Riding the Rolling Hills


I spied this bike in my sister's garage. A little air, a bolt and a right pedal from the local bike shop's spare parts bin, and I have a ride!

Western PA is full of cricks and hollers - those are creeks and the small drainages they create to the rest of you - and there is a road through every holler and another one up and over every hill in between. That's the good news. The bad news is that there's almost never any shoulder and they've built giant shopping complexes in areas still served by the country roads created for farmers who tilled the fields beneath the Wally Worlds and Targets that displaced them.

However, once you escape (or avoid) these slices of traffic-clogged panic, the road riding here is fantastic! Quiet roads through hill and holler with a mix of corn and fallow fields stretching out to the hazy horizon. Navigation is a bit tricky, as the roads follow the cricks and don't necessarily go where you think they would. I relied on the remnants of my local knowledge from growing up here and finding locals to ask for directions. The first guy I asked told me he'd need a motor to make my bike go and that I was crazy since the drivers around here don't care. I thanked him for his help and used his directions to duck back off the state route and continue my rural ride.

As I was looking for my next guide, I noticed a man getting his mail in front of a house I was pretty sure my friend built. I stopped and asked if John Stehle built his house. Well yes he did, and I spent the next 20 minutes hearing about the owner's career, his winter home, what he doesn't get for his taxes, the family farm and what sisters and brothers lived nearby on it, and how to get back to Route 8 from there.

Following his directions took me past the house where a high school friend grew up. I stopped and noticed the cages for the falcons his Dad kept were still in use.

I came back full of new and remembered connections to the land, a few locals, and sweat. The old steel lugged Schwinn was smooth and compliant - maybe bike companies should just make women's style frames in steel when they want to smooth out the road instead of all these high tech solutions!

What a ride!

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