Tuscarora & Michaux Sunday Ride

[Dunker]

Since I had to work in the shop on Saturday and missed the D.A.M.N. dual-sport ride, I decided to do my own on Sunday. Left the bustling metropolis of Gapland around 10 am and headed into Williamsport through Antietam and down along the C&O canal. After a bunch more backroads, I picked up PA75 in Mercersburg and stayed on that until almost into Dry Run. Cut the corner by taking a few backroads over to PA641 (Truck) and then Amberson Rd. off of that.


Amberson ends in Tuscarora St. Forest at Second Narrows Rd. and I rode that until it intersected with Laurel Run Rd. Stopped off at the site of a CCC camp to check out a map of the forest and stopped to pay my respects to an unfortunate accident victim during construction of the road I was riding.



Backtracked on Laurel Run a bit to Bower Mtn. Rd which runs along a ridge top. Iron Pony and I were at an interesting overlook back in Oct. '08 and I wanted to find it again. The road had been improved some, but there was lots of evidence of recent logging. Looked much more bleak than back in '08. View of Doubling Gap from atop Bower Mt.:

Michaux on the other side of the valley:


Descended Bower Mtn. and then climbed again on Elk Hill Rd., descended once again and came out on PA233. Rode that into Newburg, stopped off for a photo of Laughlin Mill:


Headed south from there on 533 into Shippensburg for a sandwich and gas (66 mpg on that tank!) and then up into Michaux via Baltimore and Milesburn Rds. Stopped off at Caledonia to clean my faceshield, then took 30 out to Mt. Cydonia Rd. and headed south through the sand plant. Rather than my "usual" routing, I decided to try this "road less traveled" that I'd never taken before. Turned out to be the rockiest, roughest two-track in Michaux (not just my opinion it seems) - Besecker Gap Rd. On a modern bike with lots of suspension travel it might not be that bad, but on my old crock it was pretty rough. It was only two miles long total, so not too tiring. Here's the smoothest part:


Stuck to the pavement through Waynesboro, up to Pen Mar and down into Ft. Ritchie. Saw a white dual-sport of some sort behind me, so when I turned onto Wise Rd. and it followed, I stopped to see who it was. Turned out to be (Jack) Bowie Pearre, a fellow WMMA member, out on his DR650. Bowie rode with me down into the Fred. Watershed, he headed towards home on Hamburg Rd., I did the same on Rum Springs. Decided to check out Hawbottom Rd. - Iron Pony told me it was pretty interesting and it definitely was. Met a guy coming the other way on a Rokon Trailbreaker with sidecar! Cool!

Made it home around 6pm, 194 miles for the day, tired but satisfied.

[Bucho]

Ken is going to be upset that you didn't get a picture of the Rokon w/ hack.

Nice pics, I like the old XT.

[Rut Row]

Ken is going to be upset that you didn't get a picture of the Rokon w/ hack.

we might have our first banishment...

[Boom Boom]

Good stuff, first pictures are from where I grew up and last pics are my local stomping grounds now.