Day 38: Racing the Rain (Barnesville, OH to Delmont, PA - 120 miles)

We looked at the weather last night for the Pittsburgh area and noticed there would be a good chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Not wanting a repeat of yesterday, we set our alarms for 4:45, hoping to hit the road before 6. Our great Warm Showers hosts got up with us and we talked for a bit about the local coal mining in eastern Ohio while we ate and enjoyed our few moments of relaxation before the long day ahead. 

Before crossing into Pennsylvania, we crossed into the northern part of West Virginia for a handful of miles. 

We followed a flat bike path along the river, while the infamous Pennsylvania hills looked on, waiting to swallow us up when the path ended. Thankfully, the Google Maps biking option provided us with another rail trail, heading from the WV border to the outskirts of Pittsburgh. While it was about 13 miles longer than the direct route to our destination, the 40+ miles of flat riding saved us a ton of climbing.

As we were riding along the trail, I called my mom to see if she could periodically check the weather and let us know if any sever thunderstorm warnings popped up for our area. A little while later, the impromptu weather center called back and informed me that some pretty nasty storms would be heading into Pittsburgh around 1:00 or so. At that point we decided to push forward and get to our destination ASAP, hoping to outpace the storm clouds. We stocked up on energy bars and a couple sandwiches at a convenience store so we wouldn't have to make any more stops, and then cranked onward.

Pittsburgh was beautiful to ride through- they have a bike path along the river, bustling with runners, walkers, and fellow cyclists. The downtown skyline was one of the nicest we've seen, too. 

As we were riding through, we anxiously kept watching the sky, noticing the dark clouds moving in from the west. We had about 30 miles to go, so we kept up a good pace and hoped we could keep the clouds behind us. After leaving the city, the Pennsylvania hills gave us a few of its signature hills, but our legs were still feeling fine after the relatively flat morning so we kept up our rhythm. The clouds taunted us with a few dabs of sprinkles, but we left the storms in the dust, making it to Delmont dry and with high spirits. Special thanks to my mom and sister at the weather center for giving us live weather info.