016: Days 20,21: April 28,29 2021: New Fayette PA to Steubenville, Ohio 44 miles (m27.9)

After a good night's rest, we continued further on the Montour Trail. I had to take a photo of this sculpture in a trailside garden. The sign says, "1st Try Engineering" a view I endorse wholeheartedly. 😇😇😇

We passed through the Enlow Tunnel. This is well-lighted and a good surface to ride on. 

The trail climbs steadily uphill for about 12 miles. We were soon feeling the strain, but this parallel road shows clearly why we prefer the trails - no shoulder on blind hills adds a lot to the stress of on-road cycling.

At Boggs we passed a "primitive" camp ground. We had to smile when we saw the swinging chairs somebody left for cyclists/campers to use. 

At Quicksilver, we passed one of Christine's favorite trail-side houses and a well-designed bridge across a country road.

The Trail is beautiful and I even had time to contemplate what to build with these concrete "Lego" blocks, a type of retaining wall design used along a short section of the rail line. 

We reached the 1000 feet long and 75 feet high Mcdonald Trestle in good time. This is where we left the Montour Trail and joined the Panhandle Trail to West Virginia. Of interest to rail builders is the connection between the two trails, currently being used as the rail trail connector as well. With this connection the two rail lines increased their freight traffic at the time. But, as the coal mines closed down in the area, the rail lines also went into decline and closed. 

McDonald is slowly rejuvenating. It has an energetic young Mayor who is looking for all possible opportunities to grow the town again.

The area around the McDonald Trailhead is well-kept and beautiful. In years to come this will become a major stop for cyclists. 

We soon passed under the McDonald Trestle with the bridges of the new Interstate connector to the town in the back. We passed under these as well. 

We passed large sections of reworked landscape and were wondering whether there is not a lot of Superfund-work in the area, helping to rehabilitate the damage left by old closed mines.

Anyway, we came to Burgettstown where we wanted to have an ice cream. Unfortunately, it was Wednesday and the cafe in the old Station Building is closed on Wednesdays. 

About 5 miles on, we had lunch next to the trail and Christine had to include a siesta. This is acceptable after the "gourmet chef" prepared a sumptuous meal of Bagels spread with peanut butter and honey and fresh pineapple to finish it off. 

The trail went through some wooded areas as we came closer to the PA/WV-border. 

The border crossing is rather abrupt with no "Welcomes" or "Goodbyes" from either State. There is a signpost from the railway days and a wooden wall depicting the information relavant to the WV-part if the trail.

The area is beautiful.

At Colliers we came accross this sign commemorating a World Championship Boxing match from 1880. The fight lasted 87 rounds - wow. And one of the boxers was 52!

We cycled a bit slower on the gravel surface if this section, but reached the end of the Trail at Weirton quickly.This brought an end to the rail trail cycling in WV on this trip. 

At the trailhead we were confronted with this sign and little did we know what lay ahead - about 5 miles of on-road cycling including the crossing if the Ohio River into Ohio. The first two miles were in town where we shared the road with traffic. Then we went on a bridge with almost no shoulders and fast-moving cars. 

While we cycled on the broad shoulder of WV Route 2, we saw the Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Ohio. This is a high-speed bridge with no shoulders. 

Then we reached the Market Street Bridge, recommended by all as the cycle crossing. Firstly, the sidewalk was closed, so we used the road lane for crossing. The grid-like pattern of the steel surface has been worn smooth by vehicular traffic. The fact that we could see through the bridge deck made the slippery ride more "not-fun." This resulted in a harrowing experience for the two of us on our bikes. I do not know who was more stressed when we got off this bridge, but we immediately stopped and had to get rid of all the stress and fear. We were in no mood to cycle one inch further.

Worst of all, I did not even see if the bridge had any welcome signs on entering Ohio, but I am also not going back to check.  😳😳

A lovely woman spent some time with us helping us with finding accommodation in Steubenville. A young black man stopped and started talking about our amazing trip and crossing the bridge. He saw us in WV before we came to the bridge. We shared remote fist bumps and he wished us all the best on the road to Seattle. 

We checked into a hotel for the night, and after seeing the weather forecast of rain the entire Thursday, we promptly extended our stay. 

As we cycled through Steubenville, we came accross beautiful murals

and churches.

We also passed these three interesting shops. A longer stay would certainly include a visit to, at least,

 the Nutcracker Shoppe, the Steubenville Popcorn Co and Leonardo's Coffee House. 

Today the rain is continuing and we use the hotel to rest and recover.

The 44 miles we did to reach Steubenville was fine and fitted in our plans.