I was hanging out at Earl's Bicycle Shop building up the Fargo and chatting with my buddy and coworker there, Rylan. We both had decided we were going to go to the Great Gravel Gathering and I let him know I intended to bikepack to the event. For those of you unfamiliar with the activity, bikepacking is just like backpacking, you just use a bike. I would say the primary difference between bikepacking and touring is that bike packing is more about the ride than the destination, so often times you travel lighter than if you were touring and may put more miles on in a day than you might if you were touring. Anyway, Rylan said he would consider bikepacking out to the event with me. Since I had a shiny new bikepacking machine and gear, I thought I'd better go on a little one night trip to shake down my setup and make sure I was prepared for a three day trip. This is where the Great Gravel Gathering really began for me, at least in spirit.
The view from a power line cut on Skyline Drive
My route for the shakedown cruise on the Fargo encompassed some things I had been meaning to ride for a long time but just didn't have the machine to do it properly. I wanted to ride the trail from the Susquehanna river near Montgomery, PA up to and across the top of the ridge to Ravensburg State Park which is about a 30 mile stretch, 20 miles of which are climbing. The route consists of Armstrong Road, Skyline Drive, Summit Trail, and Vandyke Road. All of these except Vandyke are closed to motor vehicles and terrain varies from unmaintained pavement to somewhat rough singletrack. It's a little too much for a cyclocross bike but a monstercross type setup would be about perfect. There are some fantastic views up there, especially on Skyline Drive, and the one vista on Vandyke Road is a stunner for sure.
Vandyke Road Vista
After completing that section of my ride I dropped down rt 880 to rt 44 and went up to Jersey Shore. I stopped and got a bite to eat (just an entire pizza and a dozen wings) and rode up the Pine Creek Rail Trail. I rode up half of it then turned around once it got completely dark. I then rode back to Bald Eagle State Forest to set up camp near Duncan trail. I managed to get lost once in the dark when I turned down what looked like the correct logging road and ended up deadending into straight up bushwhack. I ended up with 167 miles that day on a 60+ lb bike. The next day I woke up and rode home in a sort of long and windy way through Bald Eagle State Forest.
So after I returned home from this solo trip I shared all of my photos and stories with Rylan and I think the adventure got him motivated to try it out himself. He decided to ride out to the Great Gravel Gathering with me and bikepack the trip, and then have his wife pick him up on Sunday. We planned out a very scenic route, got permission from our boss Earl to leave early from work that day, and then the day of met up at the shop to ride out to the event. We decided to start our adventure with burrito's from Mercado Burrito in Lewisburg, the most bangin' burrito joint in all of central PA.
We had a great ride out to the festival and I learned a very important lesson. Bikepacking is WAY more fun with friends as opposed to solo. It's much cooler to be able to share the experience with someone else than to just appreciate it yourself. Whether it's stopping at a vista and getting swarmed by thousands of ladybugs or just the simple pleasure cruising the mountains with the leaves changing colors, riding with a friend makes all of those experiences you have that much better. It was really cool to ride with Rylan for his first continuous half century ever. The fact that he did it on a 60+ lb bike, and then did it again the next day was awesome and I was glad to be able to ride with him when he did it!
When we arrived at the festival, we met up with some mountain biking friends that had driven out. We met up at Texas Chapel to watch Tour Divide finisher, Brett Simpson's presentation describing his race. We then got some dinner, stayed around, and met some new friends. I got to sit down for a good relaxed chat with Brett, who over the course of the weekend, probably ended up talking me into training for the Tour Divide race in 2015. After dinner, Rylan and I set up our campsite and crashed out hard.
The next day we were up bright and early and went into Millheim for coffee and a light breakfast at the Inglebean Coffee Shop, then it was back to camp to prepare for the day's rides. Rylan and I split up for the day to do different rides and I went on the 100 miler led by Matt Ferrari, winner of the single speed category of the Transylvania Epic Mountain Bike Stage Race and was in some pretty elite company for that ride. It's a little surreal when a guy who had won the Trans Iowa twice gives you a complement on how strong you're riding on a given day. I was stoked just to be able to ride with someone so legendary. Toward the end of the ride we decided to cut the group portion a little short and head towards town. A few of us threw in a little bonus climb on Ingleby road and then we cruised back to town. I passed Rylan and Brett on my way back into town as they were headed out for Brett's overnight trip to Poe Paddy State Park. I let Brett know I would meet them out at the campsite after I ate and grabbed my shelter and sleeping gear.
I went into town and crushed a large pizza (pizza is definitely a powerfood for me) packed my stuff and headed out in the dark to meet them. The bridge to Coburn was out for the entirety of the event but you could cross the creek by bike either by going across the mostly finished bridge, or by way of a technical single I-beam bridge off to the side. Riding into town I had ridden across the I-beam successfully so hubris got the better of me and I thought I'd ride it the other way on my way back to the camp site loaded with more gear. This was not a good decision. My bike and I went swimming. All my gear and my bike got nearly completely submerged. The good news was the Revelate Designs Viscacha seat bag I was storing my sleeping gear, phone, and non-riding clothing in is very water resistant. Everything was pretty dry that was in there, but my riding clothes and everything else got soaked. I was pissed until it started pouring down rain. At that point I realized I would have been very wet by the time I arrived at the campsite anyway so I mellowed out a little. As I was climbing the Siglerville-Milheim Pike for the third time that weekend, I got a little loopy and was singing songs and generally losing it just a little. By the time I was in the correct valley I was starting to really want to be finished riding for the day, I stopped in Poe Valley State Park (the wrong state park) and went through the campsite area and found a camp site with just a ton of bikes lying around. Naturally, I thought this had to be my destination so i rolled up leaned my bike up and went to start unpacking when a head popped out of the closest tent demanding to know what I was doing. Definitely not the right camp site. So I quickly hopped back on the bike and rolled around the rest of the campsites until I realized that I was in the wrong place and cruised down the road to the correct campground. I was finally finished riding! I was so excited that as I rolled down to the site, I stopped paying attention to the ground, hit a stump and almost OTB'd 5 feet from my final destination. It was time to crash for the night so I chatted with Brett and Rylan for a bit and then we all went to sleep.
The next day I rode back with the group and we had a nice ride back into town where showered and changed. We got breakfast while the awesome guys at Freeze Thaw Cycles looked at my bike which was acting up. They got it all patched up for me (for free!). I had breakfast with Brett, some of the people from the bike packing trip, some of the guys from Freeze Thaw, and a few others. Rylan and his wife had met up and were having a nice break fast together. We parted ways there as he had family obligations. It was awesome having him to hang out with for the weekend!
After breakfast I headed back to camp to unload some gear and I met up with my buddy Jesse and his friend Calvin. We ended up going out for a nice relaxing 30 mile group ride led by Brett in the Seven Mountains area. It was beautiful and a welcome break from the hammerfest of the previous day.
After that it was time to pack up and go home. When I got back to the Freeze Thaw Pop Up store, the awesome guys there presented me with a badass NEMO 40 degree backpacking sleeping bag for the unofficial most mileage competition. I really appreciated it, it was the perfect addition to my equipment as I was lacking a good sleeping bag.
I really feel like I sucked every last drop of awesome that I could out of the Great Gravel Gathering and bikepacking to and from the event was just an awesome way to enhance the experience and really get into the spirit of the event. By participating in as many of the group activities as possible I met a ton of people and really got to experience a lot of new riding. When the event was over, I was actually a little sad to pack up and go home. Unfortunately, the day wasn't getting any longer and I was losing daylight so I got all packed and started my ride home. I got over the mountain before dark and was home in a little under 3 hours. I got back and uploaded my GPS files and passed out.
The Great Gravel Gathering was an awesome experience that I would highly recommend to any rider. They had events for everyone and Mike Kuhn of High Speed Cycling did an awesome job. I came home with so much swag, it was kind of ridiculous. Also crazy props to Freeze Thaw Cycles. Not only do they seriously know their way around a bike, they have a passion for cycling that runs deep and strong. I can't wait to see what they can do with this event next year! I'm hoping to be able to help with the event and possibly lead some sort of long ride/bikepacking trip next year. After this past week I'm super stoked on gravel and bikepacking. Can't wait to see you out there on those fire roads!
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