kennerdell tunnel
Brick ceiling overhead as we went in. Lots of dripping water.
Today Candy and I biked 21.5 miles from Rockland Station through the Kennerdell Tunnel (3350' long) and the tiny villages of St George and Sunny Slopes to Brandon (another tiny village) and back again. The Kennerdell Tunnel is spooky to me for some reason and it seemed that way to Candy too. We walked the bikes through instead of riding them. The tunnel has a turn in it so you can't see the light at the end till you are quite a way into the dark of it. When we finally saw the opening ahead it was a relief but then it kept getting darker instead of lighter as we walked towards it. Weird and creepy. Then as we got closer we could see that a mist was forming in the mouth of the tunnel and that was why it was becoming darker.
Candy walking into the light.
Looking back at the mist in the mouth. It is cool in the tunnel and a warm moist day outside - that is why there was mist there - it wasn't a ghost or a mist monster.
On the way back the mist was gone but the tunnel still seemed very long and dark.
Candy: It's really dark in here.
Me: Yes, it is.
Candy (five minutes later): It's really dark in here.
Me: Yes, but I can see the reflections of light on the wall ahead.
Candy (five more minutes): It's really dark in here.
Me: Yes, but I can see the light reflecting off the wall ahead. Can you?
Candy: No, I can't see the light - I only see a different shade of dark.
For some reason that just seemed so funny to me.
Tree lined path on the way back.
The river.
I am so grateful to have Candy as a biking buddy. Next week the plan is to start out and go through the Rockland Tunnel and then go all the way to Emlenton (6 miles) and have lunch somewhere there before biking back again. Then the next week we will start at Emlenton and go all the way to Parker Landing (6 miles) and eat lunch at Foxburg on the way back at the Allegheny Grille on the river. Cool!