As a follow-up to the Flying Taco Tour in May that was marred by rainy, less than desireable weather, Joe served up a fall colors tour through the Endless Mountains region of Pennsylvania.
This time around we had 4 bikes and five riders. Joe and his wife Jodie would lead the ride, Marty Tara and myself would follow taking in the autumn views. Our ride began with us all meeting in Williamsport for a chilly start to the day. We made our way north out of the area and then eventually east on 154 and 87. We meandered across the ridges and valley's taking in countless views along the way. Eventually we stopped for a quick lunch at a Dandy Market in Camptown PA. Sadly we saw no Camptown Races this time around.
After lunch, our route continued through more brilliant fall colors until we arrived at the Martins Creek Viaduct. A short but fairly steep, well-maintained dirt road led us to the overlook. There’s signage explaining the bridge’s history—but we didn’t need it. Moments after we arrived, Richard Zick pulled up in his truck to share the story firsthand.
Richard, a former president of the town’s historical society, had the overlook installed on part of his family’s farm. He turned out to be a wealth of information and even gifted Tara a copy of his book about the Viaduct.
After making our way back down to the pavement we continued on. At this point the skies had turned cloudy and with the earlier sunset this time of year the daylight was waning. However, Joe had more trains on the brain. From Martins Creek we made our way to the Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct aka the Nicholson Bridge. This is the largest viaduct in the area and many of you may have been through here in the past. A quick stop for the obligatory photos and we were back on our way with only one of us getting shocked by the electric fence!
As the day drew to an end, we headed to the house Joe had arranged in Jermyn, PA. We pulled into the garage just in time—most of us still had our dark tinted visors on. After a quick search for local dining options, we swapped in clear visors and rode to Mayli Manor for dinner.
When we stepped outside afterward, we could hear what sounded like dirt track racing echoing from the valley below. Curious, Joe went back inside to ask—and discovered it wasn’t race cars but chainsaws from Reaper’s Revenge, a world-class haunted hayride nearby. A short ride back to the house, and we all called it a night.
Rise and shine! It's day two of the tour. We all got ready and were out the door early since today would be a longer day mileage wise. We stopped a few miles down the road at the Finch Hill Restaurant and Dairy Bar. After a hot, reasonably priced meal we were on our way. Today would be a bigger mileage day across Pennsylvania's north tier with not many stops. We stayed mostly true to the track Joe provided with a few course corrections for dirt roads, only to end up on other dirt roads. That said they were all in good shape and nobody had any issues.
Our last viaduct stop was the Starrucca Viaduct—sometimes called “The Stone Bridge.” At over 1,000 feet long and 150 feet high, it’s the oldest of the three and impressive in its own right. The bridge deck is more than 30 feet wide, originally built for two lines, though only one appears active these days.
From there, we continued west, just south of the New York border, before turning south toward Towanda—home of The Flying Taco.
After lunch we had to make some time so we headed across 6 through Wellsboro and into Galeton where we turned south and followed the usual suspects (144,44,Hyner Mtn,120) back into Lock Haven. We said our goodbyes in Lock Haven with Joe and Jodie heading back toward Williamsport and Marty, Tara, and myself heading back to the State College area via route 64.
All together it was a great weekend with near ideal weather, a great route with some interesting bits of history thrown in to boot. The leaves were probably a week or so past peak in most places, but there's still a lot of color left out there if you can make it out that way soon.
