4 Winds Rally 2026

Friday, August 14th, Marty, Tara, and I set off for the 60th annual 4 Winds Rally in Fairmont, PA. I met up with Marty and Tara at their place, and we were planning on a 10:30 departure. After some final checks to make sure all our baggage was properly secured, we hit the road.

It wasn't hot, but oh boy was it humid. Marty had put together a route that would take a meandering path across the Commonwealth and grab some Grand Coddiwomple stops along the way. It's only about an hour and a half to get to the rally, so of course we went with a six-hour route since we had all day to get there.

We headed southwest through Spruce Creek on our way to Williamsburg to get the first of several ice cream shops, bears, covered bridges, etc. From there, we continued southwest and grabbed a few bonus points along the back way around Hollidaysburg and on our way past the Horseshoe Curve.

We continued on and started heading north on Route 53 on our way to lunch in Coalport. If you make it out that way, be sure to stop into Josie's for what Marty and I agreed was a top-tier bacon cheeseburger.

After lunch, we headed to our first covered bridge of the weekend, McGhee's Mills. From there, it was a relatively straight shot into the rally site, but not before finally actually buying something at one of our ice cream stops. Remember, it was crazy humid, and now the heat was climbing as well. Joe's Drive-In was a welcome sight when we rolled into Punxsutawney.

From there, we headed into Redbank Municipal Park, site of the rally. After a quick check-in, we took a loop around the park grounds and set up camp.

4 Winds had set up a GS Challenge course, and we sat in the stands and watched several people attempt the various obstacles with varying degrees of success. The remainder of the night was spent chatting with old and new friends and generally just relaxing.

Saturday

Saturday morning, we decided to stick together and do our own ride instead of any of the planned group rides. So that meant it was time to get out the tablet and draw something up. Luckily, I had already saved a bunch of waypoints, and it was just a matter of stringing together a bunch of points and transferring it to the GPS.

Garmin wouldn't steer us wrong, right?

We spent the day jumping from point to point, taking in the Pennsylvania farmland and rolling hills. Today was another muggy one, and we stopped for lunch at a Dairy Queen in Indiana. The AC was blasting, and we could have sat there all day. But we still had a couple of stops to hit on the way back to the rally site.

One of those spots was the Kintersburg Covered Bridge. The GPS sent us off Route 119 and down Musser Road. About a mile down Musser, there is a Y in the road. The paved road goes straight, and the thick gravel path heads straight down the side of the rolling hillside.

Well, I guess the creek the bridge crosses is at the bottom, so down we go.

The road was mostly smooth, but the gravel was pretty thick. We took our time and made it to the bottom, only to find the bridge was gone!

It seems they are doing a rebuild of this one, so the modern bridge took us over the creek. To add a cherry on top of it all, the road out the other end was perfectly paved and took us right back up to Route 119...about half a mile from where we had turned off earlier.

Oh well...ADVENTURE, right?

We made our way back to the rally with a couple more stops along the way. It was a short mileage day, but it was nice to get back and get out of the hot riding gear.

We hung out for a while, then headed over to one of the pavilions for dinner. After dinner, the rallymasters did the 50/50 drawing and gave away a bunch of door prizes.

We headed back to camp and listened to the musical guest of the night before watching the radar to see how wet it would be heading home on Sunday.

Sunday

We woke to raindrops that steadily got heavier, so we headed up to the pavilion for some breakfast. Looking at the radar, I figured we'd have a window starting around 10:00 where the rain would stop and we could get packed up and head home.

Not too fast, though, since we were heading in the same direction as the storms.

We hit the road around 11 or so and took a direct route back to State College. We started to catch up to the backside of the storm around DuBois, so we stopped for lunch and were greeted with blue skies for a while.

We made it most of the way back to the State College area before we hit some slight rain coming into Port Matilda.

This was my first time at this rally, and it was well run and a good time for everyone involved. If you haven't made it to a rally yet, make sure to check the website for one near you. You won't be disappointed.