Pine Creek Rail Trail

On Friday, we drove about 70 miles north of the campground to a bike trail that Ken and Bonnie had ridden on previously and thought we would really enjoy.  The trail is called the Pine Creek Rail Trail and was voted by USA Today as one of the 10 best rail-trails in the country.  We saw a lot of deer this morning.  Ken had to stop to let 2 or 3 deer cross in front of the car soon as we left the campground and when we neared the trailhead where we would be parking the car, we saw these two fawns down off the side of the road.

While the total trail is about 63 miles long, we parked and rode on a section in the middle starting at a place called Rattlesnake Rock.  The rock is named this because when early settlers were canoeing down the river, they spotted about 30 lying on top of the rock, sunning themselves.

Fortunately, there were no snakes on Rattlesnake Rock today.

There were beautiful yellow flowers growing along the trail.

As soon as we began riding the trail, we could understand why it was so highly rated.  The views of the Pine Creek Gorge area were beautiful.

We initially headed north for a couple of miles to Blackwell.

There was a bed and breakfast located there and a little store that bikers would stop at.

Look at this cute wooden bear carving.  One half of the bear is on the front of the building and the other half of the bear is on the side of the building.

We turned around at Blackwell and began heading south working our way to our lunch destination in Slate Run.

We crossed Pine Creek via a beautiful old railroad bridge.

We noticed as we were riding these bushes with white flowers growing everywhere.

They were so prolific we wondered if it is a plant that is almost becoming a problem taking over the other vegetation.

We continued heading south down the trail which ran parallel to Pine Creek the entire way.

Ken had a flat on his front tire.  We stopped and tried pumping it up to see if it would hold until we got to Slate Run.  Unfortunately, the tire kept going flat so Ken and Chuck took off the wheel and found a leak in the inner tube.  Chuck tried some of our new bike patches and within a few minutes they had the tire fixed and back on Ken's bike.

We still had about another 3 miles to go before reaching Slate Run.  We arrived at Hotel Manor around 2 pm and enjoyed a nice relaxing late lunch on their deck.

Before getting back on our bikes, we sat in their Adirondack chairs on the side porch of the restaurant trying to get a picture of the hummingbirds.  All of us tried to get a picture.

We left the restaurant, crossed back over Pine Creek,

and saw a couple of more deer.

We looked around in a little store in Slate Run before heading back up the trail.

Our lunch at Hotel Manor was delicious but we left enough room in our tummies to stop for ice cream at a little restaurant in Cedar Run.

After finishing our ice cream, we walked across the street to another little bed and breakfast place that had hummingbird feeders all along the side of the building.  This time we got several pictures of hummingbirds.  They were flying in and out everywhere.

We got back on our bikes and rode back to Rattlesnake Rock where we had parked the car.  By the time we had finished, we had ridden around 23 miles!!!  I think all of our knees and tushies were just a little tired.  But the great thing about biking with friends is you talk and laugh and share the ride together which makes it a lot more fun!  And of course, ice cream is always a good incentive!  :)

After loading up the bikes, we rode back to the campground getting back around 7 pm.  We were all pretty tired but not too tired to play another game of SkipBo and a game of Pinochle!  Another great day with Ken and Bonnie!  Thanks, Ken, for all the driving today!