Stage 2: September 8~Day two’s mileage necessitates a sunrise start and will make for a long day for the group. Riders will experience a variety of terrain with the morning spent riding through the wooded Allegheny Mountains, which makes up part of the vast Appalachian Mountain range that expands through the eastern United States and into Canada. The Alleghenies run through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and comprises the rugged western-central portion of the Appalachians.

We will pass the Allegheny Reservoir, also known as the Kansua Lake, that spans the border between Pennsylvania and New York. Controlled by the Kinzua Dam that was constructed in 1965, the lake is 24-miles long and when full covers 21,180-acres. The building of the dam caused the destruction of two towns, the disillusionment of a third, and the flooding of some of the Seneca Nation’s tribal land. Natives were forced to relocate. Authorized by the flood control acts of 1936 and 1938, the reservoir is one of 16 flood control projects in Pennsylvania and is surrounded by the Allegheny National Forest and State Park and the Seneca Nation’s Reservation in New York.

The afternoon will be spent crossing into Ohio and riding through the farm country of northeast Ohio. The group will spend a 62-mile stretch riding on the freeway through the metropolitan Cleveland area. Emerging on the other side, riders will travel along the shore of the majestic Lake Erie. We will overnight in Sandusky, Ohio after traveling a total of 320 miles for the day.