Slow-motion Chaos: one week before departure.

In one week, we will be on the road. Not in Alaska, not quite, but we will start the four-day ride to Maryland. Right now though, the Philtron household is a bit of a mess. This past weekend we gave our first presentation about this trip, took a 60-mile ride with all our camping gear, and got rid of the majority of our furniture.

We had intended to do an overnight on Friday, riding a short 15-miles to a State forest campsite, and then a longer 45 mile loop to get home. When Friday finally arrived, however, we were toast from a long week of late nights and long hours of work both at school and at home. We decided to push the trip to Saturday, reversing the direction to enable a speedy return on Sunday (our presentation was scheduled for 11:30).

Picture perfect Pennslyvania

The ride away from State College was perfect: sunshine, low-traffic, and tailwind. We really got in the ‘zone’ and made quick work of the first 30 miles. Around 3 we stopped for a late lunch / early dinner in a small brewery in neighboring Millheim: Elk Creek Cafe. They are used to cyclists there, as it is a popular destination for day rides. Jason thoroughly enjoyed his burger. Millheim is a really cute, tiny little town with one stoplight and lots of old houses from the time when timber barons were the high-rollers of Pennsylvania.

Elk Creek Cafe

Once out of Millheim, the wind was straight in our faces, and it was very far from smooth sailing. I think at one point we had to be in our granny rings on flat ground, just to make progress against the wind. Despite this, we enjoyed the quiet roads that we had never ridden before. This part of Pennsylvani is truly a goldmine of quiet, interesting country roads. You never know when you’re about to find something amazing next to the road. On this trip, we found a barn being rebuilt, a yard taken over by daffodils, and a really really cute lab puppy. It was right about when we saw this puppy that we realized we were 15 miles from home, or 7 miles from camp. The wind was howling.

After a little bit of discussion, we decided that one more night on our mattress was worth the fight against the headwind.

An old barn getting fixed up

I know, we are supposed to be hardened adventurers who crave the sun, the wind, and the rough stones under the tent. We are supposed to pick the hilliest route and smile the whole way up. But… with the departure this close, and with all of our comfortable furniture finding new homes with friends… well, I can admit it: I will miss the comforts of our small apartment. The gas stove. The cast-iron pan. The mattress, the down pillows, and the internet. I will miss my 24″ computer monitors, my tennis shoes, and even my dingy little cubicle in the statistics department.

But… starting next week things will be so different. Unknown, but familiar and simple. I wonder what routines we will develop together, and I am so excited to meet new people along the road. Can you believe it? One more week!!

It all fits in the car?!

With only two weeks before departure, we have taken the next (really) big step: Storing everything we want to keep, but cannot take on our trip. Our plan is to store all of these items at Jason’s parents’ house in Maryland, mostly inside our subcompact car, parked inside the garage.

Everything we want to keep in a tiny car!

The garage before.

I was worried that we wouldn’t have room for everything. It turns out that when we boiled our belongings down to the bare essentials, minus outdoor gear and touring bikes, there is room to spare. I also suspect that when we get back in a year plus we will wonder why we thought all this stuff was worth keeping!

The garage after. Viola!

We kept our kitchen supplies and a few appliances, our down comforters, formal clothing like suits, lots of board games, some large speakers Jason built, my folding bicycle, musical instruments (guitar, oboe), memory boxes with old cards, letters, photos, and bicycle accessories for carrying cargo. The car insurance is cancelled as of today, and we put gas stabilizer in the tank for storage.

It’s really happening! Right now we are in Maryland, and when we return to State College we will sort what is left at the apartment into free, $1, $5, $10 piles, and have folks come take it away. Next weekend we will take another two-night cycling trip to prep our legs. Then we will depart State College in … two more weeks! Two more weeks!

Daisy making sure the comforter is fluffed properly for long term storage.

Also – we finally got our business cards designed! 250 of them are expected to arrive next week, to be handed out along the way. Take a peek:

Our cycling website “business” card. Go us!

Weekend Adventure: Trough Creek State Park – Part 2

Trough Creek State Park – we made it!

Wonderful, wonderful, camp chairs.

Daisy + Rainbow Falls + dude photobombing us so he can pick up a Sprite can from the stream and drink it.

The ride south to Trough Creek State park was gentle and pleasant. It was sunny! This meant we realized our third important forgotten item: Sunscreen. Yikes! By the time we rolled into camp at the State park it was only about 3 o’clock, but we were tired and a little red. The ranger gave us site 15, but when we arrived we saw a giant black truck in the spot and a host of little kids jumping around in the tent pad. No thank you! We chose a ‘walk in’ site a little bit away and set up camp. It was great to sit in our camp chairs and drink gatorade in the shade. What a relief!

Energized, we decided to go for a hike. Jason realized yet another forgotten item: non-bike pants. Luckily, Daisy’s shorts fit him (!), and she could go in just her Ruu-Muu. We hiked to Balanced Rock, one of the attractions of the park. It was a very large boulder perched precariously on the side of a cliff. We were underwhelmed by the rock, but took great amusement (and horror) from observing a young family with some crazy 9-year-old boys climbing all over the rock and the trees overhanging the cliff. The parents were oblivious, focusing only on each other. Jason and I skedaddled before being witness to a tragedy.

The “Ice Mine” + Jason sporting Daisy’s shorts

We hiked a bit more to see the ice mine, the parks other main attraction. In truth, the hike was more lovely than the mine, but the mine was neat too. It was essentially a very cold spot in the ground with icicles even in the 70 degree heat.

Daisy cooking dinner at our campsite in TCSP.

The next day we got a slow start… not leaving camp until around 10am! We would come to regret this as the day heated up and the sun got stronger. We started the day with a pleasant climb on gravel roads, and a descent into the neighboring valley. A tailwind pushed us for the next some miles until the next climb over another ridge, following by a roaring descent to the Juniata river.

The first descent of the day!

We stopped for lunch along the banks of a small stream. Jason commented as we set up ‘I bet there aren’t any trout in this little thing!’ Then we proceeded to see three huge trout swim past! They were each about 10 inches long. Wow!

Can you find the trout?

The rest of the day was a bit of a struggle-fest. We had a large amount of very very steep climbing to do in the hot sun. It was over 80 degrees! We despaired more than once, eventually trading quiet hilly country roads for a busier and more flat alternative. No matter, we were hyper visible and the cars were all quite respectful. We limped to our last stop before the final climb. Ice cream! Pulled pork sandwich! What lifesavers. It is so fantastic on bike tour to find these little restaurants (even in our own backyard, a mere 12 miles from our house!) that we have never tried before.

View of PA hills, from the top of one very steep hill!

We had to stop every half mile or so on the way over that final steep ridge, but make it we did. It was a great relief to coast down the other side and pedal lazily back in to town. Back at our apartment, we immediately laid flat on our backs on the living room floor, unable to do anything but drink some more water. Eventually, of course, we showered off the dirt and grime of an adventurous weekend. Now, we just need to keep lotioning the sunburn. We will hopefully never forget any of those essential items again!

Route back home to State College (day 3). It was full of climbing!

Day 3 elevation profile

Weekend Adventure: Trough Creek State Park – Part 1

We are all ready to go – and very visible!

What a fantastic weekend to get out riding! For the first time this year, we had sunshine and warm temperatures. In fact, Jason and I both agree that it got too hot on Sunday.

We both had pretty hectic weeks, but that didn’t stop us from throwing together food and camping supplies for a Friday evening departure. After work, around 5, we were ready to leave just as a bit of rain was letting up.

PA is beautiful, rain or shine.

Our path took us south from State College. The first 6 miles or so were on pavement en route to the State Forest system, then we were on traffic-free gravel roads through the forest. It was cool, and the riding was good. We were in high spirits… until we realized that the sun was setting and we had forgotten our headlamps! This was the first of a number of important items we left at the house. Because of the waning light, we made camp early at the Roebuck hunting cabin. Originally we chose this spot because we saw a nice ‘picnic table’… which turned out to be some sort of shooting seat with a rifle rack and a far-off bulls-eye. Ha! It did make an excellent picnic table for us that night.

Making dinner at the almost-picnic table

Campsite in Rothrock State Forest

Beans, rice, and veggies. Yum for us. We crawled into the tent just before a bit more rain started to fall. We were so tired from the week that we didn’t even bother reading the Kindles we had carried with us. Straight to sleep!

A typical oatmeal breakfast

Steaming pile o’ poo

The rain was gone by morning, leaving behind steaming fields and roads. As we rode out of the State Forest we heard a suspicious rubbing sound coming from Jason’s front wheel… Uh oh! Luckily it was only the mud and grit built up from the dirt roads and we could easily clean it out with a stick. It did mean that we found we were missing yet another essential item: our bicycle multitool! We had no real way to fix our bikes, or even change a flat tire. Silly us.

We made our way to Huntingdon, a little town about 30 miles south of State College. On our way in to town we found a tiny bicycle repair shop housed in a garage. We asked for some tire levers just in case we did get a flat, and the man there was so kind that he just gave them to us! Huntingdon is also home to a wonderful coffee roaster / sandwich shop / laundromat. The kind of combination touring cyclists can only dream about. We stopped for first lunch.