This last week I was up in the family hunting cabin in
St. Mary's, PA. However the hunting would not be done by me but my Dad, cousin Bill, and Uncle Carl. A few other people made there way in and out of the camp (Gary, Art, and Ken) but my Pop was the only one not hunting who stayed the whole week. I was lucky enough to bring my bike to Pennsylvania for some mountain biking and I was specifically looking forward to the
R3 ride in RothRock State Forest in
State College and the
Allegrippis Trail in
Raystown Lake. The local bike shop here in town
El Camino Bike Shop was kind enough to let me borrow the
Swami's bike travel case for the trip free of charge. The shop also helped me out as 2 days before leaving as I ripped my
rear derailleur of my Merlin on my weekly Wednesday night ride along with breaking the rear derailleur hanger. I had a spare derailleur hanger and was able to find a
XT Shadow derailleur in town and they got me running up in a couple hours, so big thanks to Will at El Camino.
My Dad and I flew into
Buffalo, NY rented a car and drove the 3 hours down into Beechwood making it there at 3 in the morning. The next day nobody was allowed to hunt being Sunday so the 3 hunters went out to clear the old logging trails they used for there 4 wheelers. I put my bike together and planned a route out on some of the maps on mostly old logging roads, putting in about 20 miles. The next day everyone was up early to eat breakfast before the hunt and I decided with the good weather I would head down to ride the
R3 route. I arrived around 10 am and looked for the local shop that IMBA had listed (
Mount Nittany Wheelworks) but it has closed down. I tried some other bike shops listed in my GPS but to no avail I guess I would have to go mapless. Luckily when I got back to the trailhead a guy riding a cyclocross bike on the dirt roads was kind enough to give me his map. The trails aren't well marked so having a map is key to ride here, this is the map I
used. Even with the map I was having a tough time following the R3 route. The first bit of the trail (Lower->Sand Spring->Balk Knob Ridge) I got on was extremely wet and at most times the trail was a creek. After finishing the first loop I headed back up to the road and climbed up to where the Mid State Trail intersects and descended onto Little Shingletown trail. It got tricky on the Sand Spring trail descent off of Little Shingletown especially with all the leaves covering the rocks. I did a superman on the descent as a rock hidden under all the leaves surprised me. I heard the
Stan's sealant tried to seal up my tire as I put a hole on a knob and rolled the
tire of the
rim. It sealed it up but not after losing quite a bit of air pressure. After pumping the tire back up it looked as if my rim got tweaked from my tumble. So I decided to call it quits to prevent anymore damage to my front wheel and headed to a bike shop the guy who gave me the map called appropriately
The Bicycle Shop. They inspected the wheel and determined I messed up the
tire and the
rim was fine. I was disappointed to not be able to finish the whole route but was glad that I didn't break another part on my mountain bike.
The next day with the weather still cooperating I headed down to
Raystown to ride the Allegrippis trail. These trails were very well marked and didn't require a map as out on the trail at some intersections that had maps posted. The trail was extremely fun but a lot less technical then the R3 trail I had ridden the previous day. They flowed extremely well and I was able to ride everything they were to offer.
The next few days were rained out and I only got out on the dirt one more day following my Pop and Uncle Carl on the logging roads behind the camp on there 4-wheelers. The roads were still pretty soft and the descent back down to camp was very slick. It was a great trip and it was good to ride my mountain bike in the woods for a while as compared to the desert here in So Cal.
