The Adventure Continues

This past weekend we were so grateful for the time to be able to serve families from the county by handing out food on Saturday and then enjoy the great outdoors as we hit the road on Sunday to ride the Great Allegheny Passage trail http://www.atatrail.org/
We chose a small portion of the trail that starts in Ohiopyle and runs through Ohiopyle State Park to Confluence, about 22 miles RT.  Ohiopyle is located along the Youghiogheny River and is a great spot for river rafting.
The trail is riddled with waterfalls and the trees form a canopy of green most of the way through, offering some protection from the sun.

On the trail - there was only a 1-2% grade with level tail all the way from Ohiopyle to Confluence, where we turned around just short of the town.  It wasn't a difficult ride, but this was the first time we've been back in the saddle for awhile.  We opted for a 20 mile RT ride today!  Definitely will be back again!  Otto was on the Trek, which wasn't the smoothest ride of all!

We had lunch here, enjoying a beer and a burger after our ride.  The town is small, but buzzing with activity as it is the center and meeting place for rafters!

We stopped for a snack by Ramcat Falls, although it doesn't look like it, this is one of the areas of concern on this Class II stretch of the river.  There are several underwater swirls created by the rocks and river bed that can suck a raft under easily. 

 

We had to go to Cucumber Falls and check it out - it was beautiful.  I was curious about why it was called Cucumber Falls, it didn't smell like the vegetable to me.  I found out that Copperhead snakes smell like cucumbers so, that is how the falls got that name.  We didn't smell or see any snakes while we were there!