Photos by Alex and myself.

Day 1:
Met up at Ben’s garage and then raced out of the city to make it to the Red Rabbit drive-in just before it closed. Setup camp at our favorite Duncannon camp spot from previous COTT trips along the Susquehanna River. Route 322 through Duncannon is basically a trucker spot and has more strip clubs than you’d think. We tried them all out and ended by getting kicked out of the last stop because somebody couldn’t keep there hands to themselves. Ended the night by the fire with Ed drinking my whiskey and becoming agro Dad… then made the post below which he didn’t remember the next morning. haha dick.

Day 2:
Woke up on the Susquehanna and had the first river bath of the vacation. Packed up and headed West on 274 towards Raystown Lake. Only did 100 miles but it took us all day which was fine when there’s no real plan. Went through Orbisonia, PA and checked out the old trolley cars and steam trains from the Industrial Revolution. Finally made it to Raystown and parked the bikes in the woods and went on foot searching for a cliff jumping spot Ed knew of. Ed showed everyone up by diving off the 40′ cliff.

Day 3:
Woke up on Raystown Lake. Andrew and Devyn arrived overnight and somehow didn’t wake anybody. Devyn slept in the tent without poles haha. Headed out to the local diner for food and to figure-out the days plan. Decided on going to check out a blue hole that I knew of from back when I lived in State College, PA. It turned out to epic as I remembered with a 35’/40′ and 25′ cliff jumps and clear water that has this wild blue/green hue. After wearing ourselves out swimming we heading towards the closest town and walked in the first bar we found. Cheap beers, a jukebox, and some local characters made for a fun time. Finished the day with a ‘family’ dinner at Burger King.

Day 4:
Slept in after staying up late and night swimming when the lake was like glass. That morning we split ways with Devyn, Andrew, and Alex who were heading back to Philly. Ben and I took off for The PA Grand Canyon. Again, tons more miles of great roads all the way there. Made it to Wellsboro, PA where we had a drink at the Penn Wells Hotel which was built in 1869. Charged up our phones and got some recommendations of places to go from some other people at the bar. Checked out the view from the Grand Canyon and setup camp in the State park.

Day 5:

Last day of the trip. Woke up with some coffee and split our last beer and hit the road towards Bloomsburg to check out a cycle museum a guy at the bar recommended yesterday. More fun roads with nobody on them all the way to Bills Bike Barn only to find out they were closed. Fortunately, Bill pulled up in his Willy’s Jeep and Ben talked him into letting us check out a portion of the museum. The guy has some real gems like a Moto Guzzi Lemans 1 in mint condition and a Moto Guzzi dump truck powered by a single cylinder motor.

The loose plan is head out to the Raystown Lake area to ride some country roads, find swimming holes, drink beers in bumble fuck bars, eat at Mom & Pop diners, and basically enjoy PA on our old motorcycles.

Our first stop is: Duncannon, PA.

Trying to pack pretty light.

Looking forward to spending some time on my 550.

It was a bummer to leave raystown lake since we had so much fun there, but it was time to move on. Just for reference… I could’ve easily spent 5 days there exploring.

Anyway, we headed out and Nates bike shit out. It started not properly charging. He doesn’t have a kick starter. Brian ran down to the auto store and picked up a battery jump starter. This got us on the road.

Nates bike continued to have weird charging issues. It would also cut out sometimes but we eventually made it to duncannon. The roads there were incredible. Over 3 mountain passes. See map below: 994 / 522 / 641 / 75 / 274.

Mick, Tom and Scott met us in duncannon. We did some bar hopping. Boozed it up a bit. Good times!

Played real life frogger crossing rt322.

Next morning Nate took us on a little scenic ride through the area which is his hometown.

As we headed back to Philly Nates bike continued to crap out periodically but we all made it back eventually.

Big shout out to Nate for putting the trip together. Nothing beats getting out of the city to explore on old bikes.

Today was awesome. We started the day out by riding over the mountain to martinsburg, and got brunch from a place called Mamie’s. So incredibly good. Huge stomach boner for this place. So good we came back again the next morning.

Then we found one of the cliff jumping spots. It took us a while and it was sketchy but we found it. We had to go around a couple gates and stash the bikes in the woods but it worked out. We climbed down the side of a ridge about 100′ to get to it. It was pretty epic. A 25′ and 33′ jump. We did both. Water was super warm.

We camped at the same spot again. Perfect. Riding around the lake has been so much fun. The lake is insane big and the roads are great.

We left state college and stopped by the honda dealer I worked at. Said hey to some old friends and lubed my chain. So… I remember the owner of the dealership always had cool motorcycles. Just so happens that he has another cool toy; a jap spec suzuki 250cc 2-stroke GP bike! Fuckkkk. So sick.

Left honda. Headed to the lake an hour away. Met neighbor Brian. He has the biggest, craziest sleeping pad. Bigger than his xs650.

The lake is huge. I’ve wanted to come here for years. We found out from locals that the good cliff jumping spot is on an island in the middle of the lake. Shit.

We found an awesome renegade camp spot. If it’s an access road that’s closed off with signs that say “no camping or trespassing”… It’s probably perfect!

Roads out here are great. Weather is great. Things are looking up and up after that rain.

Well… Today was the longest day ever and pretty boring. We still made the right decision coming here because i’d rather be bored here with stuff to do than sitting in a tent in the rain in the woods.

Like I said, I lived here for 4 years when I went to college 10 years ago. It was fun to do some of the stuff I used to do.

We went to donate plasma to offset the motel room for 2 nights but they wouldn’t take us since we don’t live in their target area. Bummer.

We checked out the army/navy store. Nate tried on gas masks. It’s going to be the new cool MC look in 2015. Just wait.

Nate serenaded a girl at the guitar store.

We saw Adams new house furniture outside a shitty frat house.

We ate at my favorite food spot: Panda Express. Then we walked around and I told him ridiculous stories about shit that happened at psu.

We talked a shit ton about girls…obviously. We talked about how most all girls are looking for the 3 P’s: protect / provide / procreate. Hey… We didn’t make it up. It just is what it is.

Both nights we went bar hopping and I drank way way too much and woke up both mornings feeling like death.

We’re finally getting back on the road this coming morning since weather broke, and we’re heading to raystown lake to meet neighbor Brian and hopefully swim and cliff jump.

On the way out of psu, we’re going to stop by the honda dealership I used to work at and lube our cables / chains after our bikes sat rusting in the rain for 2 days.

Life is all about making decisions… Today was one of those days.

We left Towanda and headed west on rt6 which is a nice country road. I gotta say… It’s beautiful up here. Every little town we pass through seems like it’d be a nice place to retire. Mick is from Troy PA which we passed through. I think I saw the wild dogs that used to chase him.

We continued west towards cherry springs state park which is where we planned to camp. We saw some old little bikes for sale on the side of the road. Stopped and met Jerry. He was cool and recommended a good lunch spot. We went. I didn’t think it was good. Oh well. Nate liked it, but he also likes bread and butter pickles so… Ya know…

We checked out the PA Grand Canyon which was cooler and bigger than I thought it’d be. Met some nice guys on DRZ 400’s. Shit, Ben, you should’ve just bought one of them! They’re cheap and will do 85mph. Looks like a better size for trails than the bulky honda 650 anyway IMO.

So, this is around the time we realized its going to rain all night. Shit.

We decided camping in the rain, and then riding all morning the next day in rain would blow. So, we decided to ride 2 more hours south to state college which is where I went to school at PSU, and get a $45 motel. This way we could actually go out at night and booze it up and not have to sit in our tents miserable.

It turned out to be a great decision. The roads from cherry springs park to lockhaven were insane amazing. Best roads of the trip so far. See map below; 44 to 144 to 664. Amazing. Over a few mountains, tons of twisters. So good!

We boozed it up pretty hard last night at bars I used to go to 10 years ago ha. It was fun. It rained hard all night and looks like it’s raining all day, so we made the right decision coming here. PSU is great for hanging out, bars and people-watching. Once the rain stops we’ll head on out and go camping again.

After leaving del water gap we headed north to the “hawks nest” which is a strip of road between pa and ny north of port jervis. It’s super twisty for a mile and overlooks a cliff and river. It’s badass.

As the three of us did a couple loops and took a couple pics, we were sitting on the ledge and out of no where three guys on sport bikes went through the turns going seriously over a hundred mph. Then 10 seconds later a cop car came hauling through same speed, with his lights on chasing them. It was insanely awesome and made my day.

We tried to find swimming near lake walnepaupak, but it was a bust or we had to pay for swimming. F that.

We rode on rt6 for a while which is awesome and made it into Towanda. Met some dudes who work for the power plant. They were camped out along the river so we camped down there with them. Real good time.

Random other stuff:
– ate good hot dogs
– Tom left and went back to NYC
– saw a huge frog near our tents
– a fat lady yelled in my ear twice at the diner. I yelled back at her
– lots of fracking up here
– there was a velociraptor outside my tent last night

So, Nate and I are doing a week long trip around PA; camping, swimming, relaxing and boozing a bit. We’ll be riding around checking out some of the cool stuff in PA we’ve never seen. No real destination or plan… just doing whatever seems fun for the week.

– my z1 speedo cable shit out
– met Tom N up here
– went to a bar called the log cabin
– saw a skinny pretty girl there riding a chopper
– we found a closed down old road
– renegade camped on it no prob
– boozed it up last night
– trying to find a swimming hole today I think