Wild Hogs VII Day 4

After a long humid night with some pretty good thunderstorms we woke up to a pretty good forecast. We decided that we would make the trip to Erie this morning with our main goal to cruise Presque Isle.

We got our usual early start (about 1030) with really damp soupy conditions. Having carefully checked both the forecast and the radar I opted to leave my rain suit behind (bet you can't see this coming). The ride to Erie went rather well. We did take a bit of the long way around because of traffic predictions, but not too far, and it seems that in this case, Google maps was right on the money. We were able to circumvent a lot of the traffic, this being Roar on the Shore. About half way there the clouds broke up, the mist burned off and it was an absolutely beautiful day for a ride. On the way I hit a new milestone on my bike 55,555.5 miles @ 55 mph.

Needless to say there were bikes everywhere. I'm sure the regular residents of Erie are about sick of motorcycle traffic, but everyone seemed courteous enough and people were behaving civilly. We made it to Presque Isle (a peninsula that separates the harbor in Erie from the main part of Lake Erie) about 1 pm and took our time cruising the entire perimeter. The Peninsula is several miles long and features two light houses (one of which is reported to be haunted), a wildlife  refuge, a houseboat community and ten public beaches. We made several stops just to take in the views and of course a bathroom stop is always a must with the 50+ crowd. We even walked onto the beach to check it out. Mark was amazed that such a large body of water was not salt water.

Arby's for lunch

By 2:30 everyone was starving so we decided the next order of business would be lunch. We stopped at Arby's just off the Peninsula and had a nice leisurely lunch before deciding to call it a day and head back for camp. We were looking at a two hour ride, so we figured to make it back just about suppertime.

We got out of the city without any major issues and were cruising along very nicely when ahead in the distance we saw some very ominous clouds. Now according to the forecast, that was not supposed to happen. We went a little further and the roads were wet, as though a storm had just come through. A little further and we started to get rained on. I started looking for somewhere to pull off so those who had rain gear (I opted to leave mine at camp) could don it. In the mean time Jay, Scott and Kevin pulled over on their own in the worst of the rain to break it out. By the time I found a place to pull off, the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking out. We pulled into the parking lot of a business that was closed for renovations and waited for the others to catch up. They then went right by us waving and in some sort of game of biker leap frog went on down the road before pulling over to wait for us.

We finally all got back together and were pretty happy that for the most part the storm had passed through already. Had we been a half hour earlier we would have been in the teeth of it, and what a storm it apparently was. There were lots of signs of tree damage and huge amounts of water pooling or running off.. As we're cruising along counting ourselves lucky, I realized that we were actually catching up to the storm. We could see the rain in the distance. So, we decided to pull into a closed car dealership to give it a chance to move on. We consulted our radar and figured if we gave it about 15 minutes and didn't ride too fast, we should be able to stay behind it.

We did just that and for once we guessed right. The storm moved on leaving lots of wet roads and plenty of debris from trees in the road, but the sun came back out and all was good. Once the weather cleared it was a very pleasant ride and my mind was already anticipating some time around the fire on our last night here.

We got to within 6 miles or so of the camp and traffic came to a complete stop. it seems part of a very large tree had been damaged in the storms last night (the one this afternoon did not pass through our cabin area) and had decided to give way just moments before we arrived there and was completely blocking the road. We, along with a couple of other bikers, a truck driver, and a guy in a pickup went up to see if we could move enough of it to get part of one lane open. We started bending and breaking limbs and actually got enough that bikes could have passed, but just then the cavalry arrived in the form of a couple of guys from the fun park down the road on a gator with two chain saws. They started cutting and we started dragging the limbs to the bank on the side of the road. We were able to get one lane cleared and the guys with the saws decided that that would have to be good enough because the way the main part of the tree was laying, it would be too dangerous to try and cut it up. They decided to leave that to the professionals.

While all this was going on, traffic continued to back up. Most waited patiently or turned around seeking an alternate route. Of course there's always one butt munch who has be the exception. Sadly it was a biker from the Legion Riders (a generally good class of people) who practically ran us down to get through before we even finished clearing a lot of debris from the lane. I don't know his name, and didn't catch his post #, but let me just say, THANKS FOR THE HELP BROTHER! I hope you made it to where ever you were going on time and your beer didn't get warm! Just as the guys from the park were leaving the local Fire Dept. arrived with their chainsaws and started really making light work of the remaining tree.

We finally got back to the cabin about an hour later than anticipated, happy to be able to get into some cooler clothes and get some supper. We all just had leftovers so we won't have too much to take back home with us tomorrow. We enjoyed some time around the camp fire, watched a little TV and even sprung for a night of air conditioning (it's $10 extra a day) since it's so humid.

Tomorrow we put another Wild Hogs Adventure in the books and head home. While we always have a good time on these trips, it also always good to get home.

Wild Hogs VII Day 3

Another change of plans today. The planned trip to Erie was put on hold because radar showed pretty persistent rain.

Wow that was a little disconcerting! I just had a large black ant crawl across my screen and onto my hand as I'm laying in bed typing this on my tablet. I can't seem to get the laptop to connect to the router tonight.

Anyway, we went with plan B today. It turned out to be a great day of riding. We decided to go check out Rt 949 that we missed yesterday.

We left the cabin about 1030 and made the short trip to get gas and find the route. It turns out that it was in fact a great road to ride with lots of twisties and scenery that was amazing. It follows Clear Creek part of the way and winds it's way through the Clear Creek State Forest. The weather was cool and overcast most of the time, but the sun did peek out every now and then. After about 30 miles we found ourselves in Ridgeway again and decided to take Rt. 948 back north to Sheffield where we caught Rt. 6 and followed it to Warren. Lots more nice riding, much of it through parts of the Allegheny National Forest.

We made a lunch stop in Warren before deciding to head back south toward the cabin. We did encounter a few raindrops now and then, but were very fortunate not to hit any real rain. We returned via Rt. 62 which winds it's way along the bank of the Allegheny river. I am truly amazed at the great riding we have right here in our own state of PA.

We really didn't stop to see any sights today. We just enjoyed the ride. So, I don't really have any pictures to share. We did detour through Clarion on the way home to pick up some food for supper. The menu was widely varied with Mark and Kevin enjoying frozen pizza, Scott and Scottie enjoying some wings, Jay having steak on the fire and me cooking up some great chicken on the fire. About 9:30 a storm moved in putting and end to any further campfire for tonight.

Tomorrow we will make another attempt at getting to Erie. The weather is still a big question, but we will check it in the morning and see what happens.
We are currently experiencing a pretty good thunderstorm. The electricity has flickered a couple of times so I think going to bed is advisable. I hope you are all safe and dry where you are.

Wild Hogs VII Day 2 The Odyssey

An Odyssey is defined as "an epic journey". I think the ride today may qualify.

Jay not quite
dressed for the weather

We were up relatively early, about 7 am. We planned an early start, but the temps were in the upper 40s and most did not bring cool/cold weather gear. I of course was prepared after a difficult run to Indianapolis and back a few years ago, but many of the Wild Hogs had not "learned" the lesson that I had. The remedy? A leisurely breakfast and wait around the cabin until the temps rose to a more acceptable level.

We finally rolled out about 1030 with temps now about 60. It was nice clear riding weather and I was very comfortable in my leather jacket (since I was prepared and brought it along). The first order of business was to stop for gas. During our leisurely wait for the temps to recover, we had looked up gas stations close to us. The nearest was a station about 1.4 miles up the road in the opposite direction we planned to go. No big deal! We started out for gas with Kevin (Bacon bits, his Wild Hog name) in the lead since he was in charge of the day's agenda. I think this is where the day took it's first turn toward Odyssey. We rolled right on by the station going another 10 miles up the road to another station very much out of our way. We did get the gas we needed, then we re-routed for our destination, saving the very twisty road that looked like lots of fun and our originally planned route for the return trip.

File picture before the tornado of 2003

Our destination was the Kinzua Bridge, at one time the highest railroad bridge in the world. Originally built in 1883 of iron (not a wooden trestle as I mistakenly said yesterday), it was rebuilt again in 1900 using steel to accommodate heavier trains. It remained in service until 1959, then in 1963 it was sold to the state of PA as the centerpiece of a state park. Restoration of the bridge was started in 2002, but before the work could be finished a large portion of it was destroyed by a tornado in 2003. A still standing portion of one end has been made into a skywalk over the valley, with a glass floor section at the far end.

After our visit to the bridge we realized that it was close to 2 pm and everyone was hungry for lunch. We stopped at the Tasty Freeze in Mt. Jewett (that's the town where the bridge is) and had a good lunch of burgers and fries, and I think someone had chicken fingers. Then it was time to ride again.

I mentioned earlier that we had changed our route to get to the bridge leaving the "scenic route" for the trip home. Well, as usual, it didn't go exactly as planned. The original plan called for taking Rt 219 to Ridgeway, then 949 back to Rt 36 and our cabin. We made it to Ridgeway nicely enough, and 219 is a very nice riding road with good road surface and lots of sweeping curves. The issue came when we go into town and missed the turn for 949. We ended up way on down 219. We pulled over and "Bacon Bits" again recalculated. Now we would go to the town of Brockway, then onto Rt. 28, eventually connecting at some point with 949.

Well, we went through Brockway exiting on 28, and a few miles out turned onto some back road that was unmarked. I thought he was following GPS, but I found out later he was just guessing. Now those of you have may have traveled rural PA may be familiar with what is called tar and chip road surfacing. Essentially they put down a thin coating of liquid tar, then come along and lay stone chips on top creating a hard surface without the cost and time of real blacktop. While not bad for a car or truck, it flat out sucks on a motorcycle. Much of the stone is loose so it's like driving on marbles, and every time a vehicle goes by the other way it throws a bunch of stone at you. Not to mention, the bike in front of you is kicking up stones. Our tight little formation ended up stretched out for 1/2 a mile just because we were trying to create distance to avoid being pelted with the stone.

This is when the ride became epic for me. We're riding through the countryside (very scenic, but way out there) on what amounts to a gravel road. At one point we were passing abandoned houses and barns  and there weren't many signs of life. I saw a sign for "Warsaw" and frankly was beginning to wonder if we might of accidentally ventured out of the country, but was relieved when we passed a property that was flying an american flag and the marine flag. Whew! at least we're still in the country. Eventually we came back to a regular blacktop road and ended up in the town of Brookville which is south of Interstate 80. How we crossed over the major highway without knowing it I'll never figure out, but at least we knew where we were and could now make definite tracks for the cabin. We went about 20 miles and an extra hour out of our way, but hey, it's supposed to be an adventure.

promised pic of cabin

Once back at the cabin, we settled in to build a fire and do a little cooking on it for dinner. We had bacon/cheddar dogs (thank you Sam's Club) and marshmallows. We sat around the fire until about 10 then into the cabin for a little TV before bed (yes we have satellite TV and internet though the internet can be a little spotty, hence my late night entries when everyone else isn't hogging the bandwidth).

I think tomorrow is a trip to Erie. There's some really nice riding along the lake, and Roar on the Shore is going on. Hopefully the bike traffic isn't too insane. I'm hoping we are able to meet up with my nephew for a little riding. My brother-in-law who lives up here has to work, so we won't be able to get him on the road with us.

Wild Hogs VII (2015) Day 1

It's hard to believe that we are on year 7 of our Wild Hogs Adventures. This year we decided to stay closer to home. Previous years have always been out of state, heading either north or south. This year we decided to stay in the state of PA. I wasn't sure how I felt about that until we actually were riding today. I must say that PA has as good a riding as anything we have seen in the previous 6 years.

For those who may not be familiar with the history of our annual Wild Hogs Adventure, the short version is that for several years my brothers and I (there are 5 of us) had always talked about taking a motorcycle trip together. It was during one of these many conversations, that one of our wives said "why don't you guys stop talking about it and just do it?". We agreed, and the annual Cagno Brothers Wild Hogs Adventure was born (yes named for the movie).

Poker

Living Room

Kitchen

This years trip is to northwestern PA. In past years (except for last year) we have camped on our trip. Last year we decided to do hotels, but all agreed that something was definitely lost without the campfires and late night conversations. This year we decided to rent a cabin in the woods. As I write this it's dark outside and I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of the cabin from the outside. Maybe tomorrow.

We were supposed to start at 0830 this morning, but as with all great plans it was subject to change. Ugly storms in the Lancaster area delayed the Lancaster faction and we were about 2 hours late getting started. The cabin we are renting is in Cook Forest. It is actually only 2.5 or 3 hours from home, but our route to get here took us more like 9 hours. We took a very "scenic" route. The weather was very cloudy with a few sprinkles to start. The further we went the cooler it got, but we started seeing peeks of sunshine here and there. For most of the day we had temps in the mid 60's. By late afternoon we had sunshine and great riding. Many of the mountain roads we were riding reminded me of some of the roads we rode last year in North Carolina.



 We traveled up Rt. 15 from Harrisburg to Rt. 44 south of Williamsport. We then took 44 all the way to Rt. 6 at Coudersport. I don't know how many of you have had the pleasure of riding Rt. 44 through the mountains, but it is right up there with many of the best roads we've ridden on past adventures. Once on Rt. 6 we headed west reaching the little town of Smethport in McKean County. This was something that we were looking forward to. We lived in Smethport for 2 years when I was about 7 years old. (WOW 47 years ago) I did come through this town maybe 20 years ago or so, but I was still amazed that I still was able to find my way around with little difficulty.

Lot on the left was ours

Firehouse across the street

The first stop was actually the second place we lived there. It was a mobile home community (trailer park) across from the fire station. Both are still there. It's funny how things were bigger when we were young. The fire siren tower seemed huge back then. When the siren would go off, we would run to the tower and try to climb it before the siren stopped. That of course would never be allowed now, and truthfully, I don't think our mother knew that's what we did, but it was a much simpler time, where we played outside all day.


Our second stop was the first house we lived in. It was a big Victorian house on King St. It had a neat red bank barn behind it and a huge front yard.

From there we headed to where the old school was (2 blocks away). The school was long ago torn down and a medical clinic has replaced it. I did not take any pictures of it.

We then went another couple of blocks to the old jail. The little blockhouse jail was still in use when we lived there, but has since been closed and is now part of a museum. A couple of my brothers and I could remember walking by there after school to choir practice at the church and talking to an old trustee inmate who would be outside cutting grass. It was a real Mayberry kind of jail. Now they have a new facility just outside town. Still very small, but modern.

On our way out of town we passed by the dam and lake where we used to go fishing as kids. It's hard to believe that we used to walk on the top of that dam when water wasn't flowing over the spillway and nobody said a word. The lake and the creek below were regular hangouts for us in those days. That was a very different time. We were all over town all the time and no one had to worry about anything bad happening. Looking back, it's a wonder we survived our childhood, walking on the top of the spillway to to the dam, paddling a wooden row boat in the creek and swimming at the swimming hole. All on our own at the ages of 7 and less.

Some of you will be disappointed to hear that the day came off without any real incidents. We did get detoured when trying to find our cabin site. We were following Rt 6 to Rt. 66 (not that one) at a town called Kane. Of course, no sooner did we turn onto 66 then we were confronted with large detour signs turning us around and sending us back the way we came. We pulled off at a choice store to figure our next move. The lady who worked there had come out for a smoke break and overheard our conversation and said "good luck with that detour". She asked where we were headed and we told her. She then proceeded to give us directions for a much shorter detour that would get us back on track. Now at the risk of offending some of you, I have to say that these directions, while very detailed were what I like to call women's directions. She told us every road where not to turn and made the directions way more complex than they needed to be. But, with that said, we did make it back to where we needed to be, and ultimately we got to our cabin.

Tomorrow promises to be a good day for riding if maybe a little cool, especially to start. We are planning to ride to the Kinzua Bridge, an old wooden railroad trestle  bridge that was a real marvel of engineering. It was severely damaged in storms a few years ago, but parts still remain. I recall seeing this as a kid. It will be interesting to see it again.