Day 7: Greenbrier River Trail

Day #7) June 19, 2011. Cass, WVa to Caldwell, WVa – 77 miles in 5:15 hrs.

Our night in Cass was pretty uneventfull. I mean about all there is to do in that tiny place is to ride the train up the cog railway for 20 bucks/head for a 4 mile train trip, sit in the Rt. 66 restaurant/lounge and down Budwiser beers, or munch ice cream cones in the Cass General store while browsing for ticky tacky junk and souvenirs . Small little tourist town for sure, and definitely not enough to keep you busy for more than a couple of hours. We ended up just kind of taking a walk around town and then back to the motel room to veg out on HBO for 4 hours. Woke up to a steady rain in the morning, and it just kept raining for 2 solid hours. We kind of stalled a bit with our getting ready, just hoping the rain would dissipate in the meantime. By 9am it was still sprinkling, but we decided to just go for it. No sense in hanging in Cass for a second day. Think I’d rather ride in the rain than spend another hour in Cass.

So it was Judy and I for the first 24 miles on the Greenbrier Trail. Now the GBT is an old rail trail. I’d been there about 15-16 yrs ago to ride with a bud, and Bill had ridding on it back in 08 – in both of our experiences were that it was a tough and rugged trail. I was hoping the passing of over a decade had given the state a chance to improve upon what we’d experienced so many year ago. And that was exactly the case. The trail had been crowned numerous times with a kind of course gravel. It’s definitely tougher to ride on than the C&O was due to the gravel size and the softness of the crown. It’s just not packed too well, so it makes doing like 14+ mph a bit of work (and the reason it’s not packed too well is that there’s hardly a soul on it!). Other sections are just lightly packed dirt and mud. Judy and I cruised along at a fairly good clip in and out of some small sprinkler and spritzing rain. After about an hour the sprinkling cleared up and we were good to go. I was amazed that on a Sunday, the light rain notwithstanding, there were zero people on the trail. No one!

The trail is very nice, running right along the Greenbrier River on the old rail bed. But it just wasn’t as striking and impactfull as was the C&O. It’s really no different than the towpath along the Cuyahoga River – just the surface is a bit tougher to ride on. We did hit a tunnel that was 500 feet long, with just a small spot in the middle for about 100 feet where you could not see any light on either side. I popped on my headlamp so Judy wouldn’t have a fit. We made it through with no problems.

Also hit a few bridges over the river that were really scenic, but that was about it. Made it to Marlington in just under two hours to meet up with Bill and make the hand-off for my riding partners. Now in Marlington the trail is paved for about 3.5 miles, and there, about 24 miles into the trail is were we saw our first biker of the day. Hadn’t seen one in the first two hours of riding! Bill and I got it rolling a bit faster up to about 15 mph, and let me tell you, I was working to keep it there on that soft gravel. From there onward the terrain and the scenery was nice, but not noteworthy. Maybe I’d embellished my visions of it from yesteryear, but it just did not live up to what I remembered and expected. Bill agreed.

We hit the Droop Mt area and another tunnel of 400 feet. Again, no biggie and totally anticlimactic compared to the Paw Paw tunnel of 3000 feet back in MD. Now the trail was damp for a night and morning’s worth of rain, so we had some puddles to dodge, and some deadfall to cross over. So after hours of riding we were pretty covered in mud and gravel. Drafting was pretty much a no-go unless you were into rooster tales of mud and gravel. And sunglasses were pretty useless due to the high humidity – they’d fog up constantly. So we were without eye protection. As such mud and bugs were just nailing us left and right in the face. By four hours in my eyes were red and swollen from all the bugs and dirt. They were watering like crazy and stinging and itching non-stop. At times I could only see out of one eye.

Then we hit the hell section. Yup my Waterloo with respect to my great patience and virtue. That’s when we hit these petrified horse tracks in the trail. Yup, so numbskull group of outfitters had evidently taken clients out onto the trail when it was very wet and sloppy. Thus, the horse hoofs had cut deep ruts in the trail, that when dried, resembled petrified dinosaur footprints. Riding over those were like riding over a gnarly washboard – for four freaking miles! I mean it cut our speed down by an easy 3 mph. You almost had to stand up such that your guts wouldn’t get giggled loose! That’s where I was talking to myself and Bill out loud. No check that, I was using a string of profanity in a very boisterous voice. Our worry was that we’d have to finish the last 20 miles with the petrified horse track.

The track finally dissipated four miles later, and when we saw an outfitter lugging some tourists down the trail in a cart and a group of two on horseback, I just couldn’t be cordial. I just gave him a surly stare and rode past. My anger translated into a pace that got up to about 17 mph for the last hour of riding. So we finished with about a 14 mph average for 77 miles of cycling. Judy did the Hershel thing by having an ice-cold six pack ready for us when we pulled into the southernmost trailhead. By then the weather had changed to sunny and torridly hot with the humidity.

We agreed to drive into Lewisburg and bag a motel. Good news was that we had cell and internet service after nearly three full days. Got a Super 8 and then went straight for the Chinese buffet. Judy was outvoted 2-1. Tomorrow we’ll look at my AM DT route, but again many of the roads listed in my 2008 county maps as gravel, are asphalt. We saw one of them on the way out of Caldwell. So we could improvise again and look at some different routes. I joked this eve to Bill and Judy that American Dirt is more like American Jerk – and that’s me! We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

On to Virginia…….Pete

Day 6: Allegheny Mt madness

Day #6) June 18, 2011. Judy Gap WVa – 40 miles in 3:10 hrs.

Ouch, ouch, ouch. Man this was just a gnarl-fest of climbing – topping out near the highest peak in WVa – Spruce Knob. Spruce is over 4K high, and we climbed to the gap at 3950. Literally… we bloody climbed for almost three solid hrs.

First of all again – NO cell or internet service in Cass. I absolutely had to get my client’s workouts out today and catch-up on my emails so I decided to get a motel that offered wifi with the room. After about 45 min of screwing around with the log-on stuff in the hotel and having the cook – a closet IT guy – help me out, I got logged on. I mean I was stressing big time here with such lack of cell service in WVa. This place is as remote as Icefields Parkway up in the hinterlands of B.C. Never in all my trips can I remember multiple days of zero cell service like I’ve had here in Southeastern WVa.

Now the intent was for an easy day today with a ride to Cass, WVa and the start of the Greenbrier Trail – just 40 miles away. But we’re in the most rugged, and highest of WVa’s mts, and that means climb baby climb! So I fully expected to do a doosy or two for the day despite the short distance. I was dead on for a change in this trip. We left the campground and drove back to Judy Gap where we left off the day before. The first 4-5 miles were nice and mellow along the North Fork of the S Branch of the Potomac. But then we started going up, and up, and up – up what turned out to be a 9% grade for like 12-15 miles. It was long and relentless. Bill rode with me today as Judy wanted to take the day off the bike, so he got the full dose of climbing today.

Having climbed the Canadian and US Rockies, I just kind of know how to get in the mindset that this was going to be a long, long day climbing, so I got a comfortable rhythm going and pushed up the mt. Bill was right behind me doing a very nice job of following my rhythm. By about half way up, even at like 10am, the temp had gotten to about 75+ degrees with high humidity. It was ok but feeling a bit parched in the mouth. Used the middle ring with the biggest pie plates in the back to keep it moving with a snap to the cadence. We had probably climbed like 2000 vertical feet by the time Judy came by to let us know we still have a boat-load of climbing left. She had some ice cold water though and that was just beautiful. I think both Bill and I just shot that water bottle down in one gulp.

Now yesterday I had threaded my trusty “sweat rag” to my handlebars to wipe the dripping sweat from my head during climbs. And on this day I put my sweat rag through the handlebars as soon as we started. Today, on that climb, I had little streams of sweat just running off of my forehead and onto my handlebar bag when I was out of the saddle. I’d grab my rag every now and again, wipe my face and temples, put it away, and then a minute later I was just dripping again. This went on for at least 45 min.

So anyway, we continued up the climb for another tens of switchbacks and then finally topped out at the summint of Allegheny Mt – 3950 ft high. I’m going to tell you that I just do NOT have my climbing legs yet. I was a hurting puppy for sure: Just stiff and heavy in the legs. I think it’s a fcn of going from the flats for 3 days straight away to some of the toughest mt climbing in WVa. After we topped out it was like very hard to even get on top of the pedals anymore. My legs felt pretty gassed. Then we just did these woopdedoos up and down for the next several miles to Green Bank. We had planned on looking for a place there but the electronics situation is just freaky up there. Why?

Green Bank has a radio telescope situated there, and you can see it from like 5-7 miles away. The dish is like 300 feet wide – it’s the largest one in the world that actually moves. The whole area up there, in a 3 sqr mile area is a mandatory radio free zone. So no motels no nothing that is radio signal dependent is up there. No cells are allowed near the facility, no radios, no malfunctioning microwave ovens. It’s crazy. That made our ride to Cass a foregone conclusion. So we rode on to Cass, about 7 more miles away and Judy for a motel with wife.

We arrived in Cass and I bolted to the room to hook up my computer, half in a craze. Then fiddled with the connection for almost an hour. Bill drove up and did the radio telescope tour, and said it was pretty impressive. Me and Judy? Well, I was so worried about loosing my internet signal that I’ve sat here for 3 solid hrs getting all my work done. Had to use skype to do my phone calls because my cell is useless. Have to say that doing my job on the road is pretty much paramount to anything else other than the riding. I ride, and then I have to get my work done before fun and recreating. So I had to bag going to the telescope tour – same for the Cass railway tour.

We’re situated right on the Greenbrier River, right next to the trailhead. We’ll get on the trail tomorrow and probably ride the whole thing in a day and end up in White Sulfur Springs for Sunday night. Then we’ll give my mapped directions a third try. Who knows, maybe I’ll get something right here for once.

All the best, Pete, Judy, Bill

Day 5: Let the mt climbing begin

Day #5) June 17, 2011. Moorefield, WVa to Judy Gap WVa – 55 miles in 5:01 hrs.

Ok, so you’re not going to get the blog on time. Just zero service out here in the Judy Gap area. This is a cellular dead zone for sure. So I’m hoping to post Saturday afternoon after our ride to Cass, WVa. The cell service is a huge issue out here. I mean you’re good on one side of the mt and dead on the other. It makes riders and support vehicle almost a guessing game.

So with that in mind, here’s the scoop on the route. Due to the major gaffs in the WVa county maps from yesterday, and the several very sketchy situations that could have presented themselves today, not to mention the total lack of cell service in nearly every hollow and valley we’ve been through, we decided to make our way to Cass, for the Greenbrier Trail on marked roads - asphalt. I’m finding out real fast that to do this right you need: satellite cell and internet service to stay in touch with the support vehicle at all times, and a 4-wheel drive machine to negotiate all the terrain you’re trying to ride through. I’m also finding out that the maps I have for all these WVa counties labeled 2008, have not been updated in decades. They just keep reproducing the maps with no amendment to the road systems. It’s pretty crazy. Ditto with anything that’s on google maps. Google earth maps are actually worse than the county maps.

Hell I checked out my mapping from yesterday in the motel and it was all correct – according to my WVa County maps and google earch - but as Nick had told me: “don’t believe any of the crap on google earth.” He was right on. So many of the supposed “thru” roads are now just a part of people’s private property, or just totally deadended at a certain point.

So I had a route scanned out last night and Bill had a route. We went with Bill’s route today. Because honestly, either of us could hit a homerun or totally strike out. No mater. So we got going out of the motel with the sky looking really black to our south – the way we were going. Weather was calling for the chance of scattered thunderstoms throughout the day, so it was a roll of the dice. I rung up the local Doppler on my computer and it showed the storms moving out of our path within the hour. So we beat feet and got on the road by 9am. Took a main road to start with, Rt 220/28 and then veered off to a very nice little township rd. I was pure paradise. Judy was up first to ride with me, and she just loved it. Darned near zero cars and just a super wilderness feel to the ride. We took this to Petersburg, and then jumped on another small county route – again, a homerun with respect to the sights and traffic. Nary a car passed us every 15 min. This section was through a valley with a gazillion climbs – some stiff, others gentle and long. But it was WVa for sure – wild and wonderful.

Bill jumped on the bike at about 3 hrs in, just in time for the boatload of climbing – the climb from Kline to Upper Tract, and then the 10-mile gradual climb through Monongahela national Forest. This section of riding was just off the charts stellar. Talk about no traffic, I mean we were devoid of anything for nearly an hour. The road was asphalt, but it was about a lane wide and just narrow and winding along this little run. We climbed the whole time, but very gently. Made for total enjoyment. This is all part of Spruce Knob/Seneca Rocks Nat. Rec. Area. I had told both Judy and Bill how rides like that, through such spectacular areas, those were what kept me doing this cross country stuff. It was just surrealistic riding through that stretch of mountain road. I felt so alive and aware of my surroundings. It was like a wake-up call on life.

Bill was just in awe of the ride to. Now we were not dogging it, but with all the climbing averaging any more than like 10 mph was pretty difficult – and that’s with NO load to haul! This stuff was middle cookie almost the whole time – and I found this to be the case because I just got totally sick and tired of shifting into the big ring for descent. So I went low gears on the middle ring for descents and big gears on the middle ring for climbs. That rhythm felt way better then going in and out of big and middle ring. And let me tell you, on some of the stiffer climbs, it was middle ring with the pie plate on the back . No hero stuff here, not with 5 hours of riding to do through the mts.

So this stretch through the National Forest I had figured at about an hour, and all of a sudden we’d gone past a sign for Rt 33 and descended 2 miles down to Rt 220. We’d finished way too early. Worse yet I had signaled Judy to just go on ahead of us instead of following us, so I feared that she made the right turn while we had made the wrong turn. And no cells out there – it was deadsville. So I was hoping that Judy had made the same wrong turn as we had. If not things could get shaky. Well, turns out she did indeed make the same wrong turn, and was waiting for us at the Rt 220 jcn. Didn’t take me but a second to suggest that Judy ferry us back up the 2-mile climb to where we screwed up so we could continue from there. Hell, no breaking the chain, no foul! So back we went to our gaff. From there we climbed for nearly 45 min, some portions gradual, some just gnarly steep. And by then the temp had climbed up to the low 80’s. We continued to climb the rest of that road, all the way to the jcn with Rt 33. By then I had to hit the van twice to get some ice cold water. The heat and constant climbing was beginning to run me down.

My big concern was that we were going to descend all the vert that we had gained by the time we jcn with 33. Such, luckily, was not the case, because as soon as we got on 33 we were into a climb to one of the highest mts in WVa – North Mountain – at 3650 ft. It was funny because I’d told Bill that we were in for a climb somewhere on 33, but damn, as soon as we turned onto it you could look up and see this thing just go off into the Stratosphere. Years ago we’d done a backpacking trip on the North Mountain trail, so I was familiar with the Rt 33 climb, but from the opposite direction. Nonetheless, from any direction, it’s a biggie! We hit truck lanes, switchbacks, and straight ramparts, going up, up, and up. Finally hit the top right next to the hiking trailhead after about 30 min of climbing. Now add that to all the climbing after we made our wrong turn and it added up to about 1:18 hrs of solid climbing. Let me tell you: I’ve lived in Colorado and the climbing out there is stiff, but this WVa climbing is tough and relentless!

Our descent was 4.5 miles into a headwind, and thus, never did we get any faster than 33 mph. At times the HW was just a hand against you as you descended. Other times it gusted hard and kind of blew you from side to side. I was amazed at how slow we were descending. And that was a gonzo descent for sure. Made it to Judy’s Gap and we were done – I was done, totally blown out after just 55 miles of riding in 5 hours. That was an 11 mph average! Welcome to WVa!

Found a beer store at a dairy whip – yup! And then went back and got a primitive campground just S of Circleville. Nice little old lady came out to greet us as we pulled in. Cost to camp – 10 bucks! Now this ain’t no Jellystone Park for sure, but it’s quaint, quiet, and clean. We set up at a pavilion, having it all to ourselves, and then cooked up dinner on the NASA blaster. Next up was a dip in the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potamac River. Nope, not a river by any means, it’s more of a stream that’s about 20 feet across. It’s clean as heck and cool and refreshing. I used Judy’s flip flops and waded out to the deep end and did my typical push-up. Then just kind of splashed water around rinsing off. Bill did the same. It felt absolutely awesome, that cold mountain water after a hot day of riding.

Right now Bill is crashed out on his towel on the ground sleeping while Judy is reading another cooking magazine. I’m about to hang up the computer and call it a day at 7:30pm. We tried to use my short wave radio, but can get NOTHING – no short wave, no am no fm. It is dead out here! Ok I’m about to have my 5^th Yuengling Lager. To another day on the road!!!

Cheers……Pete

Day 4 C&O and begin backroads

Day #4) June 16, 2011. Paw Paw, WVa on the C&O to Moorefield, WVa– 59 miles in 4:15 hrs.

Damn….crazy day indeed. Ok, let’s start from the start. So last night we stayed in this little campground that’s part of a bike shop – the C&O Bike Shop in Hancock, MD. Now I briefly mentioned to you the conditions of this place, namely the pooper that was damned near at the over flow stage, and the garbage bin that was about 2 feet overflowing with refuse. The compound courtyard was just a disheveled mess. Wonderful huh? You should have seen Judy’s face when we went in to the “compound” to check the place out….utter shock! Bill and I goofed on the pooper situation all evening, talking about how one was an enclosed “Mt Everest and the other was an enclosed Mt. Shasta. The Mt Shasta porto-let was definitely the one to use – still some room for the butt! Then there was the garbage situation in the back, I mean it was just deplorable, what with all the junk laying all over the place because the garbage can was overflowing. I could just envision raccoons dropping out of the trees to feast on all the refuse!

So we met the “caretaker” of the bunk compound, Ron. Now Ron’s job is basically caretaker of the compound area as well as an employee of the shop as a bike mechanic. He actually lives in one of the bunks at the bunkhouse. It was the bunk with sheets draped all over the two exposed sides such that it was kind of enclosed from the rest of the house – reminded me of the bunk on a sub – a Russian sub! Ron’s a good sort for sure, but I’m just amazed by how squalid the compound is in which he lives and works. Is that on him or his employer? Don’t know but we all kicked around the notion that someone should have taken care of the messiness of the place. And in my opinion the onus falls on Ron, the guy who lives there.

So anyway, last night was a keeper for sure. About 12 midnight there were people who pulled next to the compound just raising hell for about 30 min – yelling, screaming, just craziness. And Judy was on the “critter” watch all night worrying about all sorts of creepy crawlies getting on her once she’s asleep. What a step down from the great digs we had at Sue and Hersh’s and at Mary and Ned’s. I mean we literally cut the cable on the elevator and let it fly down to the basement! I mean we were rock bottom.

Well, Hancock is a cool little place, and very biker friendly. We walked up and down main street for a bit last night before bedtime. Then we went back to the compound and cooked up a pack of Hebrew Nationals for a pre-beddie bye snack. Got up this morning and high tailed it the hell out of there and went to a little restaurant for breakfast, and then took off for our start in Paw Paw. Plan was for Bill to ride the rest of the trail all the way to Cumberland and me to jump off at Old Town and begin my backroads riding. Our plan was for them to meet me later in in the day at Kirby, WVa.

Bill and I got going where we left off yesterday in Paw Paw, and the ride to Old Town on the C&O was just ok. Nothing spectacular like yesterday. We made Old Town in like 45 minutes. It was in the middle of nowhere. I had to ask where the bridge was to get across the Potomac to WVa so I could start my backroads riding. We were directed to a road that led to a toll bridge. Bill rode with me there and it was not at all what I’d expected. I was thinking it was some big bridge spanning the Potomac. Instead it was this little wooden planked thing about 4 feet off of the river – and the river is just a freaking trickle at that point. It was like a bloody creek crossing.

I even asked the toll lady if THAT was the Potomac? Yes, she said incredulously. No toll though for the bike, and I bid goodbye to Bill, with him riding all the way to Cumberland to meet up with Judy. Crossed the bridge on asphalt, which I knew was coming, and rode south to my left turn onto gravel. Except my left turn was NOT gravel. It was apshalt! “Ok, so that’s the story here,” I thought, got to go with it. Made my left and started to climb up a small mt. Went up for about 15 min and then topped out on this fabulous little 1.5 lanes wide road. My disappointment about no gravel was replace with the beauty of that little country road out in the mts. So I climbed and descended for about a half hour, and it was awesome. Just couldn’t help but enjoy the lack of traffic and congestion that I’d been used to on cross-country rides. Then all of a sudden on a descent I came to a dead-end. There was a Y in the road with both gravel ends having “No Trespassing” signs posted on them. Now I wasn’t devastated, by the setback, but I was concerned that I’d screwed up my meeting time with Judy and Bill by having to backtrack.

So I turned back knowing that I’d have to re-ride the entire stretch of mt road. Flagged down a guy for directions and told him of my intent with my directions. He looked at me like I was an alien. “Never heard of those roads,” was his response. So I figured that I’d made a wrong turn and kept going back to the original road. That’s when Hershel stopped to talk with me. He said he’d talked to the man who I flagged down, and that that guy had googled my directions and had no idea where the hell I was going. Hershel just wanted to check to see if I was ok. So I reiterated my directions and he just kind of cringed at what I was saying. Said his relatives pretty much owned that mountain and that no such outlet existed. He offered to give me a ride to wherever I was going, so I said I’d take a ride back to where I made the wrong turn. Threw my bike in the back of his pick-up and on the way we stopped at his Uncle’s house for him to check out my directions. So off to Uncle Nick’s we went.

Nick, the prime owner of the freaking whole mountainside asked me where I’d gotten the directions. He said I was indeed on the right road, but that it was a deadend. Told him I’d bought the county maps from the WVa DOT. That’s when he said “ - - ck the DOT, those maps have never been updated. This road has been closed for decades.” Told me there is now no ford across the South Branch of the Potomac, and that I’d have to ride back to MD to make the other side, where I had wanted to go. Told me to ride back to Paw Paw. So then the big question: “where are you headed, “ he asked. And that’s usually the unsettling one for me on trips like this. Told him I was riding across the country. And he kind of looked at me with this deadpan look. “Ok,” he responded, “so where are you going around here?” Told him I wanted to ride to Kirby to meet up with my girlfriend and my buddy. And again, he looked at me with a deadpan look. “That’s 35 miles away,” he responded. You ridin that on a bike?” “Yup,” I answered. “I’m trying to ride across the country.”

“Who gave you these stupid directions,” he asked. And I sheepishly admitted that I’d gotten them from WVa County maps that I’d paid 2 bucks apiece for, and from info I’d gotten on Google Earth. “Shit,” he said. “I don’t believe any of that crap that google and Tom-Tom Go says. There just ain’t no road that crosses the river. And those maps? You pay for them?” “Yup,” I answered, “2 dollars each.” He just shook his head with a grin. Yup, I screwed up on this portion all right. Not only was the road listed as gravel, but it was also listed as a thru road. NOPE to both!

So it was right then and there that I decided to call Judy and tell her of the gaff – and of a change of plans. Of course down here in the hill and hollows of WVa, cell reception is iffy. But I did manage to get 1 bar and left her a message. I knew that we were going to meet in Rt 28, so I left a message that I’d meet them at Springfield, just 7 miles away on Rt 28. No dirt on that stretch. And it was a shortcut to the route that I had mapped. But I just needed to check out the maps in the van and then readjust the itinerary. So Nick gave me directions to Springfield, and Hershel took me back to about a half mile into my wrong turn. And like Hershel offered to take me to Springfield, to which I politely declined, saying that I was riding across the country and I just couldn’t take a ride forward. He shook his head in confusion, but said he respected me for what I was trying to do, and then asked for my phone number to check on me later to make sure I was ok. And I was back on the bike after nearly 45 min of confusion.

About 2 miles into my ride to Springfield I just got pelted on by a passing rain storm, getting totally soaked. At least there was no lightening. Put all my E-gear into the waterproof handlebar bag. Made it to Springfield, to the Sunoco station that Nick had told me about, and which I had left a message for Judy where I’d meet them. Pulled in and these chicks were in a beat-to-hell Chevy kind of cat-calling me and giggling. I just waved politely and proceeded to an overhang near the front door so I could dry off and make another phone call.

Got a hold of Judy, who was still in Cumberland getting Bill, and told her to just ride south on Rt 28 and catch up to me. I figured I might as well just keep riding. Done. And I proceeded to ride again, into another deluge. Got my second soaking and just kept rolling along, climbing, descending, flats, just riding along trying to make some headway on nothing but asphalt, and on this super busy road to boot – logging trucks, SUV’s, delivery trucks, this road was just super busy. It was a FAR sight from my little backroads trip for sure! Rode and rode and rode, and finally after about 2 hrs after talking to Judy on the phone they caught me. Told them I’d ride to Moorefield to get in a good day and to get back to a place where I could re-evaluate my directions. They were going to look for a campground or motel

Well, I ended up riding another hour down the road – right into another deluge. Judy and Bill had stopped about 5 miles outside of town to check on me, with Judy “encouraging” me to stop there and call it a day. “Nope,” I said, I’m riding into town. And about 5 minutes later I heard lightening cracking and the deluge began. It was like the temps dropped 20 degrees and the rain was just coming down in buckets. I really tried to TT it into town, only because of the cooler temps. And about 2 miles down the road I saw my van in a motel parking area, with Judy just about to pull out to go back towards me to get me because of the lightening. I mean at that point it was a total white-out with the rain with thunder and lightening going solid. Bill had already booked a room and gestured me to the side of the bldg. Day done. Dripping wet I rolled the bike into the motel and did a super hot shower asap. My arse is just raw from riding with soaking wet shorts for 3 hrs!

The day cleared up again and we drove to a beautiful little town park and cooked dinner under a picnic roof on Bill’s NASA jet. Eating fresh salmon filets and veggies was a very good ending to a crazy day.

P.S. Hershel called me at 9:30 pm at the motel to make sure I was ok. He was blown away that I’d ridden all the way to Moorefield, just 40 miles from where I’d met him. We were totally tickled by his concern! Thanks a million Hershel – love ya dude!

Time for beddie bye…….Pete

Day 3 C&O canal

Day #3) June 15, 2011. Just south of Williamsport, MD, C&O mile marker 94 to Paw Paw, WVa – 62 miles in 4:20 hrs.

Another spectacular day weather wise – sun and cloudless almost the whole day. Temps cool in the low 50’s to start and then rising to the low 80’s to end.

Left Mary and Ned’s house in Sharpsburg, just across from the Civil War field - Antietam – at about 8am. And I mean the war site is literally right across the street from their house - the National Park. Wish we had a chance to really stop and smell the roses and check it out, but it didn’t open until like 9am, and as I’ve found on my two previous trips – you just have to keep the train moving!

Thanks again to Mary and Ned for a super evening and great hospitality. Threw down a quick breakfast at a little deli just down the road, and then off to the Potomac Rod and Gun club to start the day where we left off yesterday. This morn Judy was first up to bat to ride with me. The trail was in great shape save for the occasional piece of dead fall that we had to climb over. Must have been from the intense wind storms that we had several weeks ago. But by and large we were cruising at a very comfortable 14 mph most of the way. We were both a bit on the chilled side at the start, but after a 30 min stretch or so we warmed up pretty well. Passed what seemed like a gazillion locks, with a lot less in the way of lockkeeper’s houses today as opposed to yesterday and Monday. And the river continued to narrow down as we headed west. By this time it’s about as big as the Allegheny River in Pa. And no more crazy wild water. Today the river was lazy and slow.

Made it to Hancock, MD in about 2.5 hrs to meet up with Bill and switched riders. Now Hancock is a cozy little place and this is where we’re staying tonight, despite the fact that we rode another 32 miles west from there. Bill had some fond memories of this little bike shop in Hancock where you can rent a bunk for the night and sleep down by the Potomac. So he took care of our lodging by the time Judy and I got there and we were to back track to Hancock to camp when we finished in Paw Paw. Done. So Bill took over on the second bike and the pace was again nice and even. The stretch of towpath between Hancock and Paw Paw is really remote – I mean like nothing out there, not even a road crossing but one time in 32 miles. Very cool indeed though, to be riding on gravel and just ticking off the miles.

This was my vision for crossing the nation, on these remote little trails and roads. The feeling was one of total fulfillment as we just breezed along the two strips of single track out along the Potomac River, way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. Once in a blue moon we pass another rider of two. This is now a famous thru route for tour riders going from Pittsburgh to DC, and the distance is app. 400 miles. So damned near every rider we saw was doing it with gear on the bike.

Now the funny thing is that along this trail there is a posted speed limit for bikes – 15 mph. And looks like everyone was obeying the law – except us! I mean we were usually cranking it at 15-18mph, and I don’t mean hammering – just kind of in cruise control. So we’d pass people like they were standing still. Now granted, we were going “naked” compared to the thru people, but even the non-geared folks – no one was doing over 12 mph. So I commented to Bill about the speed limit and we both kind of goofed on it for a bit. Just so long as one of the NPS rangers didn’t see us busting it down the trail!

So Bill and I made some pretty good time on the way to Paw Paw. And then we came to the entry way to the tunnel – the Paw Paw Tunnel. Leading to the tunnel the trail narrowed down into what looked to be a small canyon, and then was on top of a boardwalk that was bolted to slickrock. I mean it was way cool to be riding about 10 feet above the canal up on a boardwalk with slickrock on both sides. This was out of a movie for God’s sake. So we negotiated that and then came to the real deal – the tunnel. Now this was a freaking TUNNEL – 3000+ feel long, and totally dark in the middle. And the amazing thing was that this tunnel was chipped and cut away by the souls who constructed the towpath. Yup, they cut into the granite from nearly a mile to make the towpath run right through the mountain!

We started out riding through the tunnel, despite the fact that a sign TELLS you to walk your bike. About 200 yrds in I dismounted and walked for fear of hitting a pothole and doing an endo into the fence along the canal. The walkway area was only about 4 feet wide. And literally, by the time you got ¼ of the way in, you just could not see. And the ceiling of the tunnel was like about 6 inches from your head. It was a total gas for sure. So it took us like about 10 minutes to walk through this thing. It was dank, dark, and totally creepy, but it was a blast – the highlight of the day for sure.

But for me, once we came out on the other side and read the signage about how this thing was built by hand, that was just crazy to believe. It’s truly amazing what people did back then to make things happen. So we met Judy about a half mile further west and the day was done. By that time the sun was blazing hot. Downed a coke and back to Hancock we went. So I’m sitting here blogging in this primitive little bunkhouse, with like 18 2x4 bunks that are screened into an Adirondack shelter. Needless to say Judy is far from impressed!!!!!! The trashcan is bulging from the mass of trash heaped inside of it, the poopers are nearly bursting at the seams with nastyness, but despite the primitiveness of the scene, it’s kind of a cool little place to spend the night. That’s my rendition anyway.

We pulled out about 200 lbs of gear from the back of my van and put it all in the camp area and Judy commenced to making us dinner 2 coolers and three big plastic containers of cookware + the NASA jet engine burner of Bill’s. As a side note – you just won’t believe how much my van is tilted to the rear what with all the freaking gear we have. I mean it’s down like 6-8 inches for God’s sake. So we pulled all the stuff out and my van’s back to normal again. But nonetheless, had a great dinner on the NASA propane burner and Judy’s baby burner was great!!

Going to bag it now and have a few more brewskies. The first half of tomorrow is the last day on the towpath and then it’s time to hit the backroads of WVa for the second half of tomorrow. That’s where this will get really interesting. I tested out my Garmin 60csx today and it did a great job with all the software I downloaded into it. So I’m hoping we’ll have a non-getting lost day on the gravel.

From way down yonder in the C&O Bicycle Shop in Hancock, MD – until tomorrow……..Pete

Day 2 on the C&O

Day #2) June 14, 2011. Point of Rocks, MD to just south of Williamsport, MD – 46 miles.

Another awesome sunny day on the towpath. Got to admit that my pig-out session at the Golden Corral last night really put the hurt on me the night before. Wow, my stomach was gurgling all night long. So I’d gotten up this morning with a somewhat “tender” tummy. So my pre-ride breakfast was just a half a Subway tuna-salad sandwich! Perfect.

Judy decided to hang with my cousin Sue today while Bill and I did our thing on the towpath. Plan was to make another short day so we could get back to Sharpsburg, MD and have dinner at Sue’s friend Mary’s house where we would be staying for the night. Sue and Judy would pick us up and then we’d meet Hersh at Mary and Ned’s where I’d cook a Chinese dinner for all of us. Done.

Now the big issue today was that we were concerned about the condition of the trail. You see, about 8 yrs ago Bill had ridden this section of C&O, and it was a nightmare what with roots and rocks and big puddles of mud. So we were kind of prepared to weather a pretty gnarly day of getting the shit kicked out of us. With that in mind I’d told Sue that we may be about 4 hours on the trail to cover just 40 miles. Bill thought that was even a pretty optimistic guestimate. The trail was closed at about the 84-mile mark, so we’d made plans to ride to that closed section and then take the bypass which was on the road for about 4 miles and then get picked up.

Our pace was very nice and comfortable for the whole way…and dag gone if the trail and our surroundings were just beautiful. The Potomac River along this section varies between extremely rugged with boulders and rapids to just still water that looks great for fly fishing and kayaking. I mean there were just to gorgeous sections of river. I looked totally wild in places. And slowly but surely the river was narrowing down as we ticked off the miles. Some 60-70 miles into the trail the river had narrowed down to about 200 meters across – not the mile across we’d seen yesterday near DC.

And the best thing was that there was not a single crap section to ride on today. Seems as though over the past 8 or so yrs since Bill has ridden the trail, the NPS has crowned that it a gazillion times such that the trail bed is really sweet – like about 6 inches above the groundcover. We ended up flying down the trail. Got to the trail detour and cruised through that – right past our meeting point – and back down onto the trail. We were a good bit ahead of schedule. Now the bad news…on just day 2 I had to ride on asphalt. Yup what with the detour that put us on these little 1 ½ lane asphalt roads in MD farm country. Didn’t take long did it? And I thought, as we were directed off of the gravel towpath by these signs, about trying to ride on the berm and still stay gravel. And I did – for about 100 yrds before the berm disappeared and turned to nothing but asphalt road with NO berm. Well, that’s just one of MANY times that I’ll be forced to ride asphalt on this trip. I figure I’ll work out the kinks when we try to do the real deal sometime in the future. Now Bill and I could have tried to work through the closed trail section, but I didn’t want to screw around with the NPS without a dialogue about our situation way in advance. So asphalt it was.

The roads actually felt GREAT – with so little rolling resistance we were flying. So a part of me felt really good about the ease or riding, and the other part of me felt that I was on pavement WAY too early. Anyway, we got back on the towpath and I rung Sue, telling her we were further ahead than we had planned, and to change our pick-up point. Not a problem, so Bill and I rode another 5 miles down the trail to Falling Waters Rd, just about 6 miles shy of Williamsport, MD. From there we rode through a private Sportsman’s Club - complete with dudes firing guns at target fields. I flagged down a guy in a golf cart and asked if we were on the right road. Dude told me that we were at a private sportsman’s club and that it was gated up at the top, where Falling Waters Rd ends. He was super friendly though and told us we could wait for the ladies up at the gate at the guardhouse. And that we did, after a middle cookie out of the saddle little climb that totally woke up the legs.

Sue and Judy arrived about 30 min after we hit the gatehouse and off we went to Sharpsburg. Was greeted by Mary and Ned and made welcome as soon as we had stepped out of the van. Unloaded like a gazillion lbs of food out of the van and I got to going on the dinner prep. Thankfully for Mary, I was able to use her kitchen and cutlery to cut up the chicken for our Chinese stir fry. Jude did a salad and Bill hooked up this freaking monster propane blaster for my wok. I mean this stove was like a bloody jet engine for God’s sake – standing like 2 ft high and connecting to a 40-50 lb propane tank – it was just amazing. I loaded like 4 lbs of diced chicken into the thing and it was just bubbling and boiling in minutes. Yup, wok cooking on the road! I made some Moo Goo Gai Pan.

After dinner we bid farewell to my cuz Sue and Hersh and we commenced to make our bedding out on Mary and Ned’s screened in porch. That meant no tents and no sleeping in the van with all the gear loaded on the bench seats. Right now, at 9:30 PM, Judy and Bill are laying out on the porch with a nice breeze blowing in from the west. I’m just a few feet away from the screen door and feeling that wonderful breeze blowing in. Tomorrow we’re going to put in a 50-70-miler and then backtrack to camp at this bike shop/hostle in Hancock, MD. We’ll have just two more days on the C&O, and then it’s off to the backcountry gravel roads of Eastern WVa. That’s where things will get interesting!

Late………Pete

Let the dirt begin: C&O canal day 1

Day #1) June 13, 2011. Washington DC to Point of Rocks, MD – 50 miles

Well, this day came so quick that I really didn’t have time to react. BAM - and off to DC. So to DC Judy, Bill and I went. Got there in like 5.5 hrs on Sunday.

Actually we made it to Frederick MD, to stay with my cousin for a few days while we are doing the C&O canal trail. Sue and Hershel have been just awesome hosts to us, taking us out to dinner Sunday night, setting us up in our own bedrooms at their beautiful home, and then fixing breakfast for us Monday morning for the first ride. One of the biggest obstacles in this first part of the trip was the start. And honestly, I’d spent like a month trying to figure out how to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the C&O canal trail – and I just couldn’t come up with anything. So way back in February I decided to start this trip on the canal, in DC and figure out the coast thing another time. I mean hell, I’d done the coast to coast thing, and this was pretty damned close, so that was my start – in the heart of DC, just outside of Georgetown. There amidst all that concrete and humanity is a little one lane gravel trail that goes west for 200 miles.

Now the tough part was actually negotiating the DC traffic and getting to the start of that towpath. That’s where Sue and Hershel came to our rescue, coaching me down the freeways into DC and then helping me work through a maze of city roads to get to the trailhead. Took us just a bit of navigating, but after a couple of wrong turns we were right back on track and made the trailhead before 11am.

So Sue and Hersh saw us to the start and then drove my van back to their house, and then the three of us promptly got lost for about a mile of riding, on sidewalks and city streets, before we found the gravel start to the trail. Now this trail is really beautiful, and darned near every single lock and locktender’s house is still intact. Matter of fact some of the canal is so wide and deep and pristine that people are rowing and sculling on it. It’s quite an impressive stretch of trail, sunk down below the streets of downtown DC along the Potomac River.

We got going and kept a pretty good rhythm going for a bit, stopping

occasionally to snap pics. The day was phenomenal – 70-degrees

and sunny. Our intention today was to ride about 50 miles, then go

out to dinner with Sue and Hersh. So we’d do a moderate day and

then spend the rest of the day with the gang. One of our favorite

spots of the day is this section of the Potomac River where it’s just

nothing but rocky and rapids. I mean it looked like sections of wild

river I’d seen out west in CO and MT. You could smell the pine

and listen to the white water of the Potomac and swear that you

were out west in the mountains. This section of the C&O is called

Great Falls – stunning.

Got to say, this start compared to the starts I had in Canada in

09 and in Northern Main in 010, it was a piece of cake – flat, flat,

flat. Now don’t tell Judy that because she was pretty beat by about

35 miles in. Yup, despite being flat the towpath with all its gravel and

bumps and mud puddles and jostling put the hurt on her. It’s

strenuous to ride on gravel and get bumped and jostled all day long.

Her shoulders were sore, her feet were aching, and she was wanting in a big way to get the hell off of the bike. Yup, this puppy is a far sight hard to ride

than the towpath in the Cuyahoga Valley.

Once we got out of the greater DC area the trail got a bit more primitive, with the gravel being replaced by earth, where mud pits and slick spots were numerous. That’s the section the put the hurt on Jude. And when Judy gets tired, Katie bar the door! Judy gets on a mission – to finish. So she told me to put the hammer down and pull so she could draft her way to the end of the day. And I happily complied. We nailed the final 8 miles at about 18-20 mph. Both Judy and Bill did a great job today. We ended up with about 50 miles in round about 3.5 hours.

When we pulled into Point of Rocks, our end point, there was Sue and Hersh standing next to my van – Hersh with a cold Fosters Lager in his hand waving to me. What a perfect way for finish riding for the day!

Now we hear that it’s going to get a bit nastier on the trail as we work our way west. A fellow told us today that there’s a section at about 70-90 miles in that’s closed due to the flooding several weeks ago. We may have to do some bike walking for a few miles! We’re going to plan on a short 40-50 miler tomorrow so we can hang with Sue and Hersh for another day. Then we’re motoring west. So we’re looking to make it to a point west of Sharpsville, MD tomorrow. We’ll camp at a friend’s of Sue’s, and they’ll come up to join us for a campside Chinese wok cooked dinner that afternoon.

We finished the day at the Golden Corral Buffet. Bill killed about 4 plates, Judy 3, and I put away a soft 5 plates. Oh to be back on the bike riding and eating and eating and riding – such a wonderful feeling indeed.

Talk to you tomorrow……..Pete