Good old vacation time

I spent the last several days hanging around the town of Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania.  It's an interesting little town whose economy in based largely on tourism--specifically, rafting and bicycling.  The rafting takes place on the Youghiogheny River, of course, while cyclists pass through town on the Great Allegheny Passage, an old railroad bed converted to a bike trail that goes from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC.

During this stretch, I spent the morning outside a raft company that doesn't seem to mind me mooching their wi-fi signal.  The rafting season was winding down, so the mood was pretty laid back.  I sat at a picnic table and checked e-mail and Face Book and stuff like that, and I also did my stretching and rehab exercises, and wrote some postcards to friends and family.  The ideal vacation activities, in other words.

After lunch I was in the boat.  On Monday I did "The Loop": the Yough makes a big goose-neck bend right at Ohiopyle, and a paddler can run this couple of miles of river and then use a trail across the inside of the bend to hike a half-mile or so back to where his vehicle is parked.

On Tuesday and yesterday I paddled the Yough from Ohiopyle to a place called Bruner Run about seven and a half miles downriver.  I ran shuttle with my bike by way of the Great Allegheny Passage. Driving down to Bruner Run I took a road with many steep hills that would have been a real epic to travel on my bike; but the old railroad bed of The Passage follows the river and never exceeds 1.5% in grade, so it was a delightful way to run shuttle.

My upper back felt quite sore while paddling the first two days, but yesterday it wasn't as bad.  I can still feel that knot, and I hope two or three more massage sessions will work that out when I get back home.  In the meantime I will continue to stretch and do my exercises and avail myself of whatever youthful flexibility that provides.

I spent last night at the Sunset Inn in Friendsville, Maryland.  It was nice to sleep in a bed after four night of camping at Ohiopyle State Park.  This morning I plan to drive up and see if the upper Youghiogheny has a water release today.  I have a feeling it will not--I think normally it runs on Friday and Monday--but it can't hurt to check.  My friends coming up from Atlanta for the weekend have decided not to come farther north than the Gauley, so if I'm going to run the upper Yough it will have to be today, if that's possible.