Dad takes son on 135-mile trek
CRANBERRY TWP — When Kevin Cramer took his 4½-year-old son, Cameron, on 135-mile bicycle trip this summer the main obstacle was mental, not physical.
The Cramers set out June 23 to ride the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail from Cumberland, Md., to Pittsburgh.
The father and son each rode bicycles along the trail, Cameron on a custom-built mountain bike.
“You can't find a kid's bike with 16-inch wheels and gears,” Cramer said.
“He rode the whole thing. When we got to Ohiopyle, he was still running on the trails, and that's when I realized this kid has amazing energy,” he said.
Cramer said the hard part was keeping Cameron focused on completing the 20 miles a day goal he'd set for the pair.
“We were going about six to seven miles an hour. People can walk that fast,” Cramer said.
He said it helped that they would stop for lunch and snacks at the towns along the old railway line that has been turned into a bicycle trail. And they would camp in campgrounds that had swimming pools, which were a favorite of Cameron's.
“We saw a lot of cool places. Ohiopyle has natural rock water slides. One campground near Rockwood — Husky Haven — the owner drives around in a golf cart with a husky. We met some Boy Scout troops on the trail.”
“The trail is relatively flat. There was nothing physically tasking for him. He didn't get tired. He didn't get sore,” Cramer said.
When his son did get obstreperous, Cramer said he knew that Cameron was getting hungry.
One day, he said, “We'd ride a mile and take a break. That's how we got through the 10 to 15 miles that day.”
“One day we fell short of our goal, we were in Connellsville, we were taking 90 minutes, eating ice cream and he asked me, 'How much longer do we have?'” Cramer said, saying he knew then his son was going to make it to the trail's end at Point State Park in Pittsburgh.
Riding the trail together, no matter how slow or how many breaks they took, gave the two of them time to do a little father-son bonding, Cramer said.
“And we met a lot of people on the trail. There were two guys from Des Moines who were biking to (Washington) D.C. And we met Boy Scout troops from Cleveland and Chambersburg. We'd share stories and compare notes.”Cameron took a few spills during the trek, his father said, but nothing serious.“We were riding through the Big Savage Tunnel. It's 3,294 feet long. You can't see the light at the other end. So, we are riding down it, and the light shuts down. I told him to just keep riding straight and he would be fine. He thought that was scary,” Cramer said.Cameron proved to be a boy of few words. When asked what was his favorite part of his ride, he said, “Swimming.”Cramer said the ride was mentally hard on him, too.“It was so slow. We rode in a day what would take me two hours,” he said. “I didn't think that would be an issue, but it was harder than I anticipated.”Cramer, 36, has been a biking enthusiast since his days of racing at Slippery Rock University.When Cameron and his sister, Kayla, 8, were old enough, Cramer started them both out on a balance bike, one without pedals or a chain, so they could learn balance and steering.“He's never had training wheels. He's never had peddle brakes,” said Cramer.He presented the trip to Cameron as an adventure.“I knew he was capable of going six miles an hour and we could go all day to get in five hours on the bike. I was worried that he might miss my wife,” he said. “Worst-case scenario, I'd call my wife and she would pick us up.”Becky Cramer said, “I expected to get a phone call. I thought maybe by day three I'd be getting one, but no.”Cramer said, “I would like him to ride. If he wants to race, that would be fun, too. But really, it's just a way to get him out with me. It's fun riding with him.”
