Super ADV 6/22/12 - Day 1

Packed for 3 days, 2 nights.  The extra day and night is what makes it "super."  ;)
Kickstand up at 10:30.

Indian Trail and fresh oil and chips take me over the Blue Ridge where GPS guides me to marker 1, "Koch Rd."
This is my first time "playing back" a pre-planned trip on GPS points (Garmin 205 doesn't support routes, so I've saved a bunch of "favorites" imported from work done on maps.google.com).  Forgetting the defaults of "shortest distance" and "fastest time" for routing makes me miss the road between the reservoirs and Hell Hollow Rd, which I was really looking forward to.


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To point 5 without incident, I'm trying to explore a network of dirt roads around Camelback/ game lands found via GM.  Sure enough, there's gravel, and GPS is routing on non-existent roads and is missing others.  Nav forces me to backtrack Hypsie Gap Rd to point 5, skipping 7-11.  A light rain starts and weather is going downhill.  Rt 423 thru to Rt 191 is a nice ride.  Stop at "Spanky's Breakfast and Lunch" near pt 17 in Newfoundland, PA for lunch:

 ...and ambiance.

While there I check in on the PA ADV tag game and discover the TAG has been dropped minutes ago, and only 16 minutes from where I'm sitting.  Stoked about incorporating a tag in ADV weekend, I re-route to Mountainhome, PA, via 447 and backtrack to Newfoundland with possession of the tag:

"Dangerous storm" clouds are gathering south of me, and needing to make up time, I skip Towpath Rd (point 19/A) and take 84 for an exit or two, then let GPS take me to the Roebling Bridge, pt 20.  This was one of the first tags I dropped.

Then:

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Now:

The aquaduct from NY at nearly 3PM.  There is violent lightening to the south of me.  It's clear I'm either going to have to move north fast or I'm getting wet. 

From Roebling, it's 97 N - a famous mc road, but I don't really see why.  I'm getting ahead of the weather and hugging the Delaware, so I start thinking about dumping the tag at the extreme NE corner of PA - I divert.  15 min into the diversion I check how much time this is costing and abandon the idea, heading back towards 17.  It's really, really, dark and windy, but somehow I missed the rain.  The roads descending into Roscoe, NY are steaming, and it's foggy and WET.  There's a sense of it having just stormed here violently only minutes before.
In Roscoe I get gas, meet some NYers, and put on the rain gear.  A "GPS assumption" sends me the wrong way on 17; another GPS issue (routing preferences, still) has me climbing a fairly steep, muddy Cox Rd.  Fearing the downhill side in mud, and now being rained on, I backtrack to 17 and navigate religiously point-to-point.  I think this is when I finally checked the routing preferences.

Dodged a weather bullet and pulled into Willowemoc Campgrounds around 5 or 6pm.

DB NYer's across the pond seem to think "camping" = "make noise."  An ill-fated trip to Liberty, NY looking for non-existent grocery store;  a visit to the camp store for noodles and sauce; and about 275 miles from 10:30AM, I quit.

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Knowing there's another whole day, night, and day of riding feels like a dream.