Raystown Trip - day 3

Instead of waking up and heading to work on a Monday morning I woke up and peered out the zippered window of a tent.  No blue skies this morning, it was overcast.  Several days ago, the last time I saw a weather forecast, today was supposed to be a thirty percent chance of rain.

Flap jack flippin'.

The trusty Coleman cook stove was put into action right away.  First boiling water for coffee, then cooking eggs and cranberry-almond pancakes.  We tried Starbucks Via instant coffee packets on this trip.  In contrast to the many positive reviews I read online, I was not impressed.  French press and home ground coffee will be along for the next trip.

Seriously... that's a lot of TP.

We decided to pack up camp and drive over to the north trail head parking lot to begin our ride.  Driving to the trail head let us have more time riding the trails on the northern side without repeating the Stony trail out and back like yesterday.

All is packed but bikes.

As we pedaled away from the trail head parking lot we figured a couple hours of riding was going to be the limit.  This would let us make it home before 8pm.  We tore down the now familiar Buck and Doe Trails, headed towards the yet to be ridden by us Hydro Loop.  It was even more exciting to head out knowing how much fun lay ahead.

Now that's a bermed corner.

After plenty of fast and flowing riding we headed north on the Berry Patch Trail to a second visit of the overlook at the northern end of the trails.  The section of trail from down by the water on the Hydro Loop, up Sidewinder, and up the Berry Patch Trail seemed to be the biggest elevation gain in the shortest distance of our riding.  Even so, the uphill was broken up by dips and rollers.

Three days of dusty riding.

After a short stop at the overlook we aimed for the trail head.  The last stretch of our riding this trip did not disappoint.  We had holler-out-loud fun coming south across the Allie Trail!  There were some big dips, berms, and lots of speed in our final section of trail.  It was a sweet finale to our visit.

Halfway home.

On the way home we decided to avoid the toll road and take 22 to Pittsburgh.  There were some slow sections through towns and some four lane divided highway sections as well.  In the end we made it home in the same 5.5 hours it took to drive out but we saved the toll.

Our first trip to the Allegrippis Trails at Raystown Lake was a good one.  The trails were loads of fun and the camping was enjoyable.  The weather was absolutely perfect, quite a blessing with the majority of the trip spent outdoors.  On the next trip it would be fun to check out the Rothrock area as well, reportedly only an hour away.  Hey Ryan, whatcha' doing next weekend?  :-)