Getting Ready for KrausTour 2009

We are in the final stages of planning, figuring out logistics, determining who is in, who is out, who can really make it the full five days? We are excited to be riding the Allegheny Trail and C&O Canal again this year. I am a little sad that none of the ride is in West Virginia, but it is going to be great. My son is going to try to go the full ride this year, so that is going to be exciting and we are going to have (possibly) 19 people ride on the weekend. That should be a fun crowd.

I will try to blog and tweet our trip if I can. Has anyone out there ridden either trail in recent times? Know anything about the conditions?

KrausTour 2009

So, we haven't posted anything to the blog for so long because we didn't make the ride in 2008. It was the first year we all missed in about 11 years. So we are hoping that our fearless leader will be back on the bike this year. Big Dave is doing his off-season training in Florida and is putting in the miles. We are considering the third or fourth week in June so if you have any ideas, send us an email.

While it has been a pretty cold summer, I have gotten a couple of short rides in this winter here in West Virginia. One near home and one in Morgantown this week. Let us know if you are out there riding.

Heading out from Hancock MD

Here we are headed out on Saturday morning, before we ride 73 miles to Brunswick. Everyone except Dad (Dave) who is taking the picture. We headed out for 10 miles of pavement on the Rail Trail before getting on the towpath.

Click the picture to see it on Flickr.

Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.= 350 Miles of Fun

This is an artcile written by Donnie Kopp... I am re-posting it here with permission.

Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.= 350 Miles of Fun

By the time that this column goes to print I will be on my second day of an epic bicycle ride with a bunch of my buddies from Lewis County. For the last six years we have ridden from Weston to Washington. It was always a great ride but this year we are doing things a little differently.

This years ride is going to begin on West Virginia Day, Wednesday June 20^th . This year instead of starting out from Weston we will be starting out somewhere near the airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although I have always had a great time starting out from Weston I am really looking forward to starting out from an entirely new location. This will mean that we get at least two days of brand new scenery that we have not ridden before. It also means that we get out of those first two days when we were climbing about 4,000 feet.

On previous trips we would start out in Weston and ride Route 33 all the way over to Elkins. At that point we would get on a rail-trail that would take us to Parsons. This was the part of the trip that would always get really difficult. Just outside of Parsons in a little town called Hendricks we would get on the Blackwater Canyon. It was several miles of climbing at this point and after what seemed like a couple of hours we would finally get to Thomas. Thomas is not where we stopped however we still had a few miles left to make it over to Davis. I know that a few miles may not sound too bad but after 75 miles of mostly climbing it always seemed a long way to me. The first two days of our old trip were truly beautiful but I am really looking forward to some new scenery and I am truthfully thankful that we will get a little respite from all of those mountains.

The brain’s behind this trip is a gentleman from Alum Bridge and his name is David Kraus. David is probably in his early sixties and he loves to ride a bicycle more than anyone that I have ever met before in my life. I think that it would be a safe bet to say that David rides nearly every day from April through October. Even when he does go on vacation or to visit his kids that are spread out all over he always takes his bike.

I remember David telling us that when one of his sons lived in Michigan he and another son that lived here rode their bikes there to visit. He just loves to ride. I will always remember early one Sunday morning several years ago. We were making our annual trek to Washington, D.C. and we were riding in some very beautiful country near Mount Storm. David and I were riding together and I made a statement that I felt kind of bad about missing church. Now I don’t know if what he said to me was his original statement or not but he looked at me and said, “I would rather be on my bike thinking about God than in church thinking about riding my bike.” Some things that people say stick with you for a long time and that was one of those statements.

Not only is David a great rider he is a great organizer and planner as well. He makes the schedule of where we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner and he also makes all of the arrangements for our lodging at the different motels where we spend the night along the way. He does an outstanding job planning and leading our trips and he deserves many accolades for a job well done. He is not only a great rider and a great planner he is also a great person as well.

I’ve kind of gotten off the subject of where and how far we are riding. As I mentioned we are starting somewhere near the Pittsburgh Airport on a fairly new trail that runs through and around many small towns and the Ohio-Pyle State Park. At this point all I can really tell you is that this particular trail ends in Cumberland, Maryland. We will spend the second night there and at that time we will get on the C and O Canal for the last 185 miles of our trip. Hopefully on Sunday afternoon at around two o’clock we will arrive at the Washington Monument. At this point we will all have some pictures taken and congratulate one another for making it that far and then we will load up on our bus for are ride back to Clarksburg and Weston. At the time of this writing there are ten of us scheduled to make the trip. All of the guys with the exception of me are from Lewis County and they are all a great group of guys.

It’s really a fun time to be out in the fresh air with a group of guys sharing stories and memories of previous times. Once in a while we’ll take a swim break in the Potomac to cool off and then it’s back on the bikes and off we go. I can tell you one thing, when bed time comes nobody ever has a hard time falling asleep. It’s the best week of sleeping that I have the whole year. We average 75 miles a day for five days and that is a lot of peddling. Have a great weekend……………

Made it.

We are in DC. The bus ran out of gas and we missed the monuments. But all is well.

Landed in Hancock

We made it to Hancock today. It was a little muddy on the C&O canal. We rode for 44 miles before lunch and about 20 after lunch. The Hancock Motor Lodge is now the Best Value Inn (it was last year).

Alex and Steve have arrived and Tammy is on her way for tomorrow's ride to Brunswick.

KrausTour 2007 is Set

The itinerary is done (kind of), the cooler has been fixed (and hopefully filled), the bus has been washed and tuned (I hope the air condition is working), the bikes are being loaded, hours of training has been logged (I did make a couple of rides this year!) and the KrausTour 2007 is pulling out tonight.

Traveling for the first time to Confluence, PA to stay the night and start peddling in the morning. Tomorrow should be a great day on a brand new trail. We are heading south for the first day to be bussed back to Confluence at days end in an effort to beat the heat.

Let's Hope for a safe fun ride!