EAST FREEDOM, PENNSYLVANIA
I parked in East Freedom, Blair Co., at the elementary school. It started out sunny and seemingly was warmer than it really was. I wore a jersey and arm warmers. I soon realized it was cooler than I thought, with temperatures never climbing more than the mid-50s. I slipped on a jacket that was in my back pocket.
My route took me down the valley and around the base of Blue Knob. Blue Knob is both a State Park and a ski resort. At 3,127 feet (953.1 meters), it is the second-highest peak in Pennsylvania, second only to Mount Davis in Somerset County (3,212 feet).
After 22.5 miles, the climb began at Pavia. The Blair Bicycle Club listed the climb as almost five miles at 7%. They listed a 25% section, which I did not find.1 But the distance was right, and it was a nice climb. I think two cars passed me on the way up, so “lightly traveled” might even be an understatement.
It was a ghost town at the top if one building, a ski lodge, constituted a town. If I needed a place to get more water or food and had counted on that, I would have been out of luck. Actually, I was counting on that, but on this cool day, the two bottles on my bike were enough.
The descent from Blue Knob was a little sketchy. The first mile of the descent was steep and in horrible shape. There were many potholes and lots of loose gravel. The steepness necessitated riding the brakes, but the loose gravel made it dangerous to use them.
The wind was blowing, and it was cold — in the mid-40s, and I was still soaked with sweat from the climb. But after the first mile, the pavement improved. And once I reached Ski Gap Road, it was a long, straight 2-3% descent back down to Claysburg.
At Claysburg, I had to return to East Freedom. The road I was on, Bedford Street, was lightly traveled and in great shape. This would be a great place to live and ride. One can stay on the flat roads of the valley or head to the mountains.
And then the most surreal part of the ride. In East Freedom, I saw a man mowing his lawn. I first went by him, then something said to turn around. I did, and I caught his attention. I introduced myself and said, “I used to live in this house.”
John Griffin immediately said, “Well, you have to come in and see the house.” He proceeded to take me room by room while I was wondering, “Was this the house I lived in when I was three, or was it the house next door?” But eventually, I figured out that it was the right house and gave him a little history to go along with what he gave me, namely, the house was built in 1910.
Afterward, it was a quick trip to Panera in Altoona for some refueling and lunch with a special cousin.
This was an incredible day. It was a trip over a mountain and back in time.
Mileage: 41.3
Average Speed: 13.3
- Pavia to Blue Knob – Maximum Grade 25% at 1.61 miles ↩︎
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