I am making a movie. Well, actually I am attempting to make a movie. A documentary of the Great Allegheny Passage. I've never done such a thing before and I don't know if it will be any good but it's worth a shot. Part of that process is to collect footage of the trail. I did this today when adelheid_p and I went to Cumberland to ride the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.

What I hoped was that I could get some footage of me on the train doing some narration and then pan out the window to see me riding the trail beside the railline. In all likelyhood it would be a rough transition but it was worth a shot. In riding the train, we realized we couldn't get it to work that way. Too much conductor narration over the speakers and too many rambunctious kids. Oh, well. More of that later.

The 15 mile ride from Cumberland to Frostburg takes about an hour. I found that I would be telling adelheid_p about a specific feature or something to look out for and 20 seconds before the narrator would come over the PA system to direct the passenger's attention. Not surprising; I've ridden the trail a few times and I'm making a documentary about it. The best view as to go to the end of a car where there was a platorm and an open window. Of course, taking a look outside meant a faceful of soot and ash from the "Mountain Thunder" steam engine. I tried to get some footage of me at the window but it diidn't come out well because I kept squinting to keep the crap out of my eyes.

When we reached Frostburg, we disembarked and watceh them turn the engine around on a turnstile. Then, we had about an hour for lunch. We walked up the hill and didn't see many nearby choices. We had heard there was a Mexican place but we didn't see it an didn't have time to search as we had a train to catch. The choices were pizza, pizza and Chineese. We choose pizza.

Actually, I had a pizza hoagie and adelheid_p chose a buffalo chicken salan. We figured each would be relatively quick to prepare. We were wrong. In fact, it looked like a lot of people were wrong. When one table received their food, they sent it back to be boxed up to go because they had run out of time. Another table finally got part of their order. One person never got her order before they had to leave for the train. We received out food in time but the inside of my pizza hoagie was cold and adelheid_p's buffalo chicken salad wasn't right. The chicken apparently already had some sort of seasoning on it and they just added the buffalo sauce.

Hey, Malino! Yea, I'm talking to you at Malino's New York Style Pizza. Crowds of people arrive by train at the same time three times a week. If you were any good you would be prepared for this spike and be able to provide food for them. If you were really good, you might be able to estimate how long it would take to prepare a certain food item and advise the customer whether it will be ready for them in time for them to make their train back to Cumberland.

As adelheid_p boarded the train I got on my bike and rode two mile's down the trail to Switch #9 where the trail begins paralleling the railline. When the train arrived, I set off and had no problem keeping up. The grade is 1.75% and that allowed me to get up to 22mph. With the train going about 15mph I could keep ahead of the train and out of the soot from the coal-fired engine. However, I would drop back along the train to give adelheid_p a chance to film me riding and also to wave to the kids. They seemed to think it was neat that I could keep pace with and even pass the train with apparent ease.

It wasn't easy. Even with the grade, I was keeping a substantial pace in my efforts to pull ahead so that I could stop to set up a good camera shot of the train approaching. Then it was racing to pass the train again. I wasn't out of breath, however. I was doing a pretty good job of pacing myself and the slop was helping. My avreage was about 18.5mph. Just on the other side of Brush Tunnel at Helmstetter Curve, I noticed my bike was getting a little sluggish and looked down to notice my rear wheel was almost flat.

How the hell did that happen?

As the train pulled away I stopped and quickly inspected my tire. The tread was worn and I out to get a new one but I could find any foreign objects or cuts to indicate a leak of any sort. I quickly pulled my pump and loaded the tire with air. Another quick inspection could not find any leaks. I was off and running again. But the train had pulled ahead while I was stationary and I had five miles to catch up and overtake the train.

It was like the Olympics in Bejing with me peddling furiously through smoke filled air. Approaching Cumberland, the trail flattened out and I had to work harder to keep the speed above 20mph. I dropped one gear down and picked up the pace and was able to punch it to 23mph for a time. I counted down the miles and at a mile and a half I saw the back end of the train paralleling Will's Creek. At just before the one mile marker I had almost caught up but at that point the trail leaves trackside, climbs a bit of a hill and makes a switchback. That detour would set me back.



Too late, almost. I arrived at the last trail crossing just after the engine did, two hundred feet from the station. I considered it a tie that I would have won easily were it not for the flat.

As the passengers disembarked, I stood on the platform and my doubling of my normal pace for a full hour began to catch up with me. I wasn't feeling so well and sat down. That's didn't help much so I went inside to take advantage of the air conditioning. That helped but my hands and teeth had gone numb anyway. Bad sign of impending unconsciousness. I didn't want to panic adelheid_p or any of the rail station staff and patrons by lying on the floor and putting my knees up (even though I'm sure that would work). Instead, I went into the bathroom and by sticking my head under the faucet avoided further complications.

Was it stupid to push myself as I had? Yea, a little. It was manageable, though. Was it fun? Hell, yea. I'd do it again to get good footage and, without something like a flat and my ego pushing me to beat the train to the station, I should be able to keep a good, fast pace without punching through the envelope. It would also help to choose slightly cooler weather.