Hokey Smokes, has it really been ten years?!
Ten years ago I was twenty-two, fresh out of school and lived right on an unfinished part of the Montour Trail. While in college I discovered the ATA when trying to find out more about the Western Maryland Railway. I then became determined to ride from Pittsburgh to Cumberland. After graduation I got an apartment in Library, PA (South Park). Right next to the entrance to my apartment complex was an old railroad bridge with Montour RR painted on it. I looked up the Montour Trail and discovered that it connected to the Great Allegheny Passage in Clairton. I made plans to ride starting at my apartment and ending in Cumberland.
On July 21, 2003 at six in the morning I ventured out of my apartment and overloaded my bicycle (and my back) and started on a journey that I would repeat nearly every three years. CLICK HERE to read about that first adventure. The trail wasn’t done and there were plenty of mishaps and on the road detours, but man I sure had fun.
Now ten years later, the trail is done and I have ridden every single mile of it. (I am still working on editing together all the photos from that trip and hope to have the journal up soon) I look forward to all the biking and hiking, that that trip in July of ’03 started, that still lies ahead of me in the next ten years.
Thanks for reading my journal.