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Day One of our bicycle ride, Pittsburgh, Pa to Washington, DC is done and in the books!
What a great day! My sister-in-law Becki, dropped us off (me, Dan, and my brother Jim), right next to Point State Park. We made our way down to the Point, and to the official start (or end, depending on your perspective) of The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP).
Our trek started out at Point State Park where we took the obligatory photo at The Point.
We navigated our way through Point State Park, some sidewalks in Pittsburgh, and finally saw the signs for the Great Allegheny Passage.
Navigating the streets and sidewalks of Pittsburgh was not fun, especially due to construction work and lack of good signage.
But, soon we were crossing the Hot Metal Bridge and leaving the city behind. I quickly snapped the photo above of the Pittsburgh skyline. We waved goodbye to the city and continued on our way anxious to get going on our journey.
There were a some challenging hills around McKeesport, but after that it’s just a very gradual climb to the Eastern Continental Divide.
The above image is a view of what was McKeesport Hospital (from a flyover bridge) where my brother and I were born. I’m sure it’s called something else by now ; )
Todays mileage was just over 35 miles and as you can see on my GPS, we were pedaling for just over four hours (and I burned (1,508 calories ?)
We took our time, taking several short breaks to stretch, snack, and enjoy the scenery.
We left Pittsburgh at around 11 am and arrived in West Newton, our first night destination at 6pm. The weather was absolutely perfect – I hope we have 9 more days of the same!
Bright Morning B&B in West Newton was our home for the night.
Tomorrow we set out for Connellsville, Pa after one more stop here at the historic West Newton Cemetery where my parents are buried.
Oh my gosh! You rock!
hey-do you bike (and paddle) in flip flops? hehehehe
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Wow! What an accomplishment~you must be over the moon proud! I wish I could ride like that but my health prevents it. But my son is an avid cyclist so I live thru his crazy adventures! We live in Arkansas and there are some pretty good size mountains here and he rides to the top of the tallest one at least 3 times a month. I think the farthest he’s gone in a day is 150 miles (I’d be dead on the side of the road, lol).
He is a bike mechanic and was in Colorado in March for some training and he had always had on his bucket list to ride to the top of Pike’s Peak! He was determined to make it all the way to the summit and HE DID IT! He ages me and gives me a lot of gray hair, but I couldn’t be prouder!!
Congrats again!
Thank you so much! And yes, I am proud but I’m mostly grateful because I realize how blessed I am that I was able to accomplish this ride. There are beautiful sites in this country that can only be seen in the most remote areas and I’m lucky that I got to see a few of them! Congrats to your son for his accomplishments! And as a parent, I understand about the gray hair – no matter how old they get we still worry! Thanks for taking the time to comment!