Leaving Lewisburg, we had around 20 miles on the highway before we reached our route. We passed quite a few Mennonites or Amish kids either walking, cycling, or horse & carting probably on their way to school. One cart had about 5 kids in it and looked like it was driven by a teenage girl. We saw a woman pedalling for all she was worth up a slight hill. I guess you could say their religious beliefs keep them fit.
We were then, once again into a forest on great gravel roads. Parts of this were quite rocky so it was a good challenging route. Arriving at one stop on the route it was noticed as I stopped that my rear brakes were making a scraping sound. Checking we found rear brake pads down to the metal. Side of the road brake pad change effected we then pressed on.
Stopping for lunch at a McDonalds in a small town, a guy we chatted to told us to expect some rain. He was right. As soon as we went to get on our bikes it started. Ever optimistic I decided to just put on a rain jacket
as I thought it would clear as we headed North. He others thought differently and donned full wet gear. I was on the wrong side of this decision as it rained heavily, and I got pretty wet. The others stayed mainly dry. Of course as we headed further north it did gradually clear which started the drying process. Not really a problem that turning our motel room into a drying room wouldnt remedy.
Even though it was wet we pressed on and the roads were really great. In the wet these roads looked really greasy, but they were nowhere near as bad as they looked. It was a good test for the tyres we were running as we were all running different fronts. I had on a Motoz which are Australian designed and I had no slides at all. Ian was running a Kenda Trackmaster which was sliding all over the place. Bryan was running a Motoz Desert which is a bit different from my one and it was quite different as far as grip goes. In other words, it was like Ians, sliding in slippery conditions. Keith had an IRC VE35 on the front and like me had
Arriving in Lawrenceville Pennsylvania we had the Mid Atlantic Back Country Discover Route – all 1037 miles of it (approximately 1670kms) We took photos to celebrate our achievement and then pressed on to Corning which was in New York State and where we had booked a motel.
Tomorrow we head to Hancock NY which is the start of the North East BDR which runs right up to the Canadian border. (Approx 1300 miles) We have encountered a few people who seeing us arrive in their town covered in dust or up and talk to us to find out where we are going, where we from and then regale us with stories of their motorcycling careers back in the day. Normally MX racing and we have decided that this whole Eastern area has produced a lot of MX champions. Actually, we these discussions as generally Americans will go out of their way to offer advice and to make you feel When they find out you are from a foreign
country they say to the United States. They will then go on to give you hints as to trails, restaurants and which Is all appreciated. Generally they finish the conversation by saying stay safe out there.
