GP Day 42 — Topping it off!

100.6 miles, 4725 ft of climbing, Wellsboro to State College

Tour totals: 2,052.2 Miles, 73,765 ft of climbing.

I woke up to the smell of bacon in the house. Jennifer made a hot breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, a great way to start off my last day on this tour. I was packed up and left by 8:30 for the 9 hour journey home: a century to finish off my Gaspé Peninsula journey.

Gray and overcast at the start, I took the most direct route which meant sharing RT 287 south with a plethora of dump trucks and tankers — the parade of the frackers. Lots of climbing vs. the rail trail, but I managed the biggest hill from bottom to top to bottom again in an hour — 50 minutes climbing up 6 1/2 miles from Morris/Hoytville and 10 minutes descending 4 1/2 miles to English Center. Of course, the sun came out on the climb, because it works that way! Fortunately, the morning was cool enough to make the climb, shall I say, somewhat enjoyable. The descent definitely was a thrill.

I was only on the Pine Creek Rail Trail from Waterville to the West Side Road about 6.5 miles and that was enough for me. I love rail trails, but give me a paved road and hills to climb and descents to enjoy vs. hours of the constant work that is carrying a load on crushed limestone. One of my favorite parts of this ride is River Road between Avis and Lock Haven and it didn’t disappoint. The best part was yet to come as Dana had ridden out from State College to meet me. A short and harried (impatient and risk-taking drivers) detour around a bridge closure on RT 150 and we met around mile 60 for me and 42 for her.

We rode back to State College through Mackeyville, Lamar, Hublersburg and Irish Hollow and the big question was where to have the celebratory beer. Boal City, Voodoo, Happy Valley? I was determined to turn my 96 mile route into a full century. A slight detour from RT 64/26 to Irish Hollow and Robinson Rd added most of the 4 miles, and the short detour to Voodoo got most of the rest. We ran into Ned, Jim, David and Brian there and had a mini-old-tour-group reunion, too. Dana took the short cut through Thompsons’ Woods to pick up stuff at her house, and I went back to Branch Rd. A quick zip up to the Giant in Hills Plaza assured that I had the century in the bag! Home was a welcome sight to see and Dana and I had dinner and I crashed hard into my own bed after being gone 6 weeks. 6 weeks that were fun and challenging, but it’s nice to be back. ZZZzzzz.