Go Big And Go Home - Day 24 - Head for the Hills

Off the highways and back on the byways.

We have spent a great deal of time in the last couple of days working on what route we will use to head home.  Thankfully I have my own personal meteorologist, my wonderful cousin Todd, who is helping with some of the storm movement.  All this to say, it takes time to find the right route on a good day but working around the remnants of TS Phillipe (which is very disorganized) and the cooler weather that follows has added to that time considerably.

Despite all of this, Larry selected a route yesterday that was just perfect.  We rode through 4 state forests which are located in a series of mountains.  We rode through Moshannon State Forest, Elk State Forest, Bucktail State Forest and Sproul State Forest.  As we passed through these, we were following the West Branch of Susquehanna River for most of it.

At Brady’s Bend we stopped at a look out which was high above the Allegheny River.  The river wound around below and you could see the small community that was built around it.  You could also see the colours that were just starting to show.

As we rode, the colours closer to the road were much more visible and brought fond memories of home and other fall rides.  Through these forests, the roads wound around, up and over elevations that were not as high as some we had experienced earlier on the trip but they were fun.  As we were riding through these state forests the real beauty was that the trees were like a canopy over the road offering shade and cool refreshing temperatures.  This is the optimal way to ride our bikes as the engines really love the temperatures and respond so well to the turns and rises.  It is also optimal for the riders who have endured some much warmer temperatures of late.  So deep in the woods, Larry almost got smacked by a very large hawk (still to be identified) that had just grabbed its’ lunch very close to the road and was trying to get airborne.  Birds are very attracted to Larry….he has taken out a pheasant with his shoulder while riding, he has been dive-bombed through Kansas by smaller birds while we were riding (I was laughing at the show), and no matter where we go, he tends to have a lot of birds crap on him…sometimes multiple birds at the same time!

We stopped last night in Williamsport, PA for the night and after a great dinner (first not FF or Pizza dinner in a while), we decided that we would stay here for 2 more nights to wait out the rain.  Cooler temps will follow but we can handle that…rain and cooler temps just makes it cold and wet so best to avoid.  There is lots to do in Williamsport as we have visited here before.  They have some great restaurants and bars and lots of building murals.