Days 7-11: Home is where you stop pedaling

With this last installment, my friend, Eric Durante, and I just completed a 750 mile bike tour through Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Maryland using as much rail-trail as possible.  This ride also benefits Our Children's Center Montessori school in State College, PA.  For more details on the genesis of the ride or how you can donate, see here.

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Two nights ago, Eric and Tom rode back into State College.  It was probably 10 o'clock at night when they got to Tom's house.  They had woken up at 6 o'clock and rode for a long way to make it!  The trip ended up taking 11 days overall and they rode 750 miles in all.  It was such a fun time and they can't wait to do it again.  Come see how the last part of their trip turned out!

When Eric and Tom got to Washington D.C., they decided to take a day to rest.  On this day, they rode around the city.  Here is Tom's bike with the Washington Monument in the background.  They also met Sacha Buckland and his parents too!  It was so fun to see them.

Nails make your tires go flat!  This happened to Tom's bike when they were riding between Washington D.C. and Baltimore.

North of Baltimore, Eric and Tom couldn't find anywhere to camp and they didn't know anybody who would let them sleep at their house.  They got a motel room.  The people let Eric and Tom bring their bikes into the motel room with them.

 To get from Maryland back to Pennsylvania, they rode a trail up to York, PA.  There were railroad tracks next to them the whole time.  Here is Eric riding.

Tom thought it was time for a new bike!

In eastern Harrisburg, Eric and Tom saw a Caribbean bakery.  They had never been to one before so they decided to stop.

To make it back to State College, Eric and Tom had to ride on the sides of highways sometimes.  It wasn't as nice as a trail and pretty noisy, but it was okay.

About two or three times each day, Eric and Tom had to stop and eat to give them energy.  Here on the last day, Eric is drinking a quart of chocolate milk somewhere around Penns Creek, PA.

That's all for this trip!  Eric and Tom hope you enjoyed seeing pictures from their trip.  Now you should stop reading this, go outside, and have some fun!

Days 3-6: We pause our regularly scheduled program

My friend, Eric Durante, and I are taking a ~700 mile bike tour through Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Maryland using as much rail-trail as possible.  This ride also benefits Our Children's Center Montessori school in State College, PA.  For more details on the ride or how you can donate, see here.

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In the past four days, Eric and Tom rode their bicycles 300 miles from Greensburg, PA to Washington, D.C.  Some days it was bright and sunny and some it was cold and rainy.  The whole time, they had lots of fun and saw many interesting and beautiful things.  Today (Friday) they are taking a day to rest.  Their legs are tired and their bums hurt!  They will come back to State College soon.  Right now, look at what they saw over the past four days!

Behind Tom is a gas well in western Pennsylvania.  This made Tom and Eric sad.  The gas people had to cut down all the trees and made the animals living there move away to do this.  It was really noisy and dirty!

Here is the Great Allegheny Passage trail.  It was nice and flat the entire time.  Eric and Tom rode on it for a day and a half.  The whole time there was a big river next to them and trees with their leaves changing color.

It was still a long way from Washington D.C.!

                                                

Once in a while, they had to ride over the river or a big valley.  There were long wooden and metal bridges there for just people hiking and biking to use.

Eric and Tom had to eat all of the time.  Biking all day takes a lot of energy!  Here they are eating an egg omlette with tomatoes and green peppers and cheese as well as potatoes and toast.  They probably could have eaten two or three plates each.

Here is an old caboose they saw along the way.

Sometimes the trail would go through a tunnel in a mountain instead of going up and over the mountain.  Here is Eric riding through the longest one.  It was over half a mile long!

At one point they ran into a coal powered steam engine.  It was pulling about 10 train cars along.

For three nights in a row until they got to Washington D.C., Eric and Tom camped out along the trail.  It was really nice except for the night that it rained a lot.  They still managed to sleep okay.

The second half of the trip they were riding next to the Potomac River.  Here it gets really wide and makes some rapids and waterfalls!

Eric is a little crazy after four more days of riding!  (He's okay.)

Tom is feeling a little bit tired after four more days of riding.  (He's okay too.)

Well, that is all for now!  Tomorrow, Eric and Tom will start riding again up to Baltimore, then Lancaster and then back to State College.  They'll probably be back in town in several more days.  Check back to see how they are doing!

Days 1 & 2: Westward the wagons!

My friend, Eric Durante, and I are taking a ~700 mile bike tour through Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Maryland using as much rail-trail as possible.  This ride also benefits Our Children's Center Montessori school in State College, PA.  For more details on the ride or how you can donate, see here.

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Friday night after work, Tom rode his bicycle over to Eric's house.  It was dark the entire time he was riding.  When he finally got there, Eric, his wife, Meghann and his dog, Toby were there to meet him.

They all ate burritos for dinner.  Eric and Tom probably at 6 each because they knew they would need it the next day!  Then they set to making sure they had everything they would need.

Toby was sad to see Tom and Eric go.  He wanted to go with them on their adventure.  Toby doesn't know how to ride a bike yet.

On Saturday morning it was cold outside and very windy!  Tom (left) and Eric (right) were still happy to get started on the trip!  

Eric and Tom rode for a long time that day.  There were big mountains to ride up and over.  The wind kept blowing in their faces and slowing them down.  At one point, the wind even blew Tom over!  It turned into night and Tom and Eric kept riding.

Eventually, they got to Ebensburg and guess who lives there?  Sergio Drayton's grandparents!  They were really nice and fed Eric and Tom and let them sleep there.  They also got to hang out with Sergio.  In the morning, they said goodbye and started riding again.

Sunday was much warmer and less windy.  Eric and Tom were a lot happier.  They rode on the Ghost Town Trail.  These were the only ghosts they saw that day.  Last time Tom rode here, he saw two black bears!

All day, they got to see many beautiful things: lakes, trees with bright leaves, chipmunks, and the sunset.  Eric and Tom also met many nice people.  The people asked them where they were going and wished them luck!  They have been having lots of fun and can't wait to ride again the next day.  Now it is time for them to go to sleep in Greensburg.

Do it for the kids!

My friend, Eric Durante, and I are going to do a charity bike tour for children.  I don't know what will confuse people more; the fact that I have at least one friend or that I am doing something for anyone other than myself.  After you get over your initial confusion, I would like to explain to you what is going on here.  Because I am being serious.

Example of all around nice guys

Our Children's Center is a local Montessori school.  If you're not exactly sure what a Montessori school you can look at an explanation here.  Basically though, these schools serve preschool and kindergarten age children (2.5 to 6 years) and provide a non traditional education approach that focuses on independence and experiential learning.  I am aware that I am over simplifying and possibly misrepresenting Montessori education and for that I plead some ignorance.  Our Children's Center (OCC) is a private non-profit school and I know friends, coworkers and other community members who enroll or have enrolled their children there.  Being a private school, a tuition is required; a tuition that not all parents can afford entirely.

The OCC maintains a scholarship fund comprised mostly of donations to help offset a portion of the tuition for children who need such assistance.  Parents annually hold fundraisers for OCC and this year they are planning a group bike ride on October 16th for both adults and children.  Coincidentally, Eric and I have been planning a bike tour that is slated to begin the 15th.  We joked with the event organizers that our ride was just an extension of the preplanned routes and we still wanted to participate.  This joke quickly turned into the idea that our entire tour would be a charity ride to benefit the OCC!

Hundreds of miles of riding sans cars!

So here's the deal:  Eric and I are planning a roughly 650-700 mile ride starting in State College, heading to Pittsburgh, going down to Washington D.C., then going north through Baltimore and Lancaster until we make it home.  The route encompasses as much rail-trail as it can including the Ghost Town Trail, the Great Allegheny Passage, and the C&O Trail.  We are going to enjoy our natural surroundings, meet up with friends and generally have a terrific time.

What we are asking for:  Eric and I are seeking folks to pledge a certain amount of money per mile that we ride together to be donated to the OCC.  If you wanted to donate a penny for ever mile ridden that would come out to $7.00, a nickel would be $35.00, $100 would be $70,000 and so on.  Absolutely every cent donated will go to the OCC.  Eric and I will pay for our own rice and beans.

We know you're jealous.

Why you should donate:  Well first off, you will be directly funding children's early developmental learning.  That in and of itself is certainly reason enough.  However, Eric and I wouldn't leave it at that, would we?  We plan to update this blog every day or two throughout our week long adventure.  We will specifically write it geared for 2-6 year olds in the hope that with either teachers' or parents' assistance, students at OCC can follow our progress.  Folks who have been following this blog probably won't notice any difference since I usually write at a preschool level.  Our intent is that readers will come away with three lessons or ideas that are especially important to young children:

-embrace a physically active lifestyle

-appreciate the natural outdoors

-maintain a healthy diet

We believe that if we can not only assist raising funding for the students but also impart some fun and important lessons to children (and adults!) then we will be wildly successful.

Who needs fried chicken when you have 5 different types of quiche?

I encourage everyone to make a donation, no matter the size.  All of it will go directly to the scholarship fund for students at OCC.  If you wish to make a pledge per mile, please email me directly at tfmrotek <at> gmail <dot> com.  I will then ensure that your pledge is recorded with the fundraising coordinator at OCC.

In the back of your head, there still probably lies the nagging suspicion, "Why is Tom really doing this?".  A valid point and one that I asked myself.  First off, children should receive a proper education.  Then they can grow up, get a steady job (which is something I still try to avoid) and pay into my Social Security benefits.  Secondly, children should learn how to lead healthy lifestyles.  So in the future, they won't be putting additional burden on the Medicare system that I will be taking for all it's worth.  Third, children should appreciate the outdoors.  Once I have retired from the job I won't have and subsisting off of Social Security and Medicare, I want some trees and mountains to still exist to mindlessly putter around in!  And lastly (and most importantly), I want to impress the ladies with my big heart.  So if there are any single women out there that think bike touring is sexy and are overwhelmed by my compassion for children, you should email me too.

See... it still is all about me, isn't it?

Interesting article

I was eating some delicious broccoli and tomato pizza for lunch today, reading a back issue of Wired magazine.  Typically this magazine gets on my nerves because it is dedicated to discussions of technology and its intersection with society.  Oftentimes, it is championing technology and "progress".  Anyone who knows me well can tell you that technology doesn't usually blow wind up my skirt.

Regardless, I was reading the cover story which was an article by Joel Johnson examining the story behind 17 worker suicides at one of the world's largest consumer electronic mega-factories.  What began as an account of working conditions and labor practices at the factory turned into a serious discussion of consumerism and collective guilt by the end of the article.  While I found the entire article interesting, two statements especially stood out for me that I have never been able to adequately elaborate for myself.


"But I believe that humankind made a subconscious collective bargain at the dawn of the industrial age to trade the resources of our planet for the chance to escape it. We live in the transitional age between that decision and its conclusion."

and

"I don’t know if I have a right to the vast quantities of materials and energy I consume in my daily life. Even if I thought I did, I know the planet cannot bear my lifestyle multiplied by 7 billion individuals. I believe this understanding is shared, if only subconsciously, by almost everyone in the Western world."

I don't want to escape this planet.  I want to relish it in all of its beauty and wealth and variety.  It is arguable whether or not everyone in the Western world understands this, even subconsciously.  Either way, I want people to get it out of their subconscious and into their conscious and change their lifestyles before it is all too late.     

Adventure is a state of mind

What do you think of when you hear the word adventure?  Probably most of us think of huge mountains, foreign languages, gold, or any other grand idea that we've read in novels or watched on the big screen.  According to dictionary.com, adventure is defined as "an exciting or very unusual experience".  So I take that to mean that if I am excited about doing something in a way that I haven't done it before, then that would count as an adventure.  I don't need a Spanish armada, a treasure map, and an eyepatch to have an adventure.  When I was confronted with what to do this past weekend, I initially made a plan to drive up to the Adirondacks in a sleepless push, climb something horridly long in the backcountry, and have an epic that lives up to the fine storytelling tradition.  What I ended up doing couldn't have been further from that, but provided me with just as much adventure.

Gravel roads, loaded touring bikes, & approaching nightfall

Friday evening, Jeff "Spotted Zebra" Carlson, Eric "Seven Fingers" Durante, and I set out with loaded up touring bikes and a simple plan: have an adventure in our backyard without a car.  Since Jeff has a real job, we waited until about 6 to take off, making it into Rothrock State Forest around dusk.  Our bikes handled the gravel ascents and descents of the fire roads neatly and we eventually found ourselves making a stop in the dark at Detweiler Run.  Our friends, Clay Chiles and Peter, Jess & Sacha Buckland, were camping there for the evening.  We stopped and said hello and as a reward, Jess gave us malfunctioning glo stick bracelets that ended with me looking like a glo in the dark cheetah.  Since we still had about 20 miles of riding in the dark left that night, we bid them adieu.

Ridgerest = bikepacking crashpad

By about 10 o'clock we made it to the parking lot by Hunter's Rocks where we cooked up a delicious dinner of tortellini before finding a campsite along the Link Trail.  The next day we took all of our stuff over to the Powercut climbing area where I bouldered, Eric went hiking, and Jeff sought out the best vantage points for meditation (or was he just sneaking off with the group whiskey supply?).

Jeff, the upper crust of society, holding a boxed wine and string cheese party for one

I managed to claw my way up some familiar problems and also give some pointers to other folks.  I was impressed that two guys, Dan and Davey, had driven all the way from Gettysburg to get in about 8 hours of bouldering at Hunter's and the Powercut.  Unbeknownst to us, Eric got to see an enormous hawk migration from an adjacent ridge.  Concluding an evening bouldering session later, Eric and I were delighted to see our friend, Tor Nordmark, appear through the trees.  

Eric, myself & Tor

Tor had stopped out to do some hiking and to check up on our condition.  In fact our conditions couldn't have been any better.  Our camp that night was situated on a ridgetop with stellar views off of the surrounding rocks.  A convenient fire ring (well that and a few nips of whiskey) allowed for us to stay nice and toasty on a night where we could see our breath.  And against common belief, there were adequate flat, rock free spots to house our tents.

 The next day, Eric and I parted ways with Jeff.  It wasn't a mutual disgust of each other's fireside flatulence or adolescent humor (of which there was plenty), but instead we had another climbing objective whereas Jeff wanted to keep riding.  (It turns out that Jeff had some climbing to do of his own as anyone who has ridden northbound on 26 over Pine Grove Mountain can attest!)  Eric and I rode further south to Donation Rocks.  Of course a rope and harnesses were among the items strapped to our bikes so we were able to enjoy several hours of toproping.  Then began the business of riding 30 odd miles back to town before nightfall.  Not following Jeff's lead, we rode back through Rothrock and had a longer albeit much more gradual climb than he did.

The definition of "fully loaded touring"

"So, whoopedydoodah, you spent a weekend riding your bike around like you always do and climbing in the same places you always do.  What an adventure!", you might say with a rolling of your eyes.  Eric, Jeff and I could not disagree with you more.  I think we could all agree that we had an exciting and unusual experience.  Yes, we were familiar with a lot of the elements of the trip.  But when you descend Bear Meadows Rd in the dark with a fully loaded bike, it is a whole new ride.  And when you're pulling climbing moves with just your foam sleeping pad under you instead of a cushy 6" crashpad, it's a whole new problem.  And when your legs and not your car carried your tent, food and malfunctioning glo stick bracelets out to that ridgetop, the campsite seems all the more sweeter.

So like the title says, adventure is a state of mind.  I think many of us (and I include myself here) get too caught up in making grand schemes that rely on lots of money, time and preparations.  Instead of doing what we love, we spend our time making money, building up vacation time, or ordering a new mapset.  Finding a new way of doing something local or familiar can bring adventure and fulfillment just as much as a "big" trip.  I may venture to say that I had more fun this past weekend than when I went on a three week roadtrip out West this summer.  In the end, don't hold yourself to lofty goals that may only end up in preventing you from doing anything at all.  If it is "an exciting or very unusual experience" no matter the scale, seize it!

Author's note:  Does this mean that I am abandoning all of my grand, stupid, far-reaching plans?  Hell no.

The Cultural Recyclists

I was in downtown State College yesterday talking to my friend Bob Vander Voort aka "Taxi Bob" about bicycle touring and our mutual love of Long Haul Truckers (the bike, not the kind that doesn't shower for weeks on end), when Bob started calling out "Will.  Will.  WILL!!" to someone across the street.  I looked over and there was a young man about my age trotting along the sidewalk wearing just a pair of shorts and a reflective vest usually reserved for road construction crews, both of which had seen better days.  I realized that I had seen this guy along with a couple of other similarly clad folks biking around town for the past couple of days.  The only reason that I took any note of it was that all of their bikes were laden for touring, sporting racks, panniers and in one case, custom kitty litter bucket saddle bags.

Will made his way over to us and as he and Bob fell into excited conversation, I started to learn a thing or two. It turns out that Will was one of a group of folks that called themselves The Cultural Recyclists.  I think that it started out as just two of them and people came and left as they pleased.  Either way, Will had spent the past 14 months traveling along the northern Lower 48, travelling down the West Coast and then bouncing his way back to PA along the southern border and all of it by bicycle.  Along the way, he and his travelling partners would stop at farms and do whatever work needed to be done in exchange for food or a place to rest his head.  You might think this sounds a lot like wwoofing but Will assured us that he had no site guiding him nor any structured plan.  He wanted to travel by bicycle.  He wanted to get closer to the land and get a feeling for where his food comes from.  He didn't want to worry about where to go or where to sleep but instead let spontaneity and strangers' goodwill guide him.

It sounds like he had a great experience and I look forward to looking through his blog for more inspiration. Hopefully when they're back in town, The Cultural Recyclists can give a talk either on campus or at Appalachian Outdoors.