Have had our eyes on this for a coupla years and finally decided as an ORG that it was tiiiiime. Drove up previous afternoon, stayed the night at the ONLY hotel in Jersey Shore, Pa (yes, a real town, look it up) and took the Pine Creek Outfitters shuttle to Ansonia. Yes we skipped the top 7 miles or so of BORING rail trail in favor of starting right at the beginning of the deepest part of the canyon. Lovely, lovely place. Leaves weren't turning yet but the sycamores are losing theirs and the results are everywhere. Saw a bald eagle in the first half-mile .... and nothing as good til a turkey in the middle of the trail around mile 50. All in all a great ride in fabulous weather. While it appears to be a downhill run, it's only about a 500 foot drop over 50 miles, so about 10 feet a mile. Didn't feel like it was downhill and in fact the ride reminded us that rail trails are in some ways harder than regular road riding... because there's never any coasting on a typical rail trail. You are pedaling the entire time. On the road, you're zooming down hills maybe spinning but also maybe tucked, both of which give the legs a break. Weren't as many things to stop and look at as we'd hoped -- mainly because every single one of the side creeks, some of which have what look like pretty good waterfalls, were bone dry. The drought up there is as real as the one in MD. Contact points objected strongly to the last 5 or 7 miles; once again we probably did not stop enough. Once at 27.4 (Wolfe's General Store) for too much lunch and again at not quite 40 at a bench. All downhill, so what's the need, right? In retrospect, less lunch and a more regimented rest schedule would have been the right plan.