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.