Mountain Biking:
Pittsburgh and Beyond

Mountain biking is a way of life--like most other outdoor sports, it puts you in touch with your body (ouch!) and the world around you (ouch again!). Since starting mountain biking, I've also decided to try cross-country skiing and backpacking, so this page will probably get split up and generalized. There's the whole outdoors to explore!

Most of this will probably center on rides around the Pittsburgh area, although we often go to upstate New York and Maryland/West Virginia.

The Latest Ride

Jim Thorpe

Riding in the Poconos sounds pretty tacky, if you don't know the wilder side of the mountains. Jim Thorpe was a "dying" mining town (some folks will probably take issue with this) until they took on tourism. Coming into town is descending into a hollow between the mountains you are about to ride, into the Lehigh River Gorge. My first reaction was that it reminded me of small towns in Switzerland, but that's the yuppie commercial area, which really isn't too bad, just coy. The rest of the town is on the other side of the river, and is much more American hometown feeling.

The big mountain biking event of the year is Mountain Bike Weekend, which is held around Father's Day at Mauch Chunk State Park. It's gotten too much for me (it's hard to get a comfortable campsite, and it's noisy), but it's great to see a campground taken over by bicycles. The park is about 5 miles outside of (above) the town, and you can ride to a *huge* variety of trails from there.

Jim Thorpe is about half an hour's drive south from I80, in the eastern third of Pennsylvania. You can take 476 south to Lehighton, and then go north on 903 for about 10 minutes to get to Jim Thorpe. You'll pass Blue Mountain Sports, where you can get directions, trail maps, and rent bikes.

Other ride descriptions.