Ohiopyle, PA
7/24/16 to 7/27/16
Our first stop was Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. We have both been here before but Rose never got the chance to do any whitewater rafting on the Youghiogheny River. Plus there are a lot of hiking trails and bike paths. You can check out their website here.
We decided to camp at the Kentuck Campground. A pretty nice state campground but it’s on top of a big hill. I had a hard time getting up the steep road with the truck and trailer. If you read the campground information they warn large RVs not to take route 2019. When I checked the directions on Google maps it listed that road as route 2010. I had the truck floored and was only going about 15 mph up the hill. Finally got to the campground and set up in spot #146. Here’s a map of the campsite.
Monday 7/25/16 The next day we decided to go for a bike ride on part of The Great Allegheny Passage. The 150-mile bike trail connects with the 184.5-mile C&O Canal Towpath to create a 335-mile non-motorized route between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC. 27 miles of trails pass through Ohiopyle. The surface is mostly flat, crushed limestone and was once the rail bed for the Western Maryland Railroad. There are a couple of high bridges with great views of the river below. So we loaded up the bikes on the back of the truck and headed down to town. Before our ride, we checked out the town a little and made reservations for whitewater rafting the next day. We ended up riding about 13 miles.
On the way back to the campground we stopped at Cucumber Falls and what they call the natural water slide. It's been kind of dry this year so there wasn't much water flowing.
Tuesday 7/26/16 The next day we went whitewater rafting. Had to be at the check-in site at 9:30. After a little instructions and fitting us with a life vest and helmet they loaded us into a school bus and took us to the launch area. The pictures below I took with my iPhone. I bought a waterproof container that hangs around your neck. I couldn't get a lot of pictures as we were rafting because we were constantly paddling and it took a while to get it in and out of the container. We had a great time. The trip was about 6 hours and they even brought lunch for everyone. As long as we could keep the raft straight we didn't have any trouble but that's pretty hard with all the rocks and the current of the water. Of the 6 people in the raft 3 of us fell out at different times. I did, Rose didn't. There was one place where we pulled over and everyone got a chance to swim a little and jump off of a high rock. (About 15 or 20 feet high) And yes, we both jumped. Sorry I didn't get a picture because I was in the water when Rose jumped.
The pictures below are not of our group. I took these the day before when we were on the bike path. We could hear the people on the river so I walked down to take a few pictures. The last picture is a first aid station that they have set up at most of the main rapids. You can see that there are a defibrillator and stretcher. Just in case. We did see them carrying someone up to the ambulance from the natural water slide one day when we were driving by.
Wednesday 7/27/16 The next day we decided to go hiking. I told Rose that it wouldn't be too long but we ended up walking about 13 miles and according to Rose's Fitbit, we did 96 flights of steps! All the trails are up and down the hills. We started from the campground and took a trail to the bike path. Took the bike path toward town. Walked all around town, all around the Ferncliff Natural Area, the visitors center, and played around on the rocks near the falls. Then back to the campground. The trail from the bike path to the campground is only half a mile but it is very steep. Once we got to the campground we walked the Kentuck Trail. The bugs were bad and you can see me looking at the map with my bug hat on.
Thursday 7/28/16 The next day we packed up and headed to Gettysburg, PA. Goodbye Ohiopyle, It was exhausting but fun.
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