Samuel Justus Trail

Look how smooth this trail is! Perfect.

Biked 6 miles. yay go us.

So Friday was the pick of the litter as far as weather goes. We took the bikes and caught the Samuel Justus trail in Oil City, at the Marina landing.

This is an excellent trail for biking or walking, well surfaced, and it runs along the Allegheny River.

If we'd have gone a couple more miles, we would've gotten to Franklin. Definitely doable, especially if we reward ourselves at Cafe Bossa Nova.

John is a train fanatic but also fascinated with the history of the oil-era. There are a lot of reminders of all the drilling.

We found a huge barrel right off the trail. You can judge the size compared to him. We just saw a program on coral snakes. I warned him to be careful messing with that underbrush.

In other Oil City News, we got the grass cut moments before it rained, so not a lot of other outdoor activity at Chez Phillippi.  Stay tuned, we got the exterior paint so look for money shots soon. (weather permitting.)

Oil barrel from the refinery days, John is fascinated.

Love the outdoors.

Oil Creek State Park

The last time we were at Oil Creek State Park, there was snow. This time, it was sunny and hitting the upper 60's.  As you can see, there used to be RR tracks running through here. So much of this area had extensive railroad tracks from the oil days, but many have been transformed into fantastic paths through pristine parks. If you look carefully, you can see some derricks through the bridge. For the Canton readers - the name on them is Belden and Blake.




How can you resist this? The paths are paved and great for bikes, which we'll try the next time. This time, Mr. Rhett Butler stepped out with us. John wisely read the warnings about not handling the snakes, which are not poisonous, but do bite.
As if.

There are some leftovers from the oil era, which is really pretty interesting. It's hard for me to imagine this area covered in derricks and stripped of trees. It's so incredibly beautiful. Rhett! Don't look for snakes, they bite!

Gratuitous picture of Oil Creek Park and one of me.

You can see the quality of that path - great for bikes and walking.