My first touring experience on the bike is in the books. Not an enormous cross-country trek, but it was technically an international trip - and it involved luggage, overnight lodgings and dealing with all kinds of weather - so it counts!
Story first, then pics.
So as not to bury the lead, Pennsylvania is something approaching a biker paradise, with epic scenery and beautiful winding roads literally everywhere.
Once we got south of Buffalo and cleared NY State, we exited the highway and wound our way through northern Pennsylvania, southward towards Wellsboro. Winding through green valleys and alongside countless rivers, we then traversed a series of rolling hills before descending to our destination. Just getting there was the most epic ride of my admittedly short motorcycling life.
Day two saw nearly 600km of scenic riding. We left just after breakfast, and returned late for our 7 pm dinner reservations - that's what I call a full day! Most of the pics below are from that single ride. They represent less than 10 per cent of the photos I took, which in turn represent less than 10 per cent of the photos we could have stopped an taken, but for the limited hours of daylight. I easily hit more curves on this single day than in any year of riding in Ontario.
The ride home challenging. We departed through a cool morning mist, keeping our fingers crossed that we would stay ahead of an advancing line thunderstorms for as long as possible. Alas, not even an hour later the skies turned dark. We pulled over and quickly donned our rain gear. A frighteningly close lightning strike sent us on our way through a worsening deluge. These were narrow, twisting, undulating country lanes. Visibility was poor and traction was tenuous. We took our time, carefully threading our way through forests and over steeply rising hills that fell away just as steeply. Thankfully, the border crossing was reasonably quick. One more brief deluge yielded to bright skies - which was good! Then came extreme heat and high winds - less good! 😃 All part of the adventure, and a safe return was all that mattered. 1400 km in three days, with very little of it on the highway. Pennsylvania was just stunning. I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Gear observations. First - I can't say enough about the Kriega dry pack for anyone not rocking solid panniers. Multiple sizes and stackable, the 20l proved sufficient for me for the 2-night trip, with the rain gear strapped on top with webbing. Speaking of rain gear, The Revi't rain jacket, pants and boots kept me 100% dry through all of the journey home. Finally, when riding from morning to night, and through bright sunshine and black thunderstorms, the photochromic transitions visor proved to be well worth the considerable extra expense, I just always had the right amount of tint - from dark smoke to clear - and never had to think about a visor swap.
