The Oilfield Roads of the Allegheny National Forest - Overnighter


Sometimes, it's not about the roads themselves, but about what lies under them... oil. Over 150 miles of dirt roads have been built in the Allegheny Nation Forest to reach the oil reserves underneath. The forest is dotted with oil wells, pumpjacks, piping and valves, storage tanks, and oil distribution buildings. The pumps are small, perhaps 6 to 10 feet tall, unlike the majestic ones you may see in the southern states. In any case with all the dirt roads connecting these facilities, the possibilities for bikepacking are endless: It was fun to spend two days trying to not get lost along the twisted roads that connect the wells.


Both Francesca and I are chemists; for this reason we are both attracted and repulsed by the power of the black gold. It powers the world and it is used to build many materials, including monomers and plastic. For our job, we both use and manipulate materials derived from petroleum every day, which gives us an especially intimate relationship with it. I mean, everyone's life is just as much entangled with oil just for its presence in all aspects of modern society. But oil is also poisoning the world and, simply, it stinks. Many wells and pumps are leaky: They make the air dense with sulfur smell. For the same reason, most oil distribution building are open to one side to vent the deadly hydrogen sulfide. There are several pools of oil polluting the water supplies.



However, not a single well in the Allegheny National Forest has been working since 2016. The oil price has been too low for these wells to be profitable, and no change is in sight. Many wells have been abandoned for several more years. It just feels like an old giant ghost that we are too afraid to get rid of.

It is not only fossil fuels in the ANF but also renewables. There is a giant reservoir for pumped hydro storage that has been working non-stop since the 1970. It is nice and quiet, there are ducks swimming around. We slept close the upper reservoir of the hydroelectric station. The sunset was purple and peaceful, and the sky was so dark that we could clearly see the Milky Way.

 

We woke up in some frigid weather. The 2000 feet of descent that followed just made the cold more painful. But the dawn by the Allegheny Lake was great, with some weird low clods floating on the water.

The sun then came out to shine on the last remnants of fall colors. 



I highly recommend this loop if you want to witness some of the relationship between industrial activities and nature. Between little villages, oil fields, and huge natural spaces. Most of the ride is deep in the forest and quite distant from the oil fields. But it is not always a pleasant ride, there is heavy oil/sulfur stink here and there. Some of the oil distribution buildings are noisy. Some dirt roads are steep and in bad shape. But none of the pumps is working. 


>50% unpaved.


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