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……………