Peddie
Bicycle Touring 2007:
Riding
Backroads into the Country.
| Overview
Map | Meeting
with Students (TBA) | PJClements: 609.290.4864
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| PJClements’s
Site | The
Sophomore Trip | The
ambitious “Junior” Trip
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Following the route of last
year’s trip, the “Trail of Tears” cycling trip in 2004, and
the 1996, 1998, and 2000 cycling trips of The
Principio Project, the Peddie Bike Ride 2007 is focused on enabling younger
Peddie students to experience their country first hand, country that they, and
much of modern America, could otherwise easily forget. A group trip in all
respects, students not only ride each day’s route and explore the
countryside but also plan menus, shop, cook, clean, and manage their own
success and the success of the group, under the guidance of veteran Peddie
faculty.
This
year we pedal out of Hightstown and head south to Bordentown, where we’ll
load up in vehicles and leapfrog over suburban Philadelphia to a campground
south of Reading. Then we’ll cycle through Lancaster County and Amish
country, camp on the Susquehanna, head west below York and into Gettysburg, and
then climb into the mountains west of Gettysburg. From Blue Ridge Summit
we’ll turn south into
Each
day begins with breakfast, breaking camp, a route meeting, and, just prior to
departure, the “Rumination,” or question of the day [“Does
the land make the people, or do the people make the land?”] Cycling
through the morning, stopping for a leisurely lunch along the road, we
generally arrive at our campsite mid afternoon. The day’s food crew
departs either after lunch or on arrival at camp to shop for that
evening’s dinner, and the next day’s breakfast and lunch. Others
enjoys the campsite, spending time making camp, writing in journals, comparing
notes on the day’s trip. Dinner is a focus for everyone, and evening
campfires, and the stories, songs, and camaraderie they engender, finish the
day. The next morning, we happily do it again!
Important also are the
cultural, historical, and geographic opportunities along the way. For example, we visit the People’s
Place Museum in Intercourse, PA; we explore the exhibits and the battleground
of Gettysburg; and we’ll enjoy the historical and cultural opportunities
of Harper’s Ferry, WV. We also “smell the roses” along the
way, easy to do in the Amish farmland of Lancaster County, along the forested
mountain ridge carrying the Appalachian Trail through Maryland, along the quiet
current of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal or the still powerful Potomac River.
For planning purposes, the
“February estimate” for the cost of this ten day trip is $450, a
figure that may fall later in the spring as the group size become more certain
(15 students maximum) and as operating costs become more certain (campsite
costs, admissions, fuel projections). Click here for the daily itinerary, and for a list of
and restrictions about gear
and equipment, and here for pictures from Bike Ride 2006.
document last update:
Copyright (c) 2007 Peddie School
URL:
http://falconnet.peddie.org/faculty/pclements/cycling/BikeTrip2007-Index.html