Day 5 - C & O Canal - The End of the Tour

On day 5 of the trip we rode all the way into Georgetown. This was my favorite day. It was fantastic. The rain, the beauty, the accomplishment--all of it!

As you can see from the photo above the MMM method works for packing up as well as for finding a good tent spot (you must see Plainoldkristi's blog to understand). Notice, we are all packed up and ready to go (fingers crossed--I won't mention that we haven't cooked our breakfast and ate yet), while Plainoldkristi and her husband (who have cooked their breakfast and ate) struggle in the background to pack their belongings. It's the last day of the trip--we are getting the hang of this camping thing.

The path was great on day 5!

After arriving at the beginnings of the Great Fall area, we ate lunch, enjoyed the beautiful camp area, and rested.

Nekee tired, but feeling good!
A picture from the photo shoot of me. Nekee was my photographer. Plainoldkristi's husband drinking coffee and enjoying the break.
Me, posing for the camera and enjoying my surroundings.
A huge fish. It was really big!

A canal boat. In Georgetown and at the Great Falls, visitors can take a ride on these boats and hear all about the history of the canal.
Although we did not stop at the Great Falls (we all have been there several times), it's definitely a place to go if you have never been there before. It's breathtaking beautiful. Above is a picture of some of the rocks and scenery near the falls.

Another photo of a Lock Keeper's house.

I thought this photo was funny because Plainoldkristi and her husband were in front of Nekee and me and didn't realize that they had lost some of their belongings along the way.

After lunch, it began to rain. The rain felt wonderfully good! Since it was the last day of the tour, we rode while it was raining and enjoyed every moment of it.
Georgetown at last! When arriving in Georgetown my camera went dead so I have no more pictures of the trip. The message on the camera stated (battery exhausted). I felt the same way. Exhausted, excited, and accomplished. We did it! Business executives stared at us from their windows. I imagine that they were probably thinking we were crazy or wishing they were outside with us instead of in a stuffy old office. We were playing in the rain, laughing, waving our fists in the air, and taking pictures (Plainoldkristi has a picture of this moment on her blog). It was priceless. Afterwards, we rode our bikes to a Starbucks, changed into dry clothes, drank coffee, talked, and waited for my brother in law to pick us up. I must say the trip was wonderful, and I would definitely do it again! Thanks Plainoldkristi for convincing me to go.

Day 4 - C & O Canal

On day 4 we rode our bikes for approximately 46 miles or so and stopped to camp at Turtle Run. The campsite should have been called centipede run because there were centipede's running throughout the grass. Eeek!

Plainoldkristi enjoying her coffee and chatting with me and Nekee on the other balcony.
On this day, we woke up refreshed and anxious to jump back on our bikes and start pedaling. But first, we enjoyed a cup of hot coffee on the balcony of our rooms. Plainoldkristi and her husband were in the room next door so we were able to talk to each other from our balconies.

Plainoldkristi and her husband.
The Potomac.
After reaching Harpers Ferry, Plainoldkristi and her husband unloaded their bikes and hauled them up a flight of stairs to go visit the historic town of Harpers Ferry. Nekee and I decided to continue on our way to Point of Rocks to meet up with a wonderful friend who offered to meet us on the trail, bring us to her house, and fix us lunch. We were also able to wash our clothes while we were there.
The super nice friend making us delicious chicken salad sandwiches with pasta salad. The lunch was great, and I absolutely fell in love with her children. Both of them have such great personalities and are quite intelligent also.

Funny, smart, and cute kids. They were vicious pirates on this particular day and were really excited to show me and Nekee their pirate ship that their father built for them.

After lunch and a visit, the friend took us back to the trail, we said our goodbyes, and started back on our journey. Meanwhile, Plainoldkristi and her husband finished their visit at Hapers Ferry, biked to Point of Rocks, ate their chicken salad sandwich (which was dropped off to them)on the trail and continued on to the designated campsite.
After Harpers Ferry, the trail became quite nasty. Lots of mud, broken branches, and ruts. Somehow, we managed to miss the rain and bad weather. Patiently and carefully riding our bikes, we were able to stay upright despite the numerous times we fish tailed through the mud. At some points the path became nice again like in the picture above. This part of the trail actually made me think of the Bayou. Nekee barely missed running over a black snake stretched across the path.

A beaver's lodge.

When arriving at our campsite, Turtle Run, Plainoldkristi and her husband were setting up camp and informed us of the icky little centipedes crawling through the grass. Somehow, we were too tired to care very much. We managed to find a comfortable location for our tent (Plainoldkristi's website gives good details about this process), and set up camp for the night. On this night we did have a man and his teenage son share the campsite with us. They were quite friendly and pleasant. We enjoyed their company and discovered that the teenage son had just returned from a trip to New Orleans.

Plainoldkristi building the camp fire. This was her nightly ritual.

Day 3 - C & O Canal

On Day 3 we rode our bikes approximately 50 miles stopping at Shepherdstown to stay at the Bavarian Inn. This was our toughest day by far.

Me stopping to take a break.

The rest on the gang stopping to stretch and enjoy the view.
Wasn't the view beautiful!

Just another picture of some sights we viewed along the way. I am not sure what the name of this dam is, but there must be lots of fish here because a man was sitting on the rocks fishing. The next bike trip I take, I think I'll bring my fishing pole.

We noticed this sign at a private camp ground we stopped at and thought it was funny. Would anyone like to bike to Cancun?

After traveling smoothly along, the path suddenly stopped. There was a big orange sign stating that the path was too dangerous at this point and that a detour must be taken. The detour was five miles long and extremely hilly.

A close up of the detour sign. This detour was quite a challenge for all us. However, I conquered my fear of going down hill because I knew that if I didn't go down as fast as possible then the trip up the hill was going to be a lot more difficult. I also learned how to properly shift the gears in order to travel faster and to make it up the hills a little easier. Needless to say, we felt victorious when we completed the five mile detour through the hills. Our hearts were pounding, we were gasping for breath, and sweating profusely. We collapsed on the side of the road to drink some water and return to normal.

VICTORY! Yeah!

Nekee and me feeling quite victorious.

Relaxing!

In Shepherdstown we voted on staying at a hotel to take a shower and get a good night's sleep. The hotel was biker friendly and allowed us to bring our bikes into our rooms. The shower sure felt good!
We made reservations at the Inn's restaurant and ate German food that night. We all thought it was funny when Plainoldkristi's husband ordered an appetizer, then when he received his entree it was just a larger version of his appetizer. I had crab cakes the northern way. It was quite different than the southern way, but it was delicious! Notice the frizzy hair on me, I had nothing to fix it with, but it was clean! Trust me, my pride went out the window on this trip.

A picture of the hotel we lodged at--the Bavarian Inn.

Unfortunately, the beds were sort of hard, but we slept long and sound!

Day 2 - C & O Canal

Day 2 of the tour we rode our bikes for about 40 miles or so and set up camp at the Little Pool campsite. Along the way we saw many beautiful and interesting sights.
Here is a picture of us about to enter the Paw Paw Tunnel. The Paw Paw Tunnel is about 3,118 ft long. It's dark, damp, full of bumps, and forever long. I pushed my bike for almost the entire tunnel. I didn't want to hit the railing and I didn't want to hit the wall. Plainoldkristi and her husband zipped through. Poor Nekee was stuck behind me and waited patiently as I trudged along.

Our bikes on the path immediately after we exited the Paw Paw tunnel.

PlainoldKristi and her husband climbed the steps to the top to watch me and Nekee as we exited the tunnel.

NeKee entering the Paw Paw tunnel.

Me entering the Paw Paw tunnel before I decided to get off and walk the bike the rest of the way through.

I believe this is a picture of the Sideling Hill Creek Aqueduct, but I'm definitely not sure.

Along the path we also stopped at the Little Orleans store. This little store has been around since 1896. The building was destroyed by a fire in 2000 and was rebuilt in 2001. The sign on the door stating the hours of operation was quite hilarious. Basically there were no set hours or days of operation. The store was closed but the owner's son (a really nice guy) opened up for us anyway and we all purchased snacks and wrote our names on a dollar bill for the owner to staple to the store ceiling (this is a tradition of the store).

That afternoon we stopped in Hancock to eat pizza. The pizza was delicious! I wanted to post this horrible picture of myself laughing in the pizza place just to prove to my sisters that I am not VAIN. Messy hair, sweat, and dirt just came with the trip.

When arriving at Little Pool we all cooled off in the Potomac. I am not sure if this was a good idea or not, but it sure felt good!

Day 1 - C & O Canal Bike Tour

On Monday, July 27th, my brother-in-law (Nekee's husband) piled us (Nekee, PlainoldKristi, her husband, and me), our bikes, and our gear into a big van to drive us to Cumberland, Maryland to begin our bike tour. On the way we stopped at Wal-mart and
REI to pick up food and a few extra things. After arriving in Cumberland we ate at the Crabby Pig, got a kick stand for Nekee's bike, loaded up our gear, took a few practice spins on our loaded bikes, and began our tour. Trust me, riding on a loaded bike is quite different than riding without gear.
Above is a picture of the bike gang just before beginning the tour (me, Plainoldkristi, her husband, and Nekee).

Us with our loaded bikes. Check out Nekee's and my yellow Ortlieb panniers (money well spent-especially when your caught in a downpour). These panniers are water proof. We can vouch for that because the last day of the trip we had a downpour.

The trail that we did was 184.5 miles (we rode our bikes a total of 196 miles including all of our off the trail stops). The trail is called the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal trail. Here is a link to get more information about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Canal. The picture above is what the trail looked like when we first began the tour. Nice and shady. Occasionally we would see deer dart across the path, turn and look at us, and then dart into the woods. The weather was beautiful!
Plainoldkristi's husband, our tour guide, tire changer (fortunately we didn't have any flats) and biking expert.
A picture of my bike equipped for loaded touring.
Since we got off to a very late start (around 4:00 p.m.) we only rode twenty-five miles and setup camp. This was the view from our campsite. This is a picture of a Lock keeper's house. The Lock keeper would collect tolls and keep records of commerce on the canal.

Our tents set up for the night.

Now for a funny story. When arriving at the totally desolate, in the middle of the woods camp site, and after setting up our tents, Plainoldkristi noticed several piles of animal poop. We thought it could possibly be bear or horse poop. Since none of us have ever seen bear poop we were not positive of what it was. Plainoldkristi's husband was pretty certain that it was horse poop, but we were still not sure. Nekee called her husband to send us some pictures of bear poop on her phone so that we could compare. My cousin who was visiting Nekee's husband and Nekee's husband thought it would be great fun to tell us that the way to tell was to taste a little bit of it and if it tasted grainy it was horse poop and if it tasted like berries it was bear poop. Of course we all declared that we would not taste it, but instead broke the poop apart to discover a lot of hay. The poop was declared to be horse poop, so we decided to stay. However in the night we are pretty sure we heard a bob cat scream close by, and a very rude frog who continually croaked throughout the night.