A Hotbed of Cycling for Over 100 Years.
A few months ago, I had come across a link to a newspaper abstract I thought was pretty neat, but then I lost it. Duh. Fortunately I just found the text again and used that to search for the original link.
The Valley Register, Middletown, Maryland. May 8, 1891
* Personals - Personal Paragraphs About Those Who Come and Those Who Go
Mr. Daniel M. HUFFER, son of Mr. W. E. HUFFER of Downsville, Washington county, and Mr. John A. BROWN, both students of New Windsor College, Carroll County, and each the possessor of a new Victory Safety bicycle, came whirling up Main Street about noon Monday and stopped at our office for a rest. They went from New Windsor to Gettysburg, Pa. on Saturday, from thence to Hagerstown, and left the latter place on Monday for New Windsor.
I think the bicycles were actually Victor, not Victory bicycles. That is a Victor in the picture above. They were riding around the areas I love to ride today. New Windsor to Gettysburg is 21 miles straightline distance. Gettysburg to Hagerstown is 30 miles. Hagerstown to New Windsor is 32 miles over South and Cactoctin Mountains. Those two climbs make a big ride even today (well, it is for me). I wonder what the roads were like.
posted by Hjalti at 11:26 AM
2 Comments:
Is that line even doable today, with all the vehicular traffic (i.e., how many major roads would you have to ride on)?
Cool article. Maybe the spirits of these folks are pedaling along behind you when you're out there...
There are enough choices to do it today without having to ride on too many high traffic routes. I imagine the risks were diferent then. I really need to dig through the MD room at the library to copy some old maps, and see what the road choices actually were. Hagerstown to Frederick would have had the National Pike to follow, or the trolley line, which followed close to the route over Braddock Mountain that Interstate 70 uses today. But they could have also gone through Thurmont and done some bigger climbs. It would be neat to know.
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