Biking at Stony Valley

It's sad to say, but I hadn't been on my bicycle since the first day of spring! Yesterday, though, I finally had the chance to go out again. Brian and I met up with our friends Rob and EB, and we headed to Dauphin to the Stony Valley Railroad Grade trail.

I had heard about this trail from a friend at work who rides it regularly. We thought it would be good to try it out since it's not too far away and it's a rail trail, which means it's pretty level.

Well first of all, getting there was interesting. The last two miles of the trip were on a pothole-laden dirt road which was barely wide enough for two cars. The ruts and holes were so bad that we could hardly ever go above 15 mph - which made the hand-made sign at the beginning of the road, asking people to go slowly, laughably unnecessary.

We finally arrived at the parking area, got on our bikes, and started down the trail. I had read on one website that the trail was kind of rough and best suited for mountain bikes, but when I asked my friend about it, he said he had pulled a baby trailer on the back of his hybrid bike along the trail several times last year, and that we shouldn't have a problem with it.

Well, we were able to ride on it, but it was definitely not easy in some places. I thought because it was a Rails-to-Trails trail, that it would be much like the one in Newville, which has crushed cinders and some small gravel, and is pretty well-maintained. However, apparently the Stony Valley trail is not specifically designed for bikes such as ours - it's more of a hiking and mountain biking trail. We encountered a wide range of conditions and ground coverings on the trail - anything from packed dirt, to crushed cinders, to small gravel, to pretty large gravel - and there were a few areas with some pretty big puddles in the path. It was quite inconsistent: we'd be going along just fine on packed dirt, and then all of a sudden there'd be this section with some pretty good-sized gravel, and we'd have to slow down some to be able to get through it. Our tires are just not that wide, and don't handle rough conditions as well as mountain bikes do.

Having said all that, we did enjoy the trail, at least the portion of it we rode (it's about 20 miles from end to end, but we only went 6 miles before we turned around). It's out in the middle of the woods, and it was very peaceful and pretty. It was a beautiful day to be out there, and I took quite a few pictures along the way.

However, I don't think any of us are in a hurry to go back there anytime soon. The road to get to the trail, and the trail itself, are just a little rougher than we want to deal with. (I guess my friend - and his baby - are tougher than we are!) But at least now we can say we tried it.