On the road by 8, with the weather looking beautiful. One of the sacrifices I had to make for packing all the camping gear in the hard bags was leaving my raingear and heated jacket at home. My Olympia Phantom suit that I was wearing is kind of waterproof, as long as the rain doesn’t get too intense. I was only mildly concerned about needing the heated jacket in the mornings in the mountains, but I figure I can tough that one out (after all I did sleep without a rainfly last night).
Looking at my home for the day from my home for the night
Had a great view of the stars last night
Plenty of room to stretch out
My campsite
Saw this guy roadside on my way out of the park
Biggest turtle I've seen outside of a zoo
487 north of Ricketts Glen State Park is about as desolate as I’ve seen in PA. Completely straight for miles, surrounded by forest on both sides, with only some mild ups and downs to alleviate the tedium. My only goal today was to work my way west, as I hoped to visit a couple small amusement parks in NW PA. After a long look at the map, I couldn’t find a better way to go than to repeat a lot of the route we took to get to the Burger Run this year (have I worked in enough references to previous trips yet?).
487 was pretty deserted
Took 87 through Forksville, then 973 to 44. 87 was not too bad, a nice “cruiser” road. Scenic, gentle sweepers, and mostly decent pavement. 973 starts out as a typical PA back road, meandering past farms, little league fields and volunteer fire departments, but gets narrower and twistier as you go west.
87 from Forksville has a nice run through Loyalsock State Forest
Typical scene on the eastern part of 973
Picked up 44 around Watson township and took that to the turnoff for Hyner Mountain Rd. 44 could definitely use some better pavement around Haneyville, but at least there IS some. After the intersection with Hyner Mountain Rd it's currently all torn up and covered in gravel.
44 would be no fun from here west
Which leads me to my most intereting moment of the trip so far. Just as I was approaching the turnoff for Hyner Mountain Rd, the dump truck I was following kicked up a billiard ball-sized rock which I proceeded to hit with my front tire. Big impact, took the front tire off-line for a moment, heard it bounce off the bottom of the bike, wished I hadn't hit it. Especially once I turned off 44 and the bike died.
Hmm.
Put bike back in neutral, hit the started, bike starts right up. Cool. Click down into 1st, bike dies. Not cool. Tried it again, same result.
Got off and took a good look under the bike, I could see where the rock hit the bottom of the motor. Looked scuffed, but nothing serious.
Broken down at 44 & Hyner Mountain Rd
Scuff from the rock impact
Then I remembered something that happened about 4 years ago.
When I was shopping for this bike, I tried to demo one at my local Ducati dealer. He rolled the bike out, I suited up, started it up, and as soon as I clicked it into gear it died. Not having ridden in many years, I was convinced I was forgetting something about how this works. Clutch in, neutral, start it up, good, click into gear, dead bike. Did this a few times until the salesman, who by this point was probably convinced I had never ridden a bike before, came over to show me how it's done. Same result for him. He wheeled it back to service and I demo'd a Monster 620 instead. Turns out one of the mechanics had ridden it off the curb and broke the sidestand cut-out switch, making the bike think the sidestand was always down. Hence the killing of the engine once you put it in gear. I took a closer look at my switch and cable, and sure enough the cable leading to the switch looks like it took a big hit from the rock. What to do?
I had my toolkit with me, and enough cell coverage to get to Google. After a few minutes of searching (and watching cars and trucks pass by with nary a glance) I learned that if I could bypass the switch I'd be OK. I just needed a wire short the connecter. I considered cutting some wire from a taillight lead, or maybe from one the chargers I had with me for the cameras, but then I rememberd my beaded seat cover.
Not only has it saved my ass in a very literal sense over the miles, it was now going to save my ass as a repair tool. When I first cut down the WalMart seat cover, I was concerned that the nylon wire might eventually break, sending beads scattering down the road. To combat this I ran some green florist wire trhough the outer-most beads to keep the tension under control.
I cut off a small section of florist wire, doubled it, and used it to bridge the outer 2 connections in the switch connecter. Bike started up, and did not die when putting it in gear - wahoo!. Added a zip tie to hold the florist wire in and I was on my way. Total downtime about 30 minutes. Now I just had to remember not to ride off with the sidestand down.
My florist-wire-and-zip-tie roadside repair
Skipped going up to Hyner View, been there done that, and the light wouldn't be dramatic anyway for a different photo from what I have several of. Took 120 west to Driftwood, a section of road I really enjoy. Nice and remote as it runs along the river, with gentle bends and very little traffic. Gassed up in Driftwood and then continued on 120 north to Emporium, and that section of 120 is nothing too special. Picked up 46 up to Smetheport, and that was also nothing interesting. I thought I was redoing a portion of the Burger Run group ride I did up to Kinzua Bridge, but apparantly my memory failed me.
After a long break for gas and drinks, I picked up 6 and continued west. Looking at the map earlier in the day, I had seen a chance to incorporate PA 666 into my travels, which certainly sounded interesting and looked crooked on the map. Not only that, but I could get to 666 by way of 6 and 66. How could I pass that up?
PA 666 has brief moments of greatness in the beginning when you come in from the east. It's first mile or so has really crappy pavement, but then it smoothed out and started to look like NY 30 up by the Pepactin reservoir, but that ends in just a couple minutes. As 666 rolls west through the Alleghany National Forest it gets smaller, twistier and bumpier - not a bad road, but not really a fun road either.
PA 666 gets pretty tight on its western end
62 north to Youngsville was fast and empty, a nice change from the cautiousness that 666 demanded. My goal for the night was to end up near Waldameer Park in Erie, or Conneaut Lake Park in, you guessed it, Conneaut Lake PA. It looked like I was leaving the area of interesting roads, so I plotted a pretty straightforward route to the NW corner of the state (but not on the interstate, I didn't want to see one of those for many days). 27 took me to "Old 77", which took me straight to Meadville. And when I say straight, I mean straight. 77 from around Riceville to Meadville has nary a single curve. Bor-ring.
Grabbed a quick bite at Arby's in Meadville before heading to Pymatuning State Park to find a campsite for the night. Turned out finding the campground in Pymatuning was tricky enough - I probably wasted 20 or 30 minutes rolling through that park. Ended up on the north side at the Linesville campsites, and quickly set everything up (15 minutes from kickstand down to leaving again) before heading over to Conneat Lake Park to see what was still there.
Linesville, PA
Site 156 for the night
Conneaut Lake Park used to be a thriving small-town amusement park, but it has fallen on hard times for the last 15 years or so. It didn't open for several years as different owners struggled with finances and tax bills, but it was open this year - even if the signature attraction, the fabulous Blue Streak roller coaster, wasn't.
While the park was indeed open, it was pretty much deserted. There were perhaps 25 people in the park, and from what I could tell most of them seemed to know all the ride operators and concession stand owners, so maybe they were all related. Half the park has nothing at all in it anymore, just closed stalls and empty concrete pads where rides used to stand. The front half of the park had maybe 10 rides still in operation (not counting the kiddieland with maybe 5 more), and some portable food trucks like you see at carnivals. For a park that was one of my favorites in it's heyday it was quite sad to see.
Pulling up to Conneaut Lake Park
The Toboggan, a ride I have fond memories of from Adventureland on LI
The deserted "back end" of the park
Hard times
I bought some ride tickets and took a spin on the Tumble Bug - a rare classic ride, of which only 3 still exist. Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England has one, as does Kennywood park in Pittsburgh. I also took a quick ride on the train to get closer to sections of the Blue Streak.
It was encouraging that restoration work was going on at the Blue Streak. Perhaps if that reopens it will bring more people to the park. In its current state it was just pitiful looking. Signage missing, trains sitting neglected, piles of lumber laying in the infield, etc.
Blue Streak station
Hopefully this wonderful Ed Vettel train will run again soon
The lift hill of the Blue Streak
2nd hill on the Blue Streak
The Tumble Bug
Yes, the place was packed
At around 9:45 they called it a night and turned off all the rides. The place already was very "Scooby Doo and the Haunted Carnival" - it didn't need any more help.
Got back to the campsite just as the rain was starting to fall. Some sites near me had filled up while I was gone, including a new neighbor who was blasting music from his pickup until 11.
613 miles for the first 2 days
