. I was not really concerned for my safety but freaky things can happen especially when people are not expecting a bike to fly by.


I got to what appeared to be the end of the trail at a parking lot and was a little disoriented. Luckily, as I was exiting the parking lot, there were bikes painted on the ground that sent me down, around, and up to either 2^nd Ave or Irvine Street. I climbed a little hill there on a rater narrow road but was doing ok other than me wondering if I was climbing the right hill. Traffic at this time was still light and it was still dark.

As I continued on Irvine till it turned into 2^nd Ave(rt. 885), the road widened so cars could park and there was plenty of room to ride. While one of my concerns about biking through the city was the characteristics of the neighborhoods, at 5:30AM all neighborhoods all are about the same…. Everyone is sleeping.

I continues on, doing well till I come to the Glenwood Bridge. I choose to skip the sidewalk and take the right lane for myself as I cross the well lit bridge. To give you an idea of the time and darkness, I crossed the bridge without seeing a vehicle on my side, and I could NOT see the river as I crossed.

As I crossed bridge and headed right for the 837 exit, I had to get behind a dump truck and turn left at the end of the ramp (Glass Run Road). This is where the ride seems more perilous. As I get to the end of the road I have to turn left and head for 837. Based on the road size and signs I really feel like I am entering the highway! I take the 837 ramp and cross over a bridge headed east. I hug the right side of the road hoping I don’t hit any major debris and continue on till I veer off to the right onto 8^th Street.

8^th street is great, I little hill and NO traffic, I parallel 837 for a while. This is when the rain begins to fall. Not to heavy at first and I go down a hill as 8^th street heads back towards 837. I hop on 837 for a short while and head towards Neel Street in hopes of another safe route on 7^th and maybe a spin around the waterfront. As I approach Neel (or was it Howard?) I have to turn left because 837 is blocked off due to a major accident. I thought about going straight through on 837 to ride it with no traffic but I thought I’d better leave the accident scene to the professionals.

I went down a wet cobble stone street as the rain began to pick up a bit. The bumps on the road made me realize that My headset was a little loose. I followed 7^th to McClure Street and went back on 837. I skipped Waterfront drive because I forgot what street to turn on even though that would have gotten me farther along 837 before I had to ride it. By this point I was if a torrential downpour, still w/o sunlight. I pushed along 837 with all I had. When I got to the greenbelt bridge I had to stop and ask for directions hoping for some reason that this WAS the bridge I needed to cross to McKeesport. I kept biking on 837 up the hill towards Kennywood. As I passed the gloomy looking amusement park, the downpour slowed to a rain shower.

The Sun started coming up as I approached the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge. I crossed the bridge as the rain slowed to a drizzle and followed Lysle Blvd to a left on Market Street. I took that to a right on 9^th and found the YRT trail head at 9^th and water St.

I called to check in at 6:30AM to let everyone know I was off the roads and on the trail. The trip so far was about 16.5 miles. No more rain found me today.

I got to Boston in no time. I guess I see why a lot of people start here. As the ride went, I found myself thinking that coming thorough here later in the day or a weekend would have been cooler. Based on the number of signs I saw that mentioned food stops BBQs and the like, I was hungry and the bottle of Accelerade I drank as breakfast was not filling me up. I stopped for a Cliff Bar then biked on.

I though the start of the trail was a little rough in the beginning but it was very well marked with signs and flags on poles. I followed the trail across the bridge and onto River Road<. Even though I had been warned about missing the trail off to the right, just before the business at the end of the road, I missed it and had to go back and find it. I though it was odd that the trail was SO well marked till just here, A little climb and I was on my way. My next stop was West Newton where I took a quick break and admired the new “train station” they're building. I was also wishing I had time to rent a canoe. Not a lot happened as I headed toward my day’s stop in Connellsville. I saw some groundhogs, deer, and some wild turkeys and their children. As I came into Connellsville, the rain began again. Before I got a real wet, I found the gazebo in the park and called for my ride. I clocked in with around 62 miles before lunch. I would like to comment farther on the traffic conditions and feel of the neighborhoods I biked through but based on the fact that is was mostly in the dark pouring rain, all I can say is I would Not recommend doing it in THOSE conditions. But I survived. I think taking the water front and some nice weather and light would make passable for and experienced road rider. If you spend >75% of your rides on trails I think it would be difficult.

I am glad that I did ride from downtown to make the trip complete. My original plan was to either start from point state park, which happened to be under construction, or PNCPark but with the pending rain I just left from the hotel.

62 miles - total 62 miles