Impressive.  The Stavich Bike Trail is back.

With wife and little man off visiting relatives prior to Thanksgiving, I decided to give this unsung trail another shot.  I tried going down in May after being really sick and only got about five miles in when I ran into a construction crew repaving.  But, good news, because this trail needed some serious TLC.  It used to have pot sinkholes that would swallow a wheel and definitely dismount you if you had the misfortune of aiming for one.

I searched the web over the summer and had trouble even locating contact information to find out if construction was complete, which made me nervous that maybe they never finished.  Stavich doesn’t seem to have the local community backing that many other trails do, maybe I’m wrong?  (Please if someone is reading this who knows more, correct me in a comment!)  So I took a chance today, since a ride this late in the season is really bonus time anyway.

PA side is completely repaved.  Gorgeous job too.  What a difference.  I am definitely adding Stavich back into my rotation of trails.  It’s on an old inter-urban trolley line that used to run from Youngstown to New Castle, so it’s neat in three ways.  One, the trolley apparently didn’t need the flat grade of a mainline rail, so there’s a few semi-serious grades for a rail trail.  The new pavement makes those grades a LOT more tolerable.  Two, you ride within about two car lengths at times next to an active rail line.  I’ve never ridden Stavich without seeing a train.  Today I saw three, one that had to have 50 cars on it.  Really neat.  Three, which I’ve already made mention of, it crosses the OH/PA border, which is a neat twist.

There’s a little town right on the trail (Lowellville) with a restaurant and convenience store.  In fact, if you’re coming into Lowellville, you might think the trail is done, because it empties out onto Liberty St.  It’s not done.  Ride on Liberty for a fair bit - you will see the trail continue at the end of the street.  There’s hardly any traffic in Lowellville, but it has plenty of picnic tables, so if you want to plan for that, it’s a great place for lunch!

Today was a good freebie ride.  It’s gotta be the last of the season, indian summer can’t hold on for much longer.  I like the late fall rides because without the leaves, the trees reveal a landscape rich in features you wouldn’t normally see.  I followed the Mahoning River (the Mighty Mahoning as my 12th Grade English teacher wrote in a poem) along most of the route today.  During the summer, you don’t see it too well.

And as always, sorry for the infrequent posts.  This is really an RSS kind of a blog rather than something you should visit on a regular basis expecting updates.

I had a conference in Harrisburg last week, so I took the opportunity to look on trail link for a good trail, and boy did I find one.

There is a single continuous crushed stone trail running roughly 45 miles from York PA down to Hunt Valley MD on the northern outskirts of Baltimore, the Heritage Rail Trail and the Torrey Brown (North Central) Trail.  I drove down on Saturday night and stayed at a Holiday Inn in York that I found on Priceline and got up early Sunday to ride the trails.  Unfortunately, I had to drive all around York looking for a Dunkin’ Donuts, since I was down south and had no hope of having Tim Hortons.  Oh, well… When in Rome?

I drove to the trailhead in Railroad, PA, figuring I’d ride the 43 miles south to Baltimore on the North Central and back and if I had anything left when I got back, I’d press north towards York.  I didn’t figure on doing the whole trail because I had to be back in Harrisburg by 3-ish.  Railroad is a good spot to go from, there is a little B&B right next to the trail, practically on it.  There are a lot of food options in the Shrewsbury/New Freedom area, from chain to local fare.

The trail is a little rough in spots north of the PA/MD border from some erosion problems.  Also, you are riding along side a real railroad track.  I read in some places it was active, but I seriously doubt that.  The track abruptly ends at the border, which is also I think the high elevation point of the trail.  Keep this in mind, because there is a slight but noticeable slope from the border to about ten miles in on the Maryland side.  The way down I thought to myself that it was going to be a hard road back, and it really was.  By the time I got back, I was beat and looked forward to riding back through York to find something to eat.

The crushed stone reminded me that I really need a fender - I had stone/slug/mud gunk all up my back and seat.  But the MD side of the trail was in pretty good shape and a really pleasant ride once the morning dew dried up.  It got a little busy south of the Monckton trail head as I got into metro Baltimore, but not unpleasantly so.

I don’t know if I would drive five hours just to ride this trail, or it’s sister trail that I never finished to York, but if I’m back for business next year, I may very well give the rest of it a go.

I think it goes back to when I was twelve or so, and we drove through Ontario.  On our way north on the QEW, I watched the hillside in the distance - the Niagara Escarpment.  It’s one of the neatest topographical features I’ve seen, stretching across southern Ontario, just pretty much one long steep hill rock formation.  At its base lies Hamilton, so driving into the city from the south over the escarpment is very neat.  You’re eye level with the tallest buildings and then you work your way down to lake level and into the city.  Hamilton reminds me a lot of Pittsburgh, both in character, topography and the apparently drunken city planners who laid out streets while under the influence. (Well, Hamilton isn’t that bad, but get over to Dundas area and you can get lost easily!)

So biking the escarpment is a nice diversion from my usual flat trails. There are three good trails I’ve done that climb it in different spots, the Niagara River trail, Welland Canal trail and the Hamilton-Brantford Trail. Since I’ve done the first two more recently, last night I made my annual pilgrimage to Canada, stayed overnight just outside Hamilton in order to bike the Hamilton-Brantford Trail this morning.  The trail is roughly 40 miles from Hamilton to Brantford and back. Because I haven’t found a Canadian counterpart to the unparalleled Traillink, I’ve mapped the trail out pretty accurately below on Google Maps, while it was fresh in my mind.

The trail itself is mostly crushed limestone, although it does contract to muddy dirt tracks in a couple of spots. The trail was in pretty good shape today though, so I can not complain about the conditions. Starting at the Ewen Rd. access point, which was a little tricky for me to find, the first seven miles or so are up, up, up the escarpment. I had to stay on a middle/low gear for most of it, and it took me a good hour to climb, but it was never hard enough that one would consider getting off and walking your bike up. Once you climb the escarpment, there are a lot of good straightaways through the rolling farmland of Brant. Not much in the way of amenities that I could see, not even vending. There’s a tricky bit when it goes underneath the 403 - brake with care and watch for bikers coming the other way. Also, the wooden bridge a little under a mile later is very rough!

The trail itself ends in Brantford, but it connects up with the Gordon Glaves trail, which in turn connects up to the S.C. Johnson trail and Cambridge-Paris trail, allowing you to pretty much bike on dedicated path from Hamilton to Cambridge. I’ve done nearly all the sections, so I might review a couple more upcoming posts. The short review is the Hamilton-Brantford section and Cambridge-Paris sections are the best, the middle is not as pretty and in some spots downright hard to manuever. The S.C. Johnson trail also broke my bike last year, on the ill-fated trip that also almost did in my car, so I’m a little biased against it. (It also reminds me of Windex…)

Anyway, as far as diversions for me for my overnight stay, I was pretty lame and ate at Boston Pizza (yuck), Timmies (of course), and Harvey’s (weak poutine is still better than no poutine.) Timmies was a unique experience as I went to one that was immediately to the right of, well, another Tim Hortons in a gas station. There were literally two marked lanes in the parking lot for drive-thru, one that went to the left (gas station), the other to the right (real Timmies). Also, there is an Ikea in Burlington, so I stopped and got gifties for wife and young’un.

We had perfect weather today, so I took a nice 31 mile ride on my favorite trail hands down, AVTA’s Allegheny River Trail.  I know, I know… I sung the praises of the Sandy Creek Trail in an earlier post, and that is the best, mile-for-mile trail I’ve ever been on, the Allegheny trail is long, has plenty of access points and is just a great flat, smooth, all-out rockin’ trail.  It only really gets busy in and around Franklin, which is the primary trail head.  It follows the Allegheny River pretty much its entire length, which can get a little monotonous, but the valley is really gorgeous, so really, I take that back.

The trail goes much longer.  If you start with the connecting Justus Trail in Oil City, it’s 37 miles of consistent paved trail along the river.  It has the unparalleled Kennerdell Tunnel in the southern portion, which is 3/4 mile long and has a bend.  (Key here - you can not see the end of the tunnel until you make a turn, extremely disconcerting, and downright dangerous without some kind of artificial light.  I’ve escorted unprepared bikers through it.  Bring. A. Light.)

The easiest trailheads to get to are Franklin, Emlenton, and Oil City.  Belmar is a nice one to get to, because it’s an excuse to go across the Belmar Bridge on the Sandy Creek Trail.  The southern/middle sections are a little more isolated to get to by car.  There used to be a portage section due to some property acquisition problems, that was a little difficult to traverse, but they have paved around that now, so you can get from beginning to end without a problem.  I haven’t attempted to go south to Foxburg before, I’ve only gone down to Emlenton.  I’m not entirely clear if the trail picks up again after you go through Emlenton.  Maps I’ve seen still have you riding along a state route to Foxburg.  (Foxburg Inn is a nice place to stay and/or eat if you’re driving into the area!)

First - The biking story:

It was a beautiful day today, and I got a chance to get home early.  Wife was in a good mood and she’s gotten the chance to get out and about quite a bit recently, so she told me to go biking before dinner, so I headed down to Goddard State Park, which is one of my least favorite rides, but some of my favorite scenery.  Moreover, it’s a short, twelve mile loop, so it’s one I could get in before dinner.

Yes, Traillink says it’s 23 miles, but that counts the side paths and whatnot.  It’s twelve miles of very well-maintained state park trail, asphalt the whole way.  The reason I don’t like it so much is that it’s a LOT of short up and down hills.  Your wrist will get tired changing gear, because it’s almost constant.  There’s only one hill that I can’t make it up without getting off the bike, but a few that really push me too.

The scenery is beautiful though.  The trail circles Lake Wilhelm, a man-made lake with lots of picnic, fishing and boating opportunities.  And, it’s a loop, which is refreshing.  Most of the trails I take, I have to double back and repeat the scenery all over again.

So, now the “threat” part:

We recently went to the midwest and tried to enter an Indiana state park, just to have a picnic lunch, and they wanted seven bucks!  We couldn’t believe it.  Pennsylvania has such fine state parks and they’re mostly, if not all, free.  However, the Erie Times-News reported today that the state of Pennsylvania was considering closing half its state parks, including Goddard and even more alarmingly, Oil Creek State Park, including the famous Drake Well.

After reading a lot of the politicking behind the scenes, this looks like a war between DCNR/DEP and Senator Mary Jo White from Oil City, PA over funding issues….  There are a bunch of very nervous sounding press releases on her website, as it looks like she’s trying to weasel and worm her way out of looking like the bad guy on cutting DCNR/DEP funding.  I wouldn’t be surprised if DCNR specifically singled out Oil Creek since it’s in her district.  Hopefully the politicians will get down to business and make the decisions that make the most sense for Pennsylvania.

USA Today had an interesting article today about Google taking its street view off-road and recording bike trails.  I’m not a huge fan of street view for privacy reasons, but I’ve been known to scout out a hotel on street view just to get a sense of the neighborhood, particularly industry or railroad tracks nearby.  This could be very exciting if they can really apply this technology to scout out what kind of conditions will meet you at the trailhead!

Well, sorry for not posting on my new site - I had to work the weekend after my last post, then I went hiking with the family, which I’ll post about soon, then we visited family out-of-town.  I got really sick on the way back and really lost a week there.  I managed to get out last week to one of my favorite trails (another future post), but felt miserable afterwards… lingering illness I think, didn’t have the stamina.

But this week was perfect weather.  Wife and dog went out Saturday to Hickory Creek Wilderness Trail, so I stayed home with the little one and did house stuff.  However, part of the deal was I got my pick of trail destinations today.

I lived in the Butler area during seven of my formative years, so I was happy to see they’ve got a rail-trail movement going with the Butler-Freeport Community Trail.  There apparently were some real property battles as part of getting this trail together, but I’d heard that they’d all been resolved and the trail was good to go.  And it was!

Right now, it’s about 16 miles from just east of Butler down to the Allegheny River at Freeport.  Key word being down.  Elevation drop of about 550 feet.  After the first five miles, I felt like the fastest cyclist in the world and breezed through the remaining eleven miles, knowing that it was going to be a hard road back.  And it was, but it wasn’t too hard not to be enjoyable.  It wasn’t like I could coast down, and I never thought about getting off and walking at any point coming back.

The surface is crushed stone, except the two closest miles to Butler which is mostly dirt, and about four miles close to Freeport that is mostly paved.  I’m not a big fan of crushed stone, but the trail was pretty even and smooth, the stone was pretty pulverized, so it really wasn’t that bad.

You go through Pennsylvania farm country, and then some really beautiful creek valleys.  One stretch passes right next to a turkey farm, with unfortunate signs warning passers to not throw anything at the turkeys…  Huh?  You go under a GIANT overpass - Route 28 I think - I’ll bet it’s one of those bridges that you just drive over every day and have no idea how high up you actually are.  Definitely gave me a touch of vertigo looking up at it…

There are a number of two-lane road crossings, but nothing too crazy.  Port-a-pottys, benches, and even occasional vending machines are never too far away.  There are lots of places to pick up the trail too, so if you want to start half way to break up the steady incline/descent, you should have no problem with that.

So, after some trepidation on not having been out for a while, my trip turned out to be pretty uneventful - I think I’m back in the saddle again.  I was pleased that there was a little ice-cream/hot dog stand in Herman where I grabbed a quick bite to eat and watched some biker (motorcycle) drama, when someone’s broke down apparently.  Motors on bikes… what will they think of next!

I always hate the “fun size” candy bars.  What is so fun about being done with your candy bar after one bite?

Well, Ernst Trail just west of Meadville may be fun-sized (only five miles), but it’s far more satisfying.  (See my earlier post about possible expansion!)  It’s probably the closest trail to our house, so I use it as my ultimate fallback trail.  And yesterday, I only had a little bit of time, so rather than not ride at all, off to Ernst I went…

Ernst is pretty cool.  In your five miles, you get a covered bridge, creekside shade, open meadows, forest, streams, an underpass under I-79 and a stretch near a rarely active rail line.  (Note my phone picture with visual proof it is active, although I’ve only seen a train once out of maybe fifty times I’ve ridden this trail - and this train was just puttering along.  If you want to see and feel a real train fly by - Stavich is a much better bet.  I’ll review that later…)

You get a lot of walkers on this trail without any real stretches of heads-down biking, because of how evenly spread out the three trailheads are.  But everyone’s typically really polite and there’s rarely enough foot traffic to really be a problem.

Right off the Meadville trailhead is a franchise of Five Guys burgers, so if you want to rollback all the good you did exercise-wise, I highly recommend a little burger and fries.  (Order the “little”, unless you want to put yourself back even further!)

We’re headed off to a wedding about ninety minutes south of here, so I doubt I’ll be able to get a ride in this weekend.  But, since I’m a week behind in posting (last week’s post was about the previous week…  got it?), I’ll post about last weekend’s ride.

Oil Creek State Park is just a stone’s throw away from the south end of Titusville, PA and is a really gem of a spot.  Of course it has a very solid bike trail, a good twenty mile ride (10 and 10).  I always see the park as a trail of last resort, though.  I don’t know why.  It’s a scenic trail that follows the creek all the way down to Petroleum Center.  There are some slight inclines and descents, enough to make it what I consider the perfect two hour gentle workout.  There’s a lot of oil history surrounding the trail, which I grew up around and have a strong fascination about.  What is my problem?

Well, I think it’s because I go there TOO often.  And the reason for that is that it’s our go-to spot for family trips.  Threaded throughout the park is the Gerard Hiking Trail, which my wife has fallen in love with.  I’d tell you more about it, but that would make this blog about hiking trails, which I am really a rookie on, so you’ll have to do your own research on the trail.  I’m told that it’s really superb though.  In addition, Oil Creek is a great gentle stretch of kayaking and fishing.  So with the triple threat of wheels, water, and walking - we’ve made the park our outdoor home.  It’s less exotic as a result.  (Does that make the trails into Ashtabula Ohio or Stavich over at New Castle exotic?  Yeep.)

Well, anyway, being part of a state park, the trail is really well maintained.  There are restrooms, picnic areas, ample parking.  The entire trail is paved and never so crowded that you’d get annoyed.  I like to start in the middle at Miller’s Bridge, which is tricky to get to.  Wife ends up ending her hike there most times, which makes it the best place for me to park.

If you’re not from the area, two attractions that are well worth stopping at are Drake’s Well and Pithole.  Drake’s Well is the mainstream attraction, with the requisite state park intro film, museum with various artifacts, and of course, the well itself.  Pithole is where to go if you’ve been on the trail and read the markers, then gone to the museum and found yourself even more intrigued by the local history.  It was the boomtown that disappeared - all that’s left are foundations and mowed paths through the grass where the streets were - and a neat little museum with a model of what the town used to look like.  It’s one of my favorite historical attractions, really because it’s not an attraction at all, but an empty field in which you can think about that history.

The Meadville paper has an article about possible Ernst Trail expansion.  Ernst is a short (five mile) trail, but it has a lot going for it in my opinion.  Extending it would be nice, and it’s good to see where they’re going to link up.  It’s in a section between the Western Reserve Greenway and AVTA that if things all get linked up, would allow non-road bike travel from Lake Erie to Washington D.C.  That.  Would.  Rock.