For years I have been exploring this area by foot, running and hiking my way around the many beautiful trails in Centre County and beyond. A few years back, with a little bit of arthritis creeping up in my old(ish) knees, the miles became harder. I realized that I sometimes need to give the knees a break from the pounding of running and hiking downhill.
But I also knew that any day I don’t get outside for adventure is a sad day indeed. I did not want to spend extra time at the gym on one of those machines (although it is sometimes a necessary evil, for sure).
I found an obvious solution in two wheels and a saddle. Of course, before I bought my bike, I had to make a decision (not my forte) on what kind of bike to buy. After all, a bike is a big investment (for someone making a living as a writer, anyway) and there are many options to choose from, with mountain, road, or even electronic bikes, all expensive.
So even though this area is blessed with many mountain biking trails and with how much I love the outdoors, after much deliberation I chose a gravel bike because of its versatility. A gravel bike does a little bit of everything, from cruising on the open road to tackling well-maintained trails. With a gravel bike, you can take those dirt and gravel roads that are less traveled. Roads that would be a little too gnarly for a road bike but do not require all the extra (heavy and expensive) components of a mountain bike.
Yes, sometimes you have to take the road less traveled, and Centre County has a plethora of these types of roads and paths for folks on gravel bikes. To help those looking to ride them, The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau office is providing a free new resource.
The Happy Valley Gravel Adventure Field Guide is the first Pennsylvania edition in a national series of pocket-size gravel cycling travel guidebooks with curated routes. The guidebook is a collaborative effort by Happy Valley Women’s Cycling, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, Gravel Adventure Field Guide, and many local cycling and outdoor recreation partners.
While this guide is obviously a great resource for people who are visiting the area for its outdoor recreation opportunities, it also is very useful for someone like me who is still relatively new to the gravel grinding world, so I stopped by to pick one up.
The good-looking booklet is colorful and provides a lot of information, including maps for rides both big (250-mile bike-packing loop, whoa) and small (14 miles, more my current speed). It is cool to see the many routes and roads that are perfect for biking in Happy Valley.
With the guide in hand, I packed up my bike and decided to hit a route in an area that I am pretty familiar with, beautiful Fisherman’s Paradise.
The Fisherman’s Paradise Loop route in the field guide offers a 21.7-mile option that starts in State College and a 14.6-mile short-course option that begins in Bellefonte. Because I have not ridden for a while, I chose the 14.6-mile option.
The field guide provides a map that includes information about the route and an elevation profile. I think that is a great feature, because anyone who bikes knows that the hills are what can get you.
Another nice feature of the field guide is QR codes that send you the Ride With GPS maps, providing detailed GPS navigation on the route. The field guide is also the right size, small enough to fit in my pocket along with my phone during the ride.
The Fisherman’s Paradise short course starts riders at the wonderful Talleyrand Park before heading out along paved Roopsburg Road, which winds along Spring Creek for miles before hitting Fisherman’s Paradise, a popular fishing area. This beautiful area flows through Spring Creek Canyon and takes riders on a dirt service road. It has always been one of my favorite places to run.
I liked that the GPS warned me I would be hitting rough technical gravel on this part of the ride. It warned me of every turn that was approaching and of steep hills ahead, which I definitely hit once I continued away from Spring Creek Canyon and up Rock Road.
Here I faced a big climb heading up to Barns Lane, but somehow I made it to the top. The route then took me down Barns Lane, which was like a roller coaster, up and down, before it fell sharply back down to Roopsburg Road. Woohoo, that was a fun ride down.
After following Roopsburg Road back down to Talleyrand Park, my ride was over and my legs were tired. What a fun ride I had on this area that I usually just cover by foot. On a bike, I could cover a lot more ground. Glad I discovered it.
I’ll keep flipping through this field guide to see what else I can find. Maybe I’ll work my way up to that 250-mile Grand Happy Valley Bike Packing Route. T&G
Vincent Corso loves exploring the outdoors in Central Pennsylvania and beyond.
