For almost all of freshman year my bike rides were limited to one direction, North. Sure there was a great mountain with quite the view, but the roads were often crowded and the aggressive truck drivers showed very clearly just how little they thought of bikers. One day my roommate Alec and I decided that we needed a break from Waggoner’s Gap Road, and decided to head in the direction of the college farm. The ride starts out through Carlisle on West High Street. Winding through traffic proved to be stressful, but once we came to Petersburg Road, the cars thinned and the rolling hills were all ours.
The first sight was the Carlisle airport. Having never flown into Carlisle I was surprised to see an active runway complete with an old cargo plane on display. I didn’t want to get too close to the runway to snap a photo of this plane head on, so all I managed was this ugly shot. The Carlisle airport offers flight lessons and convenient trips to Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
Once we passed the turn for the college farm we were truly in uncharted territory. The first surprise was a seemingly abandoned drag strip. Here Alec and I raced each other down the eighth of a mile road. The place is named Quarter Aces Drag-O-Way and during the summer have races every weekend. In the meantime I’m sure nobody would notice if a few Dickinson students wanted to race each other…..I managed to snap of photo of my bike as I cruised down the strip
At this point it was above ninety degrees outside and both Alec and I were struggling with the final hill. As this profile I made on Map My Ride shows, the final hill is worse than everything before it. Drenched in sweat and carrying only empty water bottles we made it to the top. There, only ten miles out of Dickinson is The Western terminus of the Mason Dixon trail. This 200 miles path follows part of the Appalachian Trail, and ends on the Delaware Border. There are many interesting camping spots, and it is a great, easy destination for the Carlisle Community.
We dunked our heads in the cold stream which runs through and began the descent back to campus. Clearly there is much to be explored just beyond the limestone buildings of Dickinson. The varied sights we saw are just a smidgen of what is out there.
