I started my investigation of the area with a google search and came upon a 2005 New York Times article entitled “Amish Country Over the Handlebar”. The most valuable piece of information in it was a reference to the Lancaster Bicycle Club and their web page of “26 Carefully Planned Tours for Bicyclists”. The rides all start from tourist attractions in four towns in the area: Lancaster, Lititz, Ephrata and Paradise. Most of the rides are in the 30-35 mile range but there are a couple of longer ones. We found the cue sheets to be excellent, even including helpful symbols for each turn that concisely describe the road. We also had the excellent Lancaster County Bike Map which we could use to lengthen or otherwise modify the cue sheet routes. ridewithgps also has many rides in this area.

We stayed our first two nights at the Historic Smithton Inn, a B&B in Ephrata built in 1763. Our room included a fireplace and a bed so high, there was a step-stool to aid the vertically challenged (there was also a flat-screen TV, an ipod docking station and wi-fi for those who didn’t want to take the historic thing too far). We did several rides from the inn including the “Heritage Ride” which passes through all four featured towns and provides a good overview of the area, along with some great scenery. The landscape is mostly farmland, with many sweeping views of corn and hay fields, barns, and horses and cows grazing. We passed one field where an Amish farmer in traditional dress was driving a hay cart pulled by a team of four mules. It was a charming scene but as the farmer rode by a hay bale, we were surprised to see it pop up and into the cart. We were wondering how that happened when Mark noticed a diesel engine on the front of the cart. The Amish don’t want to be tied to the utility grid and connected in this way to the outside world, but they are OK with buying and using fossil fuels. We were told that this started with pasteurization, since most of the Amish farms are dairy farms. When they were required to heat the milk to pasturize, they started using fossil fuels.

As we rode along, we also saw many Amish horse and buggies on the road, and I was surprised to discover that tandem is faster than buggy! We were also surprised by how quickly the landscape changed however. One minute we were rolling along in the middle of quiet farm country, admiring the scenery, and the next minute, we’d roll up to a traffic light, look up and see a Target on one corner, and a gas station and convenience store on the other. The cross street would be a heavily trafficked road but once we got to the other side, we were right back in quiet farmland. This seemed odd, but did make it easy to find food and water.

The charming town of Lititz was on our route and we stopped and got a snack at the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery. Founded in 1861, it is the first commercial pretzel bakery in America. The pretzels were freshly made, warm and delicious (although after 60 miles of riding and no lunch, I probably wasn’t the harshest judge).

The next day started out rainy so we walked the short distance from our inn to the Ephrata Cloister, a religious community founded in 1732 by German settlers “seeking spiritual goals rather than earthly rewards”. Adherents ate one small meal per day and slept for a total of 6 hours per night – from 9 to midnight, then again from 2 to 5. In between they prayed. Their beds were a narrow board with a block of wood for a “pillow”. Definitely no earthly rewards there. One woman on our tour of the cloister asked what they did for fun!

The weather cleared so we set off on the Cornwall Furnace ride which loops past the Cornwall Iron Furnace. Originally built in 1742, it is “America’s most complete charcoal fueled ironmaking complex”. Unfortunately, it was a Tuesday and the furnace was closed, so we could only peak through the windows.

We spent the next couple of days at a B&B in the town of Gordonville, west of Lancaster, halfway between Paradise and Intercourse – must be a fun place, right? (The Lancaster Cycling Club offers a short ride from Intercourse, aptly named The Intercourse Quickie). Reinforcing the contrasts of the area, our B&B faced a busy road but the back looked out on the expansive cornfield of an Amish farm. At night, you could hear trucks whizzing by and also the occasional clip-clop of a horse-drawn buggy.

The weather turned very hot so we chose a ride to the south and found some good shade. We made a slight detour down a big hill to visit the Lancaster County Winery. The parking lot looked pretty darn empty as we pulled in, but it was a day the winery should have been open. When we walked up to the door, there was a small sign saying “on vacation today”. Oh well, that resolved my dilemma about how we could fit more than 2 bottles of wine in our rear rack bag, although it did mean climbing back up the big hill. We got back to Paradise about 2PM, as the temperatures approached the mid-90s and the sun was out in full force. So we ducked into the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Mark had a grand time looking at all the train engines and I greatly enjoyed the air conditioning.

We found Lancaster County to be a great destination for an easy, short trip. There’s good riding to be had, plenty of cycling resources, lots of lodging options, and many interesting sights in an area rich in culture. We recommend going outside of mid-summer since the beautiful farmland doesn’t provide much shade, but otherwise, it’s hard to go wrong with this attractive area of the country.