Mount Unpleasant Township

I did a shorter ride yesterday afternoon: 16.9 miles, exploring a few roads in Mount Pleasant Township. I've got nothing against the route (despite the title), but it was a hot and sluggish ride. From Shawnee Road, I rode over to Central Road and down Papermill Road. While passing under the Interstate 80 bridges, I passed by an unidentifiable carcass swarming with flies. Nice. Soon afterwards, Papermill Road turned to gravel and took me to Lightstreet, where it became paved again. From the northern end of Lightstreet, I headed along Back Branch Road and crossed Fishing Creek, where some fishermen were presumably fishing, and entered Mount Pleasant Township.

 The greenery has really been coming back in the past few weeks.

 

Back Branch Road and some cliffs

Intrepid flowers clinging to the side of a cliff

From Back Branch Road, I began heading up Whites Church Road. This was pretty standard so far, but I turned off the road before reaching the hilliest part of it. The road I turned onto was English Hill Road and it was even longer and steeper than Whites Church Road. There were a few houses, but mostly it climbed up a forested hollow with a small stream at the bottom.

 Interesting plants

Somewhat dilapidated barn

After a while, the climb leveled off and there were some nice views of fields, houses, and hills. The road then made a short descent towards Millertown Road, which I followed for a short distance. Parts of Millertown Road are very scenic, but unfortunately it's very busy, so exploring large sections of it might not be a good idea. I was not on the road for very long before turning off onto a much quieter road. I then made a long and gradual descent through the woods, with a few houses here and there, before eventually riding into the valley of Little Fishing Creek. I stopped near the Wanich Covered Bridge No. 69 for a few pictures.

 Little Fishing Creek

 Wanich Covered Bridge

Another view of  Wanich Covered Bridge

I considered taking a short detour and riding through the bridge, but ultimately decided to continue heading straight along Thomas Road. Like most of the roads I ride on, it was a quiet road and it took me past some dirt fields.

Dirt field

After a while, I reached Millertown Road, which I followed for a short distance to the western end of Back Branch Road. This part of Millertown Road/Back Branch Road wasn't too scenic, but it wasn't ugly either. To the left were some interesting cliffs/rock ledges. To the right was a steep slope leading down to Fishing Creek.

 Small cliff

Back Branch Road, with Millertown Road in the background

Soon, I turned onto County Home Road, a blink-and-you-miss-it road that rose steeply through another hollow. There were a lot of ferns on one side of the road, but they had been squashed flat for some reason. On the other side of the road was a line of evergreens (which hadn't been squashed flat). Ordinarily, I would've probably pumped up the hill in one shot, but it was a sluggish day, so I stopped once.

Miscellaneous greenery

At the top of the hill, I stopped once again. There were a few nice views here. Soon afterwards, the road became unpaved and began descending--but soon it reached a dead-end. I looked around for another way forward, but found none. I began to think that this was one of those annoying Google Maps failures, but I soon came upon the right road, which I had thought was a driveway on the way out.

 Scenery

 More scenery

 This turned out to be a dead end.

County Home Road went this way instead.

For a few tenths of a mile, County Home Road snaked around in pretty much every direction. At one point, it went down a steep gravel downhill and I almost lost my balance riding over a deep rut in the road. I then reached Ellis Turner Road and began a long and steep ascent. There were some amazing views at the top; I could see many miles in several directions.

Knob Mountain. It's everywhere.

 Catawissa Mountain (left) and various other hills. If you look very closely at the full-size file, you can just make out the student housing on Upper Campus.

After coming to the top of the hill, the road made a short descent. At the bottom of the hill, I made an abrupt turn onto Fox Hollow Road, which was gravel and descended for several tenths of a mile to Whites Church Road. From there, I headed town to Back Branch Road again at a reasonable speed.

 Field of bluish-green grass

Turkey Hill from Papermill Road

The last four miles of the ride were pretty unremarkable, except for the point where I quickly sped past the fly-covered roadkill that I saw on the way out. My total time was 1:32:26 and my pace was 4:29/mile. Slow, but not terrible. As I mentioned, I wasn't all that into this one. I did hit 33.4 miles per hour at one point (going down Dennys Hill?).

Lots of climbing. 1392 feet of vertical rise and 2787 feet of total elevation change. The highest point was 898 feet and the lowest was 499 feet.

Route map. (source)(license)