Biking the C&O Canal Path

Background


For a little background, the C&O Canal Path is a 184.5 mile trail from Washington, DC to Cumberland, MD.  It is a former canal towpath that runs parallel to the Potomac River.  Mule teams pulled canal boats with goods up and down a canal that was dug along the river.  Much of the canal still exists, with locks all along the way.  The National Park Service owns and maintains the trail now.  For a deeper history check out the NPS website here: http://www.nps.gov/choh/index.htm.

The resource I used to plan most of my trip can be found here:  http://bikewashington.org/canal/

I've wanted to bike this whole trail for a long time, but it's not easy finding three days to just ride a bike and even harder to find someone who wants to ride 184 miles with you.  But a few months ago, my friends, Steve and Krishna, and I were riding along the Greater Allegheny Passage (GAP) when we came across a couple that had biked from DC and were continuing on the GAP to Pittsburgh, PA.  The husband was riding a really nice Specialized bike, but the woman was riding a single-speed beach cruiser with a basket full of gear.  They were just trucking right along.  So Steve and I figured, well, what is our excuse for not doing it.

Day #1


So at 7:30 am on Friday morning, our co-worker Krishna dropped us off at Fletcher's Boathouse at mile 3.1 in DC. Now I know, I know, it's not mile 0.  But that last 3.1 miles would have taken us a least another half an hour of driving time during the morning commute and believe me, you'll see we made up for those miles along the way.  According to the thermometer outside Steve's place it was 45 degrees out, and it felt every bit as cold as that.

The trail is pretty well maintained around the DC area, and we were fresh and ready to go.  Here we are all geared up and ready to go: 

 We made good time and stopped along the way to see a few sights like a kayak slalom course: 

And Great Falls: 

We made it to White's Ferry by 12:30 pm and took a break and watched the ferry do one round trip: 

We stopped for lunch at Point of Rocks and made Brunswick by about 2:30.  By 4 pm, we managed to make it to Harper's Ferry, tired, sore, but happy to be at our destination for the day.  The last 10 miles were tough and slow going.  Finally, we arrived in Harper's Ferry.  To speed up our first day, we had dropped our gear off at the Harper's Ferry Hostel International.  So we stopped in and checked into the hostel.  Hostel hosts Craig and Brian at HI were great and very helpful before, during, and after our stay. 

Steve and I in front of the hostel: 

So once off the trail, we went to the hostel to check in and figure out where to pick up the gear trailer we would use for the remainder of the trip.  Steve had rented it from River and Trail Outfitters.  Now, these guys are great, but their bread and butter is river outfitting for the Potomac River.  They seem to do a small side business in bicycles, but it's not their focus.  Stop by their shop and you'll understand.  So after riding 60 miles, you can imagine our chagrin when we were told that our bike trailer was in Brunswick, MD- a place we had riden past about 45 minutes before.  Luckily, these guys have better customer service than Netflix and Kevin from the shop agreed to drop the trailer off at the hostel while Steve and I went into town for dinner. Here's the trailer after a few hours in the trail: 

I asked the omniscient hostel host Brian for a restaurant suggestion and he recommened Secret Six, a local pub.  Off we headed, risking life and limb walking along some narrow streets to get over the river to Harper's Ferry, WV.  The food was good and they had beer, so Steve and I were happy.  There was only one waitress serving the entire restaurant, so service wasn't speedy, but she did her job, which was to keep us in food and beer.  And honestly, Harper's Ferry didn't seem to be a wealth of choices, so you take what you can get.  And be warned, a cab ride will cost you: Steve and I didn't feel like walking back in the dark and it cost us $20 to get a cab ride the 2+ miles back to the hostel. 

Day # 2

Here's where we made our first mistake.  We decided that we would sleep in a bit.  Rest is essential for these kinds of trips.  Actually, one of the many things I learned on this trip is just how much our bodies can recover from with just a little rest.  I got up at 8:15 am and took the Yakima Big Tow outside and attached it to my bike.  And then came our second mistake: me and Steve made pancakes.  This was my first hostel stay and I enjoyed the communal experience.  It's like staying at someone's house where they really mean it when they say "Help yourself".  We used the kitchen to whip up some pancakes, but well, they didn't come out.  And it took us like half an hour.  And Steve admits that he eats really slowly.  Thanks to my military training, I can scarf down an entire 3000-calorie meal in 2 minutes flat.  So the three four-inch pancakes on my plate lasted less than 15 seconds.   I didn't even bother sitting down. 

Once we were done eating, we went to load up the trailer.  Now, I don't really have anything bad to say about the Yakima Big Tow, but it's not a car trailer.  And Steve and I had seriously overpacked.  We had brought all the gear to camp out and as it turned out, we weren't going to need to do that.  So we spent another 20 minutes going through all of our stuff and axing everything except a change of clothes, some food, and our toiletries.  Once again, Craig found himself guardian of gear.  Long story short, it was 10:30 by the time we had wheels on the trail. 

Allow me to rant for a moment: weather forcasters suck!  How is it possible to have a sunny-filled forcast at 10 pm the day before and then step out into rain 12 hours later?  Where are we as a society anyway?  Is science dead?!  As you can tell, it was raining on the morning of day 2.  It wasn't a hard rain, but it was cool- probably about 60/65 and rain isn't how you want to start a 65-mile day.   Once we got on the trail, we rode about two miles and stopped under a railroad bridge when it really opened up.  Here we met Adam, a biker with a few more career miles than us, who was on his way to Cumberland to spend time with friends.  Apparently this was just one of many such trips he had undertaken to visit them.  He had his guitar strapped to his back and the rest of his gear in panniers attached to his bike.  This guy was fit.  Once the rain let up to a drizzle, we all started back on the trail and within a minute, Adam had disappeared forever.  He was booking it. 

It rained for about an hour and a half, though not enough to really soak the trail, just make it wet and cold.  Surprisingly, neither Steve or I were quite as sore as we had expected.  And after about two hours of riding, we got into a rhythm and were making up for lost time.  We never stopped for more than a few minutes.  And by the time we hit Shepherdstown, MD we were setting a good pace.  Here, we ran into some Civil War reenactors who had marched from Harpers Ferry, some of them barefoot.  (They must have not slept in, like we had). 

We kept up the pace and made another quick 12 miles until we ended up at Dam 4.  And here is where things really went south.  Throughout our trip up to this point, the National Park Service had dozens of signs that said something like "Rough trail ahead.  Please walk your bicycle through this portion of the trail."  But none of these signs seem to designate any rougher portion of trail than anything we normally experienced.  In fact, they should have put those signs up for the entire trail from Big Pool to Hancock, but we saw nary a one on that section.  Needless to say, all of this crying wolf had us slightly desensitized to trail warnings.  Unfortunately the big sign that cried wolf was for reals!  But Steve and I were tired and already running behind so taking a friggin 6-mile road detour was not something we wanted to do.  Also, when you tell someone that they need to take a 6-mile detour, you shouldn't also inform them that only 1.5 miles ahead, they can find out for themselves whether you're full of crap or not.  So we made our second BIG mistake: we tested out the sincerity of the NPS.  We rode up to Slackwater to see for ourselves.  Let's just put it this way- the wolf came this time. 

We rode back to Dam 4, having lost about 40 minutes and all of my patience and started our detour.  You know those lazy days when you just hop in your car and ride around in the country?  (If you don't, you should, it's the best way to see America.)  Well, those nice rolling hills that make the experience so enjoyable- they are a pain in the ass on a bike.  So just to summarize, we've ridden 27 legitimate miles, 4 you-should-have-listened-to-the-sign miles, and now we're riding 6 detour-up-and-down (but mostly up) miles.  An hour later we were back on the trail and found ourselves at mile number 90- not even halfway for the day and it's 3:30ish.  I had called Julie and told her our predicament.  Steve was burned out and I was just plain pissed- at ourselves and our bad luck.  I told her we were going to keep going for a bit and I'd let her know whether or not we were going to keep going.  

Neither of us had eaten much of anything all day.  And because I had left my damn water bottle at Steve's house, I was existing on a small water bottle I was refilling at the pumps along the path.  So we took our first real break at Opequon Junction.  I drank an entire bottle of Gatorade and at one of the Clif bars that Steve brought.  Steve had two of them.   Now, I'm not a paid spokesperson for anyone, but these Clif Bars saved us!  We were really dragging it, just running on empty.  We only took a 20 minute break, and within about 15 minutes, we were feeling so much better.  The trail conditions improved drastically within a few miles and the sun was finally out. 

Soon we were past the midpoint and then we hit mile 100 in Williamsport, MD.  Now there really isn't anything significant about it.  It's not the midpoint.  We weren't staying there.  In fact, it was 24 miles from our destination, but the human mind is a strange and powerful thing.  Mentally, knowing that over the past two days, we had pedaled more than 100 miles was just what we needed.  We asked a gentleman walking along the path to take a picture of us posing in front of the mile marker:

We chatted it up with our photographer for a few minutes and then hopped back on our rides, energized and encouraged.  I want to take a moment here and plug Williamsport, MD.  I don't know who or why, but this section of the trail, from about Lock 43 to maybe McCoy's Ferry were the best maintained miles we spent on the trail, even more than the Capital Region.  Sorry, DC, but Williamsport, MD made you look like hobos.  And remember, we're talking about having already ridden 36 miles.  This particular 15+ mile section was an absolute joy to ride.  We made great time.  The sun was out.  And the trail was smooth and well-maintained.  So whoever is responsible- kudos! 

Here's some photos from along that stretch: 

But before every storm, there's a quiet.  And that's what those 15 miles of heaven were.  It didn't happen suddenly, but very gradually.  It happened at the same pace that the sun sets, which is what was happeneing simultaneously.  By the time we hit the Licking Creek Aqueduct, it was quickly getting dark and by the time we were 8 miles outside of Hancock, MD, we were biking by headlamp and flashlight.  The last 8 miles took us nearly 2 hours.  5 miles outside of Hancock and the trail desintegrated into mud puddle after mud puddle.  The best I can figure, NPS all but gave up on maintaining the C&O through this section because the Western Maryland Rail Trail runs parallel to the C&O from Big Pool to Hancock.  Maybe more people favor the paved WMRT and so the C&O seems to be relagated to the back burner.  At least that's the sense you get riding this portion of the trail.  Riding it in the dark made it all the worse. 

But we did make it to Hancock around 8:30pm.  It was a relief to have light enough to ride.  Neither of us had headlights or taillights, so we both rode down the hill towards the hotel on the sidewalk.  Here we met our demise: 

I don't know why this was designed this way, but I hit the cutout first.  My front shock took the brunt of the hit on my front wheel, but my back wheel was slammed into the curb by the weight of the trailer and I blew my rear tire.  I made it onto the other side.  Steve wasn't so lucky. 

We walked our bikes the mile or so to the hotel, checked in and nursed our hunger and pain at Pizza Hut.  A few wings, some soda and beer, and a large Italian sausage did a lot to ease our pains.  We went back to the hotel to sleep and hopefully start the last leg of our trip. 

Both of us really wanted to keep going and I selfishly ignored the warning bells in my head that told me it wasn't a good idea.  That is until Steve started wrapping up his knee for the ride.  I got a good look at his knee.  It had swollen up to twice its normal size.  I finally listened to myself and said, "Steve, we can't keep going. Not with your knee like that."  He was disappointed, but wasn't going to argue.  I called Julie and she came and picked us up. 

So, no trip like this is complete without learning a few lessons.  Here are the ones I learned:

1. Rest is a powerful thing- get the rest you need.
2. Always get an early start.  You can always find something to do at the end of the day.  What you can't do is make more daylight. 
3. Don't believe every sign you see, but the big ones are probably for real.  Be prepared to pay the price associated with ignoring them. 
4. Study your ENTIRE route, not just the places you THINK you're going to stop at. 
5. You usually need much less than you pack. 
6. No matter how little you pack, if you're going somewhere farther than you care to walk with a broken foot from a place that carries first aid supplies, then bring a first aid kit.  That's a hell of a sentence to say- pack a damn first aid kit! 
7. Never ride on a sidewalk. 
8. No matter how close you are to your destination, don't let your guard down until you're there.
9. This is stolen from http://bikewashington.org/canal/index.php: Eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty.  And from me: rest before you're dead.
10. Finally, don't be afraid to try something scary.  We rode 132.93 miles in two days.  72.93 of those were on our second day.  You may surprise yourself.