by WorldCrosser Admin | Sep 30, 2016 | Destinations, Dual Sport, Explore, Pennsylvania, Roads, Routes
Great Ride. Great Views.
The PA Grand Canyon is an incredible location to ride your motorcycle– no matter what type of bike you ride. On a nice day riders are everywhere, because the roads, trails and scenery in this area of Pennsylvania are awesome for motorcycles. Whether a dual sport, big adventure bikes or even sport bikes and cruisers. I recently rode a ADV bike up there. It was a full day of riding to get there from my house in New Jersey and when I arrived you could hardly find a spot in either of the two relatively large designated motorcycle parking areas. Both areas were packed full of bikes– all types. There must have been 75 bikes there if not more. The majority were cruisers but there were also adventure motorcycles, dual sports and the one that really caught my eye was a cool traveling scooter with traveling soft bags and the whole package. Looked like they were doing some serious cross country travel on the scooter. It is called the PA Grand Canyon by all and the souvenirs and shirts, all tout “PA Grand Canyon” as well, but technically it is the Pine Creek Gorge. And it is beautiful. There are two sides to the Gorge and each is a separate Pennsylvania State Park and, if you are into hiking like I am, the Turkey Trail connects the two parks together. Please note, if hiking the Turkey trail, you will need to cross the Pine creek to hike the whole Turkey trail from one side/park to the other, there is not a bridge and depending on the water table it can be an obstacle.
One side of the gorge is the Leonard Harrison State Park and the other is the Colton Point State Park. The Leonard Harrison side is more popular, as it has a visitor center, food truck, camping, bathhouse, ranger station, running water, and some other signs of a popular destination. The Colton Point side is much more subdued, it offers primitive camping and much more remote, although amenities do include pit toilets. ; ) So it depends on what you are after in your visit to the Pine Creek Gorge.
ADV Motorcycle Camping in Pennsylvania.
I camped on the Leonard Harrison side and it was a great spot, nice trees to hang my hammock tent, and only about a quarter mile from the trail entrance, lookout point and visitor center into the Gorge, campsites were clean and spacious, and the staff was so nice and friendly, for that matter so was everyone up there, visitors I met, as well as a local neighbor who sold me some wood for great price. It was a clear night and the stars were amazing up there, so bright and so many, I forgot how unbelievable the night sky can look when you are nowhere near a city and up in that higher altitude. There is cool phone app called Skyview that lets you identify stars, galaxies and constellations. See Skyview App.
The roads are amazing, twisty, and some steep hills that were like roller coasters on the bike. I advise planning a few days there, one for hiking, one for dual sporting and one for riding the wild PA Grand Canyon roads!
There are so many great roads and trails , but one great road in PA Route 6, also 414, and a cool water crossing at (41.573041, -77.335406), and there are just tons of great dual sport dirt roads and trails to ride around all day on. In short, the great roads and awesome tracks all around the area, make it an overall awesome adventure/dual sport location that you should put on your list to ride.
Awesome Photo courtesy of
Awesome Photo courtesy of
Awesome Photo courtesy of
I forgot to take picture of the onslaught of bikes parked up there at the PA Grand Canyon overlook, so if anyone happens to have a pic of all the bikes that are there on a nice day, please be so kind as to send one along for me to post. (feedback)
Thanks for reading and, as always, ride safe and have fun!
by WorldCrosser Admin | Sep 29, 2016 | ADV Camping Gear, ADV Gear, ADV Product Review
Okay I wanted to buy a relatively small lightweight backpacking or hiking chair for motorcycle camping for a while now, but the lightweight chairs on the market were upwards of $100 and I just didn’t pull the trigger. But then when I was at REI before a recent motorcycle trip I saw REI’s own brand of light hiking chair – the Flex Lite chair. Only $79, which was more reasonable in price, plenty lightweight for motorcycle camping and would fit fine right in my panniers. So I bought it and took on recent ADV outing and damn was I glad I did. After a tiring day hike being able to relax in that chair by the fire was just awesome. The chair packs small, goes together easily, seems strong and solid, has a lifetime warranty, and most importantly is a comfortable nice chair that fit me well. I am 6’1″ and 200lbs. It has the simple to assemble pole technology that you see in modern backpacking tents which has the elastic rope guiding each pole to snap into place, so in short it is a great lightweight camp chair that is a snap to set up (pun intended).
I have now taken the camp chair on a few overnight motorcycle adventures and it is by far my new favorite item in my ADV and Dual-sport motorcycle camping kit. I just love! And now I’m trying to figure out how I managed without it in the past. It’s a definite keeper.
Weight: 1lb 10oz
Seat Height: 11″ off ground
Back Height: 26″
Capacity: 250lbs
by WorldCrosser Admin | Sep 8, 2015 | ADV Camping Gear, ADV Gear, Food
So you are looking for the perfect water filter for you overlanding or adventure motorcycle riding exploration. There are many filters out there ranging in price from very cheap to very expensive. If you are doing couple day or week long adventures you may be in the market for a personal small water filter. You have a couple choices here but the two to that most gravitate towards:
The Sawyer Mini Filter or the LifeStraw Personal
The Sawyer Mini Filter
This unit is rated very high by many users all over the internet. In short, people just love it, it can filter over 100,000 gallons and come with a plunger for backwashing it. It is small, light and compact, it costs around $20 and you can even pick it up at Walmart. The package contains 16-oz squeeze pouch, drinking straw and cleaning plunger. Comes is number of cool colors and only weighs in at 2oz, but after you use it for the first time, it will have water in it increasing the actual weight. Packaging states it can filter 100,000 gallons of water. More details on the Sawyer Mini Filter.
The Lifestraw Personal
Lifestraw personal was the original, small, chemical free water filter. Lifestraw donates clean water to developing countries through a program they call “Follow the Liters”. It also weighs in at 2 oz dry and filters up to 1000 liters
The Lifestraw is the original but it is larger and the specs seem to give the Sawyer Mini Filter a leg up on the Lifestraw. But this could be just marketing, as it should be duly noted that there are claims that are considered over the top marketing, and at one point Sawyer changed their marketing from claiming the device is good for 1,000,000 uses to 100,000 — but either is plenty for a $25 product. More details about Lifestraw Personal.
Most of the time when I am traveling on my bike, I can get fresh water from a gas station, store, campground where ever, but I have run out of water or didn’t 100% trust the source. So I always keep a water filter as part of my travel kit. I personally use a filter on all my primitive camping outing which is real camping in my opinion. LOL!
In conclusion, both are great affordable products and take away the need for chemical and the need to carry large purifying systems. You won’t go wrong with either one, but I think the Sawyer has a leg up due to it’s size and ability to connect to any standard water bottle. It is simple to use and convenient.
Let us know which water filter you use and if you are not already remember to sign up for our newsletter, it will keep you up to date with great content and helpful info that will keep your overlanding the best it can be.
by WorldCrosser Admin | Aug 31, 2015 | Destinations, Explore, Other Adventures, Roads, Routes
The Trans-America Trail, or TAT for short, is a American dual sport dream ADV ride across the US of A! It is a mix of dirt roads, farm roads, back roads, trails, and forest roads that go from southeast Tennessee and ends in southwest Oregon. And just like the TCAT, Trans-Canada Highway or many other long routes it can be broken down into sections or parts for shorter expeditions. As many of us don’t have a month or so to explore all that is offered on the TAT trail.
TAT or Trans-America Trail – An Adventure Motorcycle Ride Across the back roads and trails of the USA!
The TAT was originally mapped out by Sam Correro and he runs the website – http://www.transamtrail.com/ where you can get maps/gps files of the Trans-America Trail. Now Sam Correro, is respected as the father of the TAT trail, but many other passionate Adventure riders have extended the TAT and have improved the trail system even further by offering routes for different class adventure bikes. See ADV bike classes. And have also mapped out a complete coast to coast route as Sam’s route didn’t quite reach the east coast. So it is safe to say the TAT is a living growing trail system that many are now involved in making an amazing trans American route.
If you are interested in riding the TAT, another site that offers the maps and gps files for the TAT is gpsKEvin, see here. There is some controversy as to the ethics of gpsKevin’s offering these routes, many if not all gps files, after Sam has done so much of the leg work. gpsKevin’s initial take was “open-source” view where the trail and gps route is free to ride, but many feel it is a slight to the father of the TAT– now I believe the gps files are no longer free but he is charging for a MicroSD card for your GPS which obviously include his tracks. There is some concern that gpsKevin’s route may take riders across private land, where the land owner’s are not happy about the trespassing.
Another source for TAT route is TATtracks which takes Kevin’s route, but rerouted around all the private property, blocked roads, and closed gas stations. and best of all it’s free.
I’ll let you do your own due diligence and decide your own viewpoint on this one, but it is safe to say riding across America on an adventure bike will give you a taste of America from a real roots level.
And also check out the Big Dog who has rode many parts of the TAT and has a lot of great stuff on his site. http://www.bigdogadventures.com/
So get out there and Ride the TAT and explore the true America the ultimate way– on a motorcycle!
WorldCrosser has uniquely USA themed Trans-America Trail (TAT) stickers in stock.
Show off with a cool USA themed TAT sticker today.
as well as TAT vinyl decals too . . .
