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Pine Creek Gorge is often referred to as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania .
I start my east-to-west crossing of Pennsylvania on Route 590 , a two-lane that meanders along the Lackawaxen River a while , then bolts up a mountainside like a fickle goat trail before winding through pine forests . After skirting Scranton , I escape traffic by veering onto Route 87 , an appropriately obscure country road leading west . Some many miles later ( who ’ s counting ?), I pull off near a spot where the undulating pavement slices through the heart of a farm , cutting between the house and barn . It ’ s an arrangement you only see on old roads , one that worked better when traffic was horsedrawn , not swooshing through the middle of a working farm at 55 mph .
I ’ m fiddling with my camera when a guy on a Victory cruiser stops to talk . He ’ s riding from Chicago to New York on back roads and he tells me about the one and only curve on Route 120 that ’ s labeled 20 mph and really means it . “ I know ,” he says . “ I went back and rode it three times . Even dragging the footpegs , I couldn ’ t get through it much faster than 20 mph .”