Pine Creek Trail With Friends

Every October a group of friends and I (who do not see each other nearly enough anymore) meet in Jersey Shore PA to ride the Pine Creek Rail Trail and to enjoy the foliage. Generally we meet at the Jersey Shore trailhead after work on Friday (which is at least 3 hours away from home for all of us) and ride a quick 7 miles in the dark to the Bonnell Flats campground and spend the night in a shelter there. Saturdays usually involve a stop at the Hotel Manor in Slate Run for lunch before spending the night in tents at the Tiadaghton Campground. The following Sunday is usually a hungover return trip to the cars at Jersey Shore. Last year Beau and I went up a night early on Thursday and rode to Tiadaghton from the northern trailhead (Butler Access Area) to stash a case of beer for when we got there on Saturday - that was a fun bonus. 

This year, however, the plan was a bit different...

because of columbus day Bob, the teacher who usually organizes the trip, added Monday to the itinerary. Great idea in theory as another day on the bike and night in the woods just means more fun. 

BUT.... I had to be home on Sunday for my son's first travel lacrosse tourney so I had a dilemma. 

SO.... what I decided to do was go up a day early, sneak in a solo gravel ride in the area, then meet everyone in Jersey Shore to camp on Friday, ride with the crew until lunch on Saturday and then drive home and sleep in my own bed before being out the door at 5am on Sunday for Lacrosse. 

Stay tuned for a photographic summary of my weekend below... 

I left home way too late on Thursday and did not get to Slate Run until about 3:30pm. I parked my car at the Slate Run Access Area (across the creek from the Hotel Manor). I left a cooler full of beer, soda and Gatorade in the car and headed north on the rail trail to Cedar Run.

Cedar Run is where the gravel fun began. After talking about it with Kliff at PEC, he offered to share a ~45 mile "lollipop" loop up the West Rim of the canyon that I could have knocked out in a day before returning to the trail to camp. I mentioned that I left home way too late on Thursday, right? 

Riding the lollipop loop. Counterclockwise had me riding North along the West Rim Trail after a 6 Mile/1400 ft climb. (on the opposite side of the canyon as the rail trail) 

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I realized early that I'd be camping on top of a mountain, which was no big deal since I had everything with me to do so. As it started getting close to sunset, I decided to pop into a hiking trail to a campsite Kliff pointed out that is on a vista above the canyon. It looked like the trail ran along a creek and since I needed water I rode in about halfway and stopped to listen for a water source before bumping into a hiker who told me that the campsite was already occupied. Boo! 

I assume the people camping there knew about the Northern Lights. I did not at that point. So I backed out to the gravel road in search of water and a different campsite

It was only a few miles to the next water source: I bagged another vista on the way there. I spent a few minutes at Little Slate run trying to figure out the best way to climb down from the road to the water access. There were two little streams there that crossed under the road but neither had super easy access to the water. The best water flow area was very hard to get to. I took the second best option and didn't really have any issues. It was the first one I saw. I probably just should have got water there in the first place. 

The reason I mentioned all that is because after I filled up on water, got back on the bike, and rode for maybe 400 yards there was a spring on the side of the road with a pot for getting water and it was really nicely set up. I didn't know about that though LOL. 

Another mile or so later I got to the next campground. In retrospect, it was not the best place to camp, but it was only about 15 minutes until sunset at that time so I took it and don't regret doing so.

I hustled to set up my tent and hang the line for my food bag (PCT style FTW). Then I quickly started making dinner and changing into warm clothes for the night. As I was heating the water for my Mountain House chicken & dumplings (my favorite!) I decided to pop out the phone to look at some pictures and check for data... which I had! That's when I found out that there were Northern lights at night. 

I quickly inspected the sky and realized that I had a pretty darn good view of them. That said, I didn't really get to enjoy them a whole lot because they did not last super long and I was preparing food and eating while they were around. I wound up finishing my meal and going to bed at about 9:00. It was great, I should go to bed at that time more often.

Sleeping alone on the top of a mountain led to a, umm, less than ideal sleep. Pretty sure I was awake more than I slept that night. Anyway, it was a little bit later by the time I woke up and it was 32° at the time so I decided that I should

stay in my nice warm 20° quilt for a little while longer. I retrieved my food bag, made breakfast and coffee in the tent, pooped in the woods, packed up my bike, and headed out to find more water. 

The gravel roads for the rest of the day were glorious. After a 3+ mile climb, I got to the Elk Run Visa and decided it was a good spot to enjoy a Naturday. The rest of the lollipop ride was pretty much downhill cruising awesomeness. Saw a few more vistas and smiled the entire time. When I got back to Cedar Run I celebrated with a chili cheese dog!

After a quick pit stop at my car to ditch my tent, pump up my tires, refill my water, and load up on beer. It was a fairly straightforward rail trail ride to Jersey Shore. Lots of gates, a few cool bridges, and a stop at the Bonnell Flats campground to stash anything heavy that was strapped to my bike at that point. 

I wound up riding a few miles into town and met Beau and Hanna at the Bald Birds brew pub for dinner and drinks. Bob and Eddie got stuck in traffic and after we waited for them longer than we should have, the three of us that were there headed back to the trail head; I got a ride with Hanna.

I sat and watched the other two guys load up their bikes and then we did a quick night ride to the campground. It was pretty cool - there was processed firewood set out at all three of the available shelters, we lucked out there. 

The other two did not show up until about 11:30 pm... and then two other people, one of which was built different, that Bunt and Bob ran into at the parking lot showed up shortly after them. They were strangers, but they decided to pitch their tent right outside of our shelter: that was odd as there were still two available shelters. 

I accidentally stayed up until almost 3:00 am reminiscing with Bunt about good times over somewhat warm beers and a raging fire.

Saturday was Chill, straightforward, rail trail day. Beau started the day with a flat. Beau always gets flats, it's a great running joke, but it's also totally serious. 

Ran into the Apple Butter Festival in Waterville. Grabbed a cup of soup there to eat (which I should not have tried to eat while riding), stopped at a spring along the road to refill water bottles. Then hit the Hotel Manor for lunch and beers. I loaded the rest of the guys up with cold beer from my car and they rode off to spend the night at Tiadaghton before I finished packing the car and drove home.

I recorded my rides separately in Strava, but I combined them in Ride with GPS to get an idea of my total stats: 107 miles and nearly 6k feet of elevation: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/230243365/Pine Creek+ 2024 

107.5 mi, +5906 ft.

POSTSCRIPT: 

Beau got home on Sunday at ~9pm. His ride back to Jersey Shore did not start until 12:30pm because of the rain and he actually wound up hanging out at the Manor to watch the Eagles game - the sun came out for him after that. Fun fact, while at the Manor, he ran into the Ironman we camped with Friday night.

Bunt, Hanna, and Bob made it home at ~7pm on Monday. They wound up not riding on Sunday because of all of the rain and extra beers they had to finish. They were able to get a fire going after the rain stopped… there certainly are worse places than Tiagdaghton to spend some extra time around a fire. 

Thanks for your incredible story Jay! Want to submit a story? Hit the button below.