The Montour Trail is Really Frustrating!

I'm sure this isn't the route that they took Thursday, but I think it may be close.  

This is a little blurry, but they took this picture to show that they were about 151 miles from Cumberland.  

I spoke to Karl last night while he was enjoying a private room at a B&B in West Newton, PA.  The B&B owner left last night around 730pm and they had the house to themselves.  Thankfully she left a bounty of muffins, fruit, and raisin bread for them to eat this morning.  

They traveled a total of 67 miles on Thursday, but it was a very frustrating day.  Like many things in the good state of PA, there were parts of the trail that weren't finished so they had to make many detours.  (I can say this because I used to live in PA :-) )

Anyway, on Thursday morning, they hopped onto their bikes and started riding.  They hadn't had breakfast yet because there was no place close by.  When they finally found a diner, they met a lady who had seen their bikes outside.  She came in to talk to them since she is also an avid cyclist and they told her of their adventure.  They were telling her that they were unsure of the trail since they knew that some of the portions were under construction.  She said that she lived about 4 miles away, so she ran home and got them some maps.  

Once they started riding on the Montour Trail (This is part of the Great Allegheny Trail Alliance), they found a lot of parts that were unfinished.  This must be a Montour thing!  My last name is Montour and I'll tell you that about 25% of my house is unfinished :-).  The frustrating part was that there were no signs or warnings that the trail was going to end.  Sometimes they had to back track and figure out where to go.  On the portions where they had detoured off the trail, there was a lot of climbing.  Finally, in Glassport, the Montour Trail ended.  They got onto the Steel Valley Trail to McKeesport.  This trail is also part of the Great Allegheny Trail Alliance.  This trail goes primarily through towns, but it was marked well.  

There was no rain on Thursday and the temperature was cool in the Mid 60's.  

They met some guys on the trail who were headed the opposite direction.  They asked Karl and Mo where they were headed and they said Gettysburg.  These other cyclists said they were headed to Pittsburgh from D.C.  Karl didn't want to burst their bubbles and tell them that they were coming from San Diego.

I'll update you again tonight after I talk to Karl.