Big Bird's Adventures

This is it. The final part of my cross country adventure on my Lynsky GR 300 gravel bike. In my last post I had zero’d for 3 days at my friend’s cabin in the woods on the edge of Bald Eagle State Forest near Woodward, PA. Some friends were up to hang out with us as well, and now they have returned to Northern Virginia, and it’s time for me to hit the road again. The plan is a simple one but perhaps not one you guess, knowing that I live in Monmouth County New Jersey not too far from the Jersey Shore. You might expect as much of a Bee line as could be made, trust me when I say the mountains do not support that kind of a journey. Anyway, my plan was to continue North on the PANTS route until I intersect the JORTS route where I will head East through some of the toughest riding in PA if not the country. That will put me on the same route as my prep ride that I finished in May. Hancock NY, across the Catskills and down the Empire State Trail into NYC to Pier 11. It was a nice ride in May, it should be a nice ride in August too. As hard as I tried to coordinate getting friends to meet me at Bear Mountain State Park to finish this ride off the only person I could get was my friend John L and the details of that meetup are still in the works. The Bear Mountain Inn was full because it was a weekend that I would be coming through, and so no vacancy means no friends. I thought detouring there and climbing Bear Mountain would be a nice diversion from the May route, but it was not meant to be.