It's been a weird year.
For a variety of reasons, I didn't get a decent 300 mile ride in until August this year. I'm trying to make up for lost time.
8/4, departed Blair County PA and headed north. First stop, Elk County, and county seat Ridgway PA.
Inspired by my old friend Tom, who has a habit of taking photos of county courthouses while riding Ohio, I snapped a few of the Elk County Courthouse.
Big Red Parked in Ridgway
Spoke for a few minutes with a nice guy from Ontario, who was interested in my Russell seat. Seems he just picked up a BMW 1600GT, and found that he could stand that stock beemer seat for about 45 minutes before he had to stop and stretch his legs. That'll make for a long day indeed.
Headed further north, across PA Route 6 through Kane and Mt. Jewett, and stopped at Kinzua Bridge State Park. I hadn't been there before, and was glad I made the time to stop and have a look around. It's an interesting story.
Since 2011, you can walk across the remains of the old railroad bridge.
If you walk on the tracks, you quickly notice that in between the railroad ties, it's a view straight down. A long way down...
Glass viewing window at the end of the bridge
The wreckage still rests where it landed after the tornado passed through.
I think climbing on the bridge is probably frowned-upon, but I had to get the shot.
After exploring Kinzua, I continued east on Route 6 to Coudersport PA, where the courthouse was so underwhelming I didn't even stop for a photo. South then on Route 872 to Sinnemahoning PA, and then down the semi-famous (kinda-sorta around here anyway) Wykoff Run Road, a winding lane-and-a-half wide road that runs from Sinnemahoning through the Quehanna Wild Area.
Stopped along Wykoff Run to snap a photo of a small waterfall.
And found this guy on the way back to the bike.
He was dead, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you feel about snakes. Probably hit by a car, and managed to slither up on the rock before curling up to die.
It was a magic day, everything just felt right and the weather was perfect. Hoping for more days like that before the weather turns cold.