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FALL 2018 ISSUE 02 / VOL . 03
The picturesque Loyalsock Creek runs through Worlds End State Park .
Pennsylvania was the expanse I crossed nonstop each time I needed to go from my new home in the Hudson Valley to my family home in the Ohio Valley . Those crossings of Pennsylvania consisted of the tedium of watching interstate mile markers pass and one episode of despair . I can assure you from personal experience that when your car breaks down on the afternoon of December 24 , roughly halfway through a 600-mile trip , options are few . And if the car in question is one for which you traded your motorcycle , the experience doesn ’ t make you feel better about the transaction .
Back then , even as I plowed through Pennsylvania with blinders on , I knew there had to be more to see out there in the folds of those regimented ridges . Now , decades later , I ’ m going to find out .
After the Victory rider departs , I take a detour to the end of the world . Actually , Worlds End State Park . The name may be a mistake , however . A spot near here on Loyalsock Creek may have once been called Whirl ’ s Glen , because of a whirlpool in the stream , and an inaccurate map renamed it Worlds End . Or maybe it was originally Whirls End . Details are sketchy .
Either way , it ’ s an idyllic stop . While families picnic on the banks and children splash in the shallows , I chat with a park ranger who asks about my ride . He ’ d be interested in a
PHOTO BY AIMINTANG VIA ISTOCKPHOTO . COM