Divide and Conquer, by Rail and Trail

By Christine H. O'Toole - Special to The Washington Post

On the right: a deep, Swiss-style farm valley encircled by high peaks. On the left: sheer rock. Overhead: a sulfurous storm cloud. Behind us: the nearest town, six miles back. Up ahead: the gloomy entrance of the Big Savage tunnel. As we pedaled our way toward the Eastern Continental Divide from Maryland to Pennsylvania, there was only one choice: onward

Call it the trail cyclist's Tour de Chance. Jim and I had never biked this section of the Great Allegheny Passage, a laid-back rural path that climbs gently northwest through the Allegheny Mountains from Cumberland, Md. After cresting the divide (Chesapeake watershed to the east, Mississippi to the west) it dips into Pennsylvania's Somerset County. If we'd waited for a sunny stretch during this summer's soggy weather, we might never have made it. But luck was with us -- mostly.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/25/AR2009082502963.html