Whew, that was a long, hard day. The Montour Trail is rife with detours and most are not marked — you actually have to have a detour sheet with you to even hope to get from one part to the next. Fortunately, I did have the sheet, but I still got lost multiple times, AND there was the one detour entry that said: "There is no official detour for this section because the average trail rider would find the roads too challenging." Boy, that one just pissed me off! (excuse the French), and left me hanging. Fortunately, after stumbling around through 35 cul de sacs looking for an out, I found a guy in the same predicament who was heading for DC, and he was getting directions from a couple who were familiar with the trail. We rode together for a while, but he was just starting his tour and only going 35 miles (or actually 55 as both he & I were to find out), and he was already pretty tuckered out with his 65lb load. (I'm carrying 85 with the bike, trailer and all contents).

McKeesport and the Steel City Trail continued the bad signage tradition of the Montour Trail with some signs literally pointing down dead ends. I arrived in McKeesport around 3 PM, just in time for the highest heat of the day. This is the trailhead of the Youghigheny Trail (YT), but again finding that and staying on it were real trials. Thanks to some real helpful local folks who I consulted every time the trail inexplicibly ended or forked, I finally got to the YT head towards Ohiopyle.

This trail was (and is) beautiful; a crushed limestone surface travelling through old-growth forests. The temps dropped about 10 degrees in the woods, and the shade was a welcome relief. I just couldn't make up those extra 20 miles though, and instead of staying in Ohiopyle at one of the many campgrounds, I stayed in the Melody Motel in Connellsville. I tried to bargain with the owner for a "special rate," but she claimed in was the best price in town. I reminded her, as the locals who directed me there told me, that it was the ONLY price in town. "Oh, no," she said, "you can go to Uniontown. It's twice as much there." I pointed out that I was on a bike and Uniontown wasn't an option, but after all this, the price was actually fair, and the bed felt really good after that hard day. That's a major difference between doing this trip being 50 and stupid. At 20 and stupid, I probably wouldn't have had the means to bag the camping and hit a motel. I do. I did. 😉