terham
BeemerBoy
Another trip, another trip report.
After preregistering for the Finger Lakes Rally Labor Day weekend, then having something come up that prevented me from attending, I thought ?Oh &^%#$?. Then I thought, ?Maybe I can make lemonade? and hatched a plan to ride the Finger Lakes before the rally, when I was able.
My last couple of trips have involved camping in a different spot each day and makes for a lot of setting up and taking down my tent and often packing a wet tent or setting up as the sun is setting. This time I thought I?d set up my tent once and do a series of day trips from wherever I camped. Morning rain or late returns would not be a problem and days could be a little more leisurely. Since the Finger Lakes Rally is at Watkins Glen State Park, that?s where I chose to go.
Shamelessly borrowing terminology from Rider magazine?s cloverleaf or shamrock tours, I call this a two-leaf clover tour.
Day 1.
Watkins Glen is only about 4 hours from home if I go directly. I did not go directly. I shoved off around 8:30.
I started out from southeast PA heading north on I-476 to get to the Poconos. It was a pleasant riding day, but after passing through the Lehigh tunnel, the road climbs to the Pocono plateau, and it got a little chilly, so I stopped at one of the nice rebuilt rest stops to add my jacket liner.
A short while later I exited at Wilkes-Barre and headed northwest to pick up PA 118 towards Red Rock, passing through the Lackawanna State Forest.
At Rickett?s Glen SP, I stopped to look around a little. I?ve camped here before, and there are lots of waterfalls and some nice trails.
At Red Rock, I headed north on PA 487, a really fun road to ride. It climbs initially and then meanders along.
I soon arrived at Lopez.
The road out of town was fun.
It?s pretty rural in this part of PA.
In Dushore, I picked up PA 87 towards Forksville, one of my favorite stretches of the trip. The road follows Loyalsock Creek and the road takes as many turns as the creek.
Once in Forksville, I headed to the Forksville General Store for lunch. It?s a quaint little place on the Loyalsock next to the covered bridge crossing.
After a lunch of grilled chicken salad, because I had enjoyed PA 87 so much, I took it back out of Forksville towards Dushore and turned around and rode it again in the other direction to Forksville. I know this road pretty well now. Having a short day planned allows plenty of time to ride favorite sections of road over and over again. PA 87 continues south of Forksville to Montoursville along the Loyalsock. I highly recommend this road.
A short 2 minute video of PA 87.
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/73523005" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/73523005">PA 87, Dushore to Forksville</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user11114127">Terence Hamill</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Returning to Forksville for the second time, I headed west on PA 154 to Canton. There was road construction but I wasn?t held up too long. This part of PA has a lot of fracking going on, so there?s lots of water trucks, white pick up trucks and men and women in orange vests. I got held up for tractor-trailers hauling wide loads of heavy earth moving equipment.
I went through small PA towns like Estella
and Shunk.
I eventually picked up route 14 that took me to Watkins Glen. The PA section was through broad valleys with hills on either side. Very scenic.
I got to Watkins Glen SP around 3:30 and set up camp.
I relaxed the rest of the day until dinnertime.
After stowing everything away and enjoying a little sippin? whiskey, it was off to bed.
After preregistering for the Finger Lakes Rally Labor Day weekend, then having something come up that prevented me from attending, I thought ?Oh &^%#$?. Then I thought, ?Maybe I can make lemonade? and hatched a plan to ride the Finger Lakes before the rally, when I was able.
My last couple of trips have involved camping in a different spot each day and makes for a lot of setting up and taking down my tent and often packing a wet tent or setting up as the sun is setting. This time I thought I?d set up my tent once and do a series of day trips from wherever I camped. Morning rain or late returns would not be a problem and days could be a little more leisurely. Since the Finger Lakes Rally is at Watkins Glen State Park, that?s where I chose to go.
Shamelessly borrowing terminology from Rider magazine?s cloverleaf or shamrock tours, I call this a two-leaf clover tour.
Day 1.
Watkins Glen is only about 4 hours from home if I go directly. I did not go directly. I shoved off around 8:30.
I started out from southeast PA heading north on I-476 to get to the Poconos. It was a pleasant riding day, but after passing through the Lehigh tunnel, the road climbs to the Pocono plateau, and it got a little chilly, so I stopped at one of the nice rebuilt rest stops to add my jacket liner.
A short while later I exited at Wilkes-Barre and headed northwest to pick up PA 118 towards Red Rock, passing through the Lackawanna State Forest.
At Rickett?s Glen SP, I stopped to look around a little. I?ve camped here before, and there are lots of waterfalls and some nice trails.
At Red Rock, I headed north on PA 487, a really fun road to ride. It climbs initially and then meanders along.
I soon arrived at Lopez.
The road out of town was fun.
It?s pretty rural in this part of PA.
In Dushore, I picked up PA 87 towards Forksville, one of my favorite stretches of the trip. The road follows Loyalsock Creek and the road takes as many turns as the creek.
Once in Forksville, I headed to the Forksville General Store for lunch. It?s a quaint little place on the Loyalsock next to the covered bridge crossing.
After a lunch of grilled chicken salad, because I had enjoyed PA 87 so much, I took it back out of Forksville towards Dushore and turned around and rode it again in the other direction to Forksville. I know this road pretty well now. Having a short day planned allows plenty of time to ride favorite sections of road over and over again. PA 87 continues south of Forksville to Montoursville along the Loyalsock. I highly recommend this road.
A short 2 minute video of PA 87.
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/73523005" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/73523005">PA 87, Dushore to Forksville</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user11114127">Terence Hamill</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Returning to Forksville for the second time, I headed west on PA 154 to Canton. There was road construction but I wasn?t held up too long. This part of PA has a lot of fracking going on, so there?s lots of water trucks, white pick up trucks and men and women in orange vests. I got held up for tractor-trailers hauling wide loads of heavy earth moving equipment.
I went through small PA towns like Estella
and Shunk.
I eventually picked up route 14 that took me to Watkins Glen. The PA section was through broad valleys with hills on either side. Very scenic.
I got to Watkins Glen SP around 3:30 and set up camp.
I relaxed the rest of the day until dinnertime.
After stowing everything away and enjoying a little sippin? whiskey, it was off to bed.