Rolling Past Sixty- or I Can't Stay At 55

You may have noticed the countdown calendar over there in the right sidebar. It counts the days until August 4. That will be the day of the Big Six-0 for this aging boomer and postmodernPilgrim.

But it is also a way of reminding myself of something I want to do for that milestone.

See this picture?


That's the Pine Creek Gorge- (aka the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.)

Over there along the left center of the picture, along the creek there at the bottom, is the old New York Central/Penn Central/Conrail right-of-way. The trains haven't run there for years and the rails are gone. It is now part of the Rails-to-Trails program. It is a biking/hiking trail that runs from Ansonia at the north end of the gorge near Wellsboro, PA, to my hometown of Jersey Shore, PA, about sixty miles away.

I have wanted to travel that Gorge from one end to the other since I was a kid. In the old days I wanted to do it in the head engine of a NYC train. But the Gorge is just as awesome- and perhaps more pristine- over the handlebars of a bicycle. It is my plan to do that in August, ending in Jersey Shore on my birthday.

Sixty at Sixty.

And I tell you this so it is out there- public- for all of you to keep me honest and on track. (Or on trail as the case may be.)

Don't worry- I will keep you posted. But think of me as the numbers there on the right count down to Zero.

• (By the way- that's also the Pine Creek Gorge and an old railroad bridge (The Black Bridge) in the masthead above. See why I can hardly wait?)


• AND, the title for this post- Rolling Past Sixty- is the title of a poem a good friend wrote about this past year for himself as he turned 60 this month. I liked the image along with the rolling water of Pine Creek and rolling along the path on a bike. I'm easily amused.