David Chapman

My wife and I took a hike at Susquehannock State Park. We parked at the Pinnacle Overlook and then hiked the 6 mile loop around Kelly’s Run. The overlook is a fun destination if you were to park at a different entrance, but depending on your past experiences, the view isn’t overly impressive. Like I said, a fun destination, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend going just for it. That said, the hike around Kelly’s Run was fabulous. Highly varied between climbs, descents, trail types and technical routes. 10/10 would recommend. I would highly suggest hiking shoes, or something with good grip and water resistance. We also took a hiking bag with water and some snacks to take a break and a breather.

Planned on taking a ride out to a plane crash memorial, but to be honest, I wasn’t in it today. It was a grind and had way too many thoughts of turning around and going home. So 8 miles in, not even half way to the site, I called it quits and decided on a different adventure. Sometimes it’s gonna be like that I guess. Hoping for a better ride next time.

30mph winds, sounds like a terrible idea to go for a ride. So I went for a ride. Ended up bailing out of the canal trail and explored Lums Pond to get away from the wind. Though easier, the trails are slow and bumpy. Still, it was enjoyable and nice to get out.

I took inspiration from a YouTuber, and decided to play a game of fate. Roll the dice. If I roll a 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, I ride that amount of laps around the reservoir. If the dice is rolled a 1, the game is over and I head home. However, if a 1 is rolled prior to riding 10 laps, that 1 counts as a 10 lap penalty instead of sending me home. Ended up riding 36 miles around the reservoir. Video being made and will share here when completed, but that will be a few days.

Shorter ride today, kinda inspirationless to be honest, but wanted to at least get some miles in towards my annual goal and keep the progress going. I decided to explore a trail I’ve ridden by countless times, but never ridden. Ended up riding down a trail I hadn’t ridden, but didn’t know existed either (was confused). It took my right back to where I came from thinking it was the trail intended to ride. So yay, checked off two new trails. The intended trail clearly isn’t used frequently, was very over grown and cluttered. And that box turtle scared to life out of me! No turtles were harmed. I gently pushed him with the front of my tire to move him off the trail then continued my ride.

Well that was a fun one! I got to a junction, left or right, and it occurred to me, why not both??? Why not go left, and find a way back around to the right side using predominantly gravel/single track. There is such an abundance of it around here, that it wasn’t hard to do, and the route could have been either shorter or longer. It made for a fun adventure.

After the rain of last week, I’m back at it. To be fair, I was being a bit of a wimp and using the rain as an excuse to have some recovery days. In any event, took a ride to a new trail today, well worth checking out. Big Elk Creek State Park, which links you into Fair Hill.