Coudersport, Pennsylvania

Woke up pretty tired today, so I had been intending to take it easy and go straight to the next town. However, Hannah Wagley and Julie Padilla both convinced me that taking the extra miles to see the “Pennsylvania Grand Canyon” was a good idea.

We had some trouble finding the beginning of the trail, but once we did it was pretty nice. We were on a packed fine gravel road, fairly easy to ride on, which ran alongside a stream in the middle of a green valley. We stopped at a mountain waterfall: very steep, shorn rocks with clear water flowing over and into small pools toward the stream.

We reached lunch next to a Deer Park and “gem collecting,” which was basically a stream of silty water that ran down a track of wood that kids could fish semi precious stones out of.

We tried a little pacelining on our way to lunch because we were all a bit hungry. It worked out pretty well. We took long pulls, and everyone was able to cycle through the pulls pretty efficiently.

At that point, I bonked, I think, meaning I felt really sleepy as a result of not eating enough food (oops. I should know better, I know). I felt better after force feeding myself some Clif shot Bloks (Cola flavored, NOT margarita with salt …), in addition to a bagel and pasta salad, and we went on our way.

It rained again, (ella ella eh eh eh) but it was gentle and not as intimidatingly dark as it was two days ago. There was a long gradual climb that led to the summit of Denton (sp?) Hill of 2424ft apparently, after which we rode down a sweet downhill. I must have hit a second wind of some sort, because I felt great by this point. There were long tendrils of clouds snaking through the mountains, reminding me of what I would see through the taxi cab window when arriving in Seoul, Korea on a rainy day.

And then we arrived in Coudersport, Pennsylvania!