50 Miles on the Pine Creek Rail Trail

Venturing Crew 190 went on an even bigger adventure on the weekend before Thanksgiving. The plan was to bike more than 50 miles from just outside of Wellsboro, PA to Jersey Shore, PA in two days. Could we do it?

We started travel on Saturday morning and made it halfway to outside of Williamsport to charge up and eat lunch. Then we continued up Rt. 15 and headed through the mountains to Astonia, PA to the Darling Run Access Point on the Pine Creek Rail Trail or PCRT. This rail trail extends from just outside of Wellsboro and follows the original train tracks alongside Big Pine Creek to Jersey Shore where it meets the Susquehanna River.

The three riders began at about 11:30 AM and started heading south. The weather was not as favorable as we had hoped as it was overcast and cold. We tracked the group through the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania and calculated their speed. The rail trail and creek work their way through a canyon and some wilderness locations in the first stretch so the next stop would be nearly 16 miles downstream in the town of Blackwell.

When they arrived in Blackwell, we found that they had an issue with one of the bikes that was slowing the team. They made the decision to switch bikes to even out their speed to about 7.5 miles per hour. They still had time to make it to our final rendevous of the day in Slate Run, PA. Because of the lack of phone reception, we missed each other at Wolfe's General Store and they went directly to the camp site at Tomb Flats.

We had a great dinner of burgers and chili cooked over the fire followed by stories around the campfire as the temperature dipped below freezing. The riders tent camped while the leaders slept in the truck! The next morning everything was covered in frost!

The team had about another 26 miles to go the following morning but the previous day's ride definitely became apparent. Biking 50 miles is no joke! We packed up camp and they headed down towards Waterville, PA as we tracked them through the town of Cammal, PA.

They arrived in Waterville around noon with the plan to eat lunch at the Waterville Hotel but it was soon determined that 42 miles being it was 37º most of the ride. So we packed it up and enjoyed the adventure for what it was with the hope to do some more things in the Pine Creek Valley in the future.