I went to work with a fully packed bike, expecting to leave at lunch, but it was not to be. Some craziness at work kept me there until 2, but I did manage to sneak out for a quick lunch with my son.
Bike fully packed and ready to roll
After an uneventful ride over the Commodore Barry Bridge to PA I found my way to the old “Wooden WaWa” and turned north onto Creek Rd, following the same route I did in the NJ/DE/PA STN ride I did last summer. Creek Rd, and later Valley Creek Rd, is a narrow twisty little bit of 2-lane that is capped at the top by a funky long tunnel that reminds me very much of many of the tunnels (galleries) we encountered riding in the Alps last year.
Very unusual house off Creek Rd
Tunnel on Valley Creek Rd
After Creek Rd it was a run up 282 and March Creek State Park, then 82 to 23 and 897. After a brief stretch on 501 I turned on to 645, a terrific bit of twisty tarmac that JamminJere turned me on to during this spring’s Ride to the Rides. The rest of the day was spent on some wonderful curvy roads – 645, Gold Mine Rd, PA125, etc. A very nice way to start a biking road trip.
PA645 is a delight
I had hoped to stop at Knoebels for some Cesari’s pizza for dinner, but the park was going to close at 6 this early in the season. No way to make that in time, but I did stop for a quick picture as I rode by the park. It was still pretty hot (87 degrees at 7pm), but started cooling down a bit as I headed north on 487 to Ricketts Glen State Park to camp for the night. I’ve been there a couple times before with the family, and found it to be a very nice campground with lots of privacy. Arrived at 7:40 and rode around the campground, picked out a nice secluded site with no neighbors (#7) and returned to the closed visitor’s center to drop my $21 in the box for my site.
As close as I could get to Knoebels on this trip
In my past motorcycle camping trips I’ve used a big waterproof “dry” bag bungied to the rear seat to carry all my camping gear. During the past year I’ve acquired a much smaller sleeping pad and a smaller tent, so I managed to fit nearly everything in one side case. The tent poles and one small bag with the rainfly went into the topcase.
Most everything fit into one sidecase
Everything needed to go camping
Ground cloth, tent body and poles
Tent body clipped to poles
Rainfly attached and vestibule staked out
My new Marmot Limelight 2 tent could not have been easier to pitch – within 10 minutes of parking the bike I was completely set up for the night. Nice. Unrolled the rain fly to expose a lot of the ceiling mesh, and settled down to do some journal writing. Once darkness completely fell, I laid back and just stared out the mesh at the big dipper directly above me. I decided to sleep without the rain fly covering the tent, something my wife never lets us do. I was truly a wild man on this trip.
