The group plan was to meet at Point State Park for orientation and bike outfitting. It was a little messy because of numerous construction projects in the area, but everyone found the spot eventually. Beverly and I rode from our hotels on a beautiful morning; Nancy took a Lyft because she was renting a bike from Climate Ride.
We had been told to go down to the point, the official start of the GAP Trail, for a group photo, but not everyone got the memo, so the start was a little incoherent. A group of about five of us wound up rolling together on the paths we’d scouted yesterday.
The weather was great and there were lots of people out in both directions. We had fun chatting with the leader of the Women Ride tour which was also just starting out in our direction.
The first 30km of GAP is on paved paths and roads; we would have our first water stop just at the start of the gravel which would accompany us for the rest of our trip.
When we got onto the gravel, it was quite smooth and pleasant riding along the Youghioghenry River.
We had lunch at West Newton, Climate Ride style. To keep costs down and preserve resources, Climate Ride does most of the food prep for the group, and they’re pretty good at it. We had lunch with sandwiches and quinoa salad. There was also a Hawaiian shave ice stand, which seemed like a requirement on a warm bike touring day.
After lunch, I was stopping to take pictures, leapfrogging other riders. At the 99 mile mark, I had a mechanical mishap; restarting from shooting riders going by, something got jammed in my chain, and bent my middle chainring. Fortunately I have two more.
Despite the mechanical, I caught up with Nancy and rode together for a bit. The last water stop was just 10km from the end, so when Beverly made it we just rolled ahead to our hotel in Collinsville.
The hotel was on the river, and I was still warm, so I went down to put my feet in and splash my face. There wasn’t really a place to swim but the water felt good.
Dinner was tacos in the park, where had good conversations and shared our go-to Mexican orders.
After dinner we went to the bar next door with the party crew of Amy, Greg, Ryan, and later Cale. Had a drink or two but went back to our room fairly early. The next day was an early riser for those of us wanting to take the side trip to Fallingwater.