Allegheny National Forest (ANF)Where: North central/western Pennsylvania
When: July 2017
No racing for us at this location, this was strictly a riding vacation weekend. We have heard about this location from many people for many years, and have always been interested in getting there to ride and finally did. And we were not disappointed. What an amazing location for anyone who is interested in outdoor activities. Camping, hiking, kayaking, boating, horseback riding, and cycling were all activities we saw people doing there during the weekend.
Being that ANF is a national forest, camping is pretty much allowed anywhere. But being that we had never been here before and didn't know the lay of the land we opted to get a site at the ANF Dewdrop Campground for the weekend. It was a nice campground. Spacious spots well separated from other sites, friendly camp hosts, and conveniently located a few miles from one of the areas we were planning on riding. The only odd thing about this camp sites was the showers. To get hot water in the showers one had to push a button outside of the shower stall. Once the button was pushed you had 2 to 3 minutes of hot water. That was it, so shower fast. The campgrounds weren't bad but next time we head out to that area we plan to just set-up camp in the national forest.
Our first riding adventure was a Jake's Rocks, an IMBA trail system that is quite new and still being worked on. Currently there is about 10 miles of trails, but the plan us to have 40 miles by the time it's complete. Most of the trails are machine built, think Allegrippis or Nockamixon, but are not quite as smooth and flowy. Sure, they have that aspect, but there are still rock gardens and technical features. Both Joël and I agree our favorite trail was Three Sisters, a short side-trail. It was much more single track than the others and wove around and through these huge rocks, pretty awesome. The vegetation and scenery during the riding was quite different than anything we have seen before. The forest was very open between the trees and was filled with ferns. It was like a green, storybook wonderland. It was quite beautiful. Jake's Overlook, a rock cropping with a great view of the lake, is accessible from the trails and parking area. We stopped there for some photos. To get in the miles we wanted, we rode every trail both directions and rode too and from Dewdrop Campground. We met other riders along the trail but not so many of them to be annoying. Everyone was friendly and happy to be out there. The milage at Jake's Rocks is a little short but it's a fun and beautiful place to ride. Definitely recommended. Great job to everyone working on this place, you have something good going there.
The other riding adventure for the weekend was the Rocky Gap ATV trail. It is set-up like a figure eight with the parking lot in the middle. The trails are designated one-way. Since this is a multi-use trail system primarily used by ATVS and motos, we got started early in the morning to avoid too much traffic. This worked quite well, we only encountered a few motos and one ATV, they were all super friendly and happy to be out and sharing the trail. This trail system was geared toward OHVs, it is all double track with chunky and rocky trail. Lots of recent rain made for numerous large mud puddles. The riding was good; we enjoyed the trails and it was a good day of training. The most noteworthy part of these trails was the oil drilling. Old oil drilling equipment was everywhere. We couldn't tell if it was so old that it was no longer being used or just not being used at this moment. A neat piece of history of the area to see while riding.
This trip to ANF was not only about the riding. We visited the Kinzua Bridge, an old train viaduct that was destroyed by a tornado that is now turned into a state park. A portion of the old bridge has been turned into a walkway complete with part that has a glass floor. A distillery and winery were also visited.
What a great weekend of cycling, camping, and sightseeing. ANF we will be back.
- Jess and Joël
