Day 4: Rockwood, PA to Frostburg MD

Today’s Highlights:
Lynn and Debbie, inn keepers at the Rockwood Trail B&B, made us a hardy breakfast this morning to fuel us for our ride. We left just before 9:00 to cycle 28 miles to Frostburg Maryland. It was another warm summer day, and we again missed the predicted rain. Our decision to keep the mileage low for another day was a good one, as it let us enjoy many of the trail features along this short stretch. We still enjoyed the now-familiar sight of the tree-lined path following the Casselman River. At mile 10, over the Salisbury Viaduct, we turned away from the Casselman and started following the Flaugherty Creek. This eventually fizzled out as we neared the continental divide. Although we left the river banks, we were still surrounded by the beautiful eastern hardwood forest, and enjoyed some more open views at the higher elevation.

There were many highlights today. The best one was that Stacia reached 1000 miles of cycling for the year, between all her training and this trip. Congratulations Stacia! She reached that milestone celebratorily on one of the main features today, the 1908-foot long Salisbury viaduct. Here, we also got the last good view of the Casselman River and some farms along its shore.

Shortly after the viaduct, we reached the town of Meyersdale and made a side trip for some water. There was a nice visitor center there, and the town looked very nice too. A little further up the trail we saw the Bollman bridge. It’s a small bridge, but is a very interesting design. We pressed on for another seven miles of our 20-mile climb, passing over the Keystone viaduct, before finally reaching the eastern continental divide. Happy to have completed the multi-day climb, we stayed for a while to take pictures, ate and rested a bit.

The downhill grade toward Cumberland is steeper than the climb up the other side, so we really enjoyed the next eight miles to Frostburg cruising easily at a higher speed. This section included riding through the Big Savage Tunnel, which is lit inside because it is so long – 3300 feet. That was really fun, and refreshingly cool inside. Next, we crossed over the Mason Dixon line where Chris and Stacia reenacted the feud. Finally, a few miles before Frostburg, we passed through the 900-foot Borden Tunnel.

We reached Frostburg around 2:00 – a long but fun day for only 28 miles. We cycled up a steep hill to get to the Trail Inn where we will stay tonight. A while later we walked the rest of the steep hill to enjoy a well deserved late lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Still not done for the day, we walked a couple more miles to get groceries for tomorrow’s long ride.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Joe’s pictures of the day:
http://www.aimlesswanderings.com/Travel/2014-GAP-CO-Tail-Ride-1/Day-4-Rockwood-to-Frostburg/

Statistics:
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