After our adventure in New Jersey yesterday, I decided I wasn’t going to backtrack by riding out of Hope. So I put the bike on the rack and we drove the 26.8 miles I would have had to ride to Tannersville, PA, and we spent the night at the Days Inn (worst place so far.) Even starting the ride from there, I had another 15 miles of familiar territory. Speaking of that, I had to climb the 1.5 mile hill that I mentioned in the Day 13 post. It wasn’t 13% as I complained about then, but I wasn’t complaining today that it wasn’t as steep as advertised as I rode UP :-). (It was mostly 9 -11% incline)
The big hill is on a street called Sullivan Trail. I was on it for 9 miles and it’s just a fantastic road to ride. I stopped to take this picture. The birds were chirping, the air was piney from the earlier rain, and the stream made a soothing sound as it ran down hill. If it was a sunny day and a little warmer, I could see myself pulling out a book and reading for the rest of the day.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I don’t know the route that George W. Howell took when he left Hope to get to Dundas, Ontario. I had found a book written in 1816 by a Lt. Hall that shows a route from Black Rock (Buffalo, NY) to Philadelphia and I’m basically doing that in reverse.
The Sullivan Trail is named for Major General John Sullivan. He was asked by George Washington in 1779 to squash some uprisings in Wyoming, PA (now Wilkes-Barre). He sent two regiments to widen an old bridal/Indian trail so the Army could make its way from Easton to Wyoming. Later this route became the “Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike” used between 1815 and the 1850s. This route seems a likely choice for my family to immigrate to Canada around 1800 and later for GW to go visit.
This is the Old Pittison Road Tunnel and I encountered it at the end of a pretty long descent at a pretty fast pace. The road narrows to one lane and I couldn’t tell what was going on with two different tunnels but one lane. I came to a complete stop. It turns out that the entrance on the right is for 2 way traffic and the entrance on the left is for a stream. I’m glad I stopped. I made triple sure no one was coming and zipped through as quickly as I could. I thought the architecture looked pretty cool, so I took a picture while I figured things out.
I had a reservation snafu. I couldn’t find any place to stay last night, so I panicked and settled for the Days Inn in Tannersville. I didn’t realize that the Hemlock Campground was only 9 miles from Tannersville and I had a reservation there already for tonight. If I was on top of my game, we would have stayed here last night instead of tonight, skipped the Days Inn, and we wouldn’t have had to backtrack 30 miles after I had already ridden to Wilkes-Barre .
BUT, I had reserved the Hemlock Campground as part of my original camping itinerary, upgraded to a cabin instead of tents, and moved the reservation out 1 week. I didn’t want to throw away the $115 that I already paid and spend another $180 for a room at the Holiday Inn Express in Wilkes-Barre. So, we drove 30 miles back to Tobyhanna and are now at this cozy cabin. We’ll drive back to Wilkes-Barre in the morning and continue the journey North-West from there.
I put all the numbers in my spreadsheet above. Whoa! 681 miles, 28,700 vertical, and 19,000 extra calories. No wonder my appetite is through the roof!!!
The end result was you bagged the campground and settled at a hotel. You can diss my opinion, but you are certainly following my suggestions/ plan. Good job! 👍👍🤣🤣
Not dissing it at all. We’ve been staying mostly in hotels — it’s way better to sleep on a decent bed. But I only delayed the campground for a night. That’s where we are now. I can’t believe how expensive the hotels have gotten. $140 for a flea bag motel like the Days Inn in Tannersville is robbery. Apparently, hotels are up 22% this year alone.
Thanks for sharing your family gathering in in NJ. It is amazing you have reestablished those connections across so many generations. It must have been powerful to see such tangible evidence of your family’s early years here as the stone house you showed us. So very cool. Hope those hills are getting a little easier.
The hills aren’t getting any easier. See the post from today (Day 16), whoa!
Yeah, it’s been a blast to tie in the Howell history with real life experiences.
That tunnel would have freaked me out. Another ~30,000 calories to go!
It was so weird. Once I stopped and processed what was going on, it was ok.
Yeah, that’s a lot of calories.