Starting August with a Bang.

July was something of a disappointing month for us. We managed only 143 miles for the month, when normally for July our total is closer 200 miles. The reduced mileage was due to several things. One was the fact that KJ had camp during July, and wasn't home during the day when I was off work. My wife was out of town one weekend, so biking was out because I had to watch both boys (we no longer have our trailer bike). The wet weather we had during the second half of the month didn't help either.

After the crappy July, I'm pumped to make it up in August. And we got off to a great start this past Saturday. As we were getting ready to leave, my wife told me that KJ was ready and rarin' to go. How right she was... We headed to the Ghost Town Trail, out in Indiana County. We've been riding it for years, and it is one of our favorites. Very scenic, not very busy. It is about 70 minutes directly east of Pittsburgh, right off of Route 22, but because of the price of gas we haven't been out there as much as we used to. Because we had the entire day, and the weather was perfect, I decided to make it a special treat and head out there. Normally the Ghost Town Trail is a 24 mile round-trip (from Dilltown to Nanty Glo and back), but they've extended the trail all the way to Ebensburg, so a round trip is now over 40 miles. The first 6.5 miles is level, and then there is a steep (for a trail) uphill for 2.5 miles, before it becomes a more gradual uphill for the last 3 miles. I didn't know what to expect beyond the 12 mile point. I had figured we would ride to Nanty Glo, and maybe do a few more miles, just to see a little of the new part of the trail.

Once we got to the trail, it was obvious KJ was up for a big ride. We started out at a steady pace of 10.5 miles per hour, which is a pretty decent pace for us. But it was when we hit the hill that KJ decided to do his best Lance impression. The climb out of Vintondale is steep enough that we normally need to use our lowest gear and stop every half-mile or so to catch my breath. Not this time. I was amazed to find us climbing using our third-lowest gear, and we only had to stop at the points where we crossed the road. After the steepest part of the climb, when we were still going up hill, KJ pulled a classic lance move and accelerated! We actually hit a speed of 11.5 miles per hour on a climb. Un-be-lei-va-ble!

And KJ wasn't done. When we left Nanty Glo and were on the new part of the trail header to Ebensburg, we would periodically stop, and I would ask KJ if he wanted to keep going, or turn around and head back to the car. He would also point that he wanted to go farther up the trail. The new part of the trail is a steady uphill climb. That part of the trail is in excellent condition, but personally I don't find it as interesting as the original trail. The ride back was mostly downhill, and to my amazement, KJ never let up with the pedaling, all the way back to Dilltown. Our mileage for the day was a whopping 41.5 miles!

The only problem we ran in to was one of proper hydration. We started out with our usual four 22-oz. Gatorade bottles. Those lasted for about 24 miles. Problem is, on the part of the trail from Nanty Glo to Ebensburg, there isn't a single mini-mart or even a water fountain. Even a town as big as Ebensburg, we couldn't find anything within sight of the trail. I knew there were vending machines at Nanty Glo, along with a water fountain at a nearby ballfield. Unfortunately, all I had on me were five-dollar bills. Even though some of the machines said they accepted fives, none of them did. And the water fountain, which was my backup plan, was turned off. So we had to do without until we got to the water fountain at Vintondale.