Wanders on the Great Allegheny Passage | Deal | Twin Churches

Moon Day 23

Starts Feb 20, 2025 01:12 AM

Ends Feb 21, 2025 02:16 AM

Good day for cleaning and protecting your abode. Burning of incense and candles is recommended. I suggest burning Artemisia, which grows wild along the GAP. It is famous for dispelling negative influences. 

Deal Crossroads

An interesting side trip can be made from the Deal Crossroads to the famous Twin Churches on Route 160 1.6 of a mile northeast of here. The two churches standing almost side-by-side are a local landmark. At the Crossroads turn right (if you coming from Frostburg) on the Old Deal Road, go north to Mackenzie Hollow Road, and then follow it to Route 160. The vertical altitude gain is 230 feet. It’s a scenic ride past well-kept farms with great views of the long ridges of the two Savage Mountains. The immaculately maintained Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church is at the corner of Mackenzie Hollow Road and Route 160. The church next to it is the Grace Independent Bible Church, which according to its website is “a fundamental Bible believing and Bible preaching church” whose motto is “The church high on the mountain lifting high the cross.”

Twin Churches, Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church center

Twin Churches

North of Maryland, founded as a refuge for Catholics, this area is firmly Protestant, as indicated by the Lutheran Church, a nod to Martin Luther, the original Protestant, and the fundamentalist church. The Deals, who settled this area and founded the village of Deal, were staunch Lutherans. Why two churches were built so close together at this relatively remote rural crossroads remains somewhat of a mystery. The Mount Carmel Lutheran Church occasionally hosts church suppers open to the public. A staple of the local social scene, these church suppers are great places to mingle with farmers and other locals. Hospitality is the rule at these events and is dispensed even to city-slickers on bikes. A recent dinner featured all-you-can-eat spaghetti with meat sauce, a salad, roll, beverage, and homemade cake all for ten bucks. Check Mount Carmel’s Facebook page for upcoming events. The ride back to the GAP is all downhill. Signs with bikes on them helpfully point the way for GAPers who may have gotten lost or bewildered.

Part of a church group of forty-two young women from Altoona, Pennsylvania, who were biking from Deal to Cumberland, where the bus that had brought them to Deal would pick them up. 

Their ankle-length dresses did not seem to 

inhibit their biking one bit.

See Wanders on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Bike Trail between Cumberland, Maryland, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Cumberland to Frostburg, including Towns of Cumberland, Mount Savage, and Frostburg.