Tonight’s weather forecast is for snow! It’s not unknown at this time of year, but we hope that it delays until a bit later, when we are gone! Yesterday, we took an Uber 85 miles from Pittsburg to Meyersdale to meet up with John and Terri, who reported a day of varying weather comprising cold, rain, sleet, and hail. No locusts or dust storms, but seemed kind of unpleasant! By the time we met them at the lovely Levi Deal Mansion for the night, they had cycled 120 miles over two days in the chill while we recuperated in bed from food poisoning!
The next day we were happy to see only traces of snow on the roof edges and car roofs, rather than the streets. We’ve all heard the expression “there is no bad weather, only bad clothing” and we donned pretty much every bit of clothing we had. It was 30 degrees when we left, and snowing lightly. But honestly, it wasn’t that bad under the many layers of clothing we had on.
Today’s ride was 31 miles with most of it downhill. It was 8 miles up to the Eastern Continental Divide, which sounds grander than it is.
The elevation of the divide is 2,392 feet and we only had about 400 feet to climb. Over the top, we crossed the Mason Dixon line along the way, marking the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania.
And Cumberland, Maryland was about 7 degrees warmer than Meyersdale, so that was something to look forward to.
It was a much nicer day that any of us expected. Some of it was that we were prepared for the worst and it was better than that, and some was that there were lovely views in all directions, the path was smooth and easy to navigate, and the temperature warmed as we descended. We even had a tailwind for most of the day. We enjoyed a very nice dinner in the old town of Cumberland, and then prepared to get some sleep for the next days 60 mile ride. It’ll be even warmer tomorrow, as we leave the GAP trail and begin the C&O Canal path towards Washington DC.
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