A Week Long Fall Ride in North Central Pennsylvania

Last week we did our annual "Fall ride in Pennsylvania". Every year we go to Wellsboro PA to ride the back roads in the area. We ride out of the Canyon Motel in downtown Wellsboro. We ride for 5 weekdays normally. Our riding group was 14 motorcycles for some days and then down to 8 for the last day.

The weather was exactly as ordered. Fog/mist each morning that burned off just as we started our day’s ride. Temps stayed in the 70-75 F degree range most of the time. The only rain we had was a few overnight showers. We rode most of the roads that everyone who has ridden in north central PA knows. We were pleasantly surprised to find new pavement on parts of Hwy 44 and the Hyner Park Rd that goes from Hwy 44 to the Hyner View Overlook. The paving of Hwy154 from Canton to Shunk was also now complete and a fun twisty snake of a road. The road up to the west side of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania was wonderful as usual. A great road with all the tight twisties of more famous roads further south but with no traffic to get in your way of enjoying the road.

We mostly broke into two riding groups to ensure that the ride group size wasn’t too big. I was a bit surprised though that the riding group I led was called the “Slow Group”. We had 3 active motorcycle road racers and one retired Senior Instructor with the Ontario motorcycle safety program in our group. The riding groups each had route cards to help sort out the best routes. We left copies of these with the staff of the Canyon Motel who can provide them to anyone who comes to visit.

I can confirm that the PA deer population are alive and well and not afraid to wander close to the road. I had an up close and almost personal interaction with a large wild turkey…got to love those Brembo 4 piston calipers for fast stopping. Sadly we did find some major detours/road closures and stops for construction. However, it is hard to complain about PA road crews doing re-paving on our favourite roads.

Our hosts at the Canyon Motel made sure we were comfy and our only complaint was that we were spread out a little more than usual.

In the five days we were in PA, we rode about 1200 km not counting the mileage there and back. Just loved that roads I guess. We did have a few ‘moments’ with a tip over in a parking lot but no harm except for a few scratches and some embarrassment. Everyone even showed up with bikes and tires in good mechanical condition (with one exception for a bald tire). I am too nice to point out that little faux pas.

The little restaurant in Ulysses PA again won the contest for the best homemade pie. There were a few close seconds but no one else hit the ball out of the park like they did. We enjoyed evening meals at all the usual places in Wellsboro (Wellsboro Brew House, Penn Wells Hotel&Dining Room,etc.) and again found friendly staff and good food. As usual for our trips, we stopped at Ed Fisher’s motorcycle shop in Shunk PA and had a great visit with an AMA Hall of Fame member and former Triumph Factory racer. We also tried the little restaurant at the Shunk General Store. Been going past it for years and never stopped. Wow the food was good and the locally made Wild Cherry soda was worth the stop.

Eagles Mere Museum

This year we finally got to see the Eagles Mere PA vintage collection. I have been trying to get us into see the collection for years without success. This time the place was opened just for us. The tour started with the vintage car collection. A brand new building with hundreds of thousands of $$ worth of great vintage American cars (plus a few motorcycles). The collection was amazing. They also had purchased the Kaiser-Frazier dealership sign that used to hang at the old shop next to Ed Fisher’s place in Shunk PA. It was restored with new lighting and hung with signage showing where it came from. We spent several hours checking out the hundreds of cars and exhibits.

Next up was a tour of the vintage air museum. This is a private museum that is only open some of the time during the summer. The collection includes many working planes from the teens to the 1940s. The collection was spread thru 4 hangers and included many early airplane engines on stands to show just what propelled some of the earliest flying machines. The collection was described in detail to us by the collection Manager (Karen). She knew more early flight details than anyone I have met. Our personal guided tour was completed with a question+answer period with the collection’s mechanic and head of plane building and maintenance. A real once in a life time tour of the past.

Everyone in our group had a great time. I would suggest that just going to Pennsylvania to ride the back roads for a weekend is not enough. Besides the roads are busier on weekends.

Paul R

Only about 50 more ! lol

All photos courtesy of John H Newton.