C&O Canal - Cumberland to DC

I have now seen every one of the 184.5 miles of the C&O Canal, and it was spectacular!  A bucket list item for a very long time was finally completed this past weekend.  I did not envision the ride being as fatiguing as it was, but my original plan to include 3 days of riding turned into just 2.

The trip to Cumberland started with an easy ride to Union Station from my Mom.  I wasn't so sure of the logistics with the bike and trailer.  But it turned out to be extremely easy.  There's a big door on the 29 train where bikes are strapped to the wall.  Easy hook up and leave the trailer next to it.  Badda bing!  Badda bang!

Waiting for my 4pm ride at Union Station

Note to self, wear a sweatshirt on the train.  There were a few other people who had completed the trip from Pittsburgh at the train station.  There was also a guy who just rode cross-country.  The camaraderie among bikers is pretty neat.  I got a trail update and all signs were green.  There was a huge storm that had multiple trees down across the trail that were difficult to cross earlier in the week.  I only encountered one at the Brunswick Family Campground that was easy to get over.

Arriving in Cumberland about 7:45pm kinda threw my 3 day plan into turmoil.  I was hoping to ride at least 20 miles to ease the distance.  But I forgot my bike light so there would be no riding in the dark ... and the trail gets very dark.  I rode 4.5 miles to the first campsite in my flip-flops.

Beginning of C&O Canal Trail

First night of camping at Evitts Creek

Every 5-6 miles along the canal is a hiker/biker campsite.  It's a mowed grassy area with a port-o-potty, fire ring, water pump and picnic table.  Serious kudo's to the National Park Service for keeping these campsites functional.  It'd be difficult to ride the whole trail without them.

First night of camping

My first night of camping was ok.  Temperature was cool enough, but there was a lot of noise.  You'll need to check the video for what the worst part of the night was.  And in truth, that was the worst part of the trip in total.

There is a fair amount of history along the trail.   My travel plans didn't really allow for too much sight-seeing.  These next couple photos are of an ancient cement plant.  It survived 3 fires but in the end it closed due to not staying profitable.

The plant mined limestone and ground it up to make cement.

Apparently, Portland Cement was cheaper to make and put this factory out of business.

Lock house

It seems that every lock had a house.  Guess someone lived there who maintained and operated the lock for the canal boats.  There are a couple you can stay in overnight, for $100.

Thanks, but I'll take the free hiker/biker campsite.

There are ~70 locks on the canal.  If you're wondering how they operated, here's a link.

The weekend temperature was in the upper 90's, but it was a lot cooler up north.  I benefited quite a bit from the shade, but it was still pretty warm. Not too warm, but when someone is riding a bike for hours on end ... it heats up.  Here's how we combat the heat and dehydration.

The Paw Paw tunnel is the most interesting feature on the entire ride.  It's ~3,300' feet long, over 1/2 mile and pure dark in the middle.  If you don't have any light, then good luck.  I only had my iPhone light and it was just enough to illuminate the tunnel to horror movie levels.  The uneven dirt surface rolls you side to side, with a solid brick wall on the right and a railing to the left.  There's no sound in the tunnel other than a drip drip drip of moisture.  You have to ride so slowly 'cause it's so narrow.   A couple hundred feet in and and I was ready to get out.  Creepy creepy creepy.

Here's my mechanical issue for the trip.  I can only imagine what I would have done if this had happened in the Paw Paw tunnel .. oh yea, I would have UBER'd.

64 miles into the trip and I'm feeling it.  Let's be real, that's a long ways on a mountain bike and towing a trailer.  I've still got 116 miles to get to DC.  All I could think about was I can't leave myself a century ride on Sunday.  I had to decrease that distance.

The trick is how much to ride.  Wear myself out today and nothing left tomorrow.  As it turns out, I wore myself out both days.






Below is a picture of my swimming hole.  North of DC the Potomac seems to be very clean.  Water sports crowd the river and a ton of people were taking to it in the heat.  I seriously would have traded in my dusty bike for a jet ski if someone had offered.

I just had to swim

And holy moly did I get a second bath after the swimming hole.  The skies opened up and you would've thought the Thunder God Thor himself was making a appearance.

I had a good conversation with a dude under a bridge while waiting for some the storm to pass.   He recently got out of prison on drug charges and getting his life in order with his 6 year old son.  Kudo's to him for getting his life on track, so send him a prayer or two, he'd appreciate it.

I ended up riding 111 miles on Saturday and that is the most ever for a single day on my mountain bike.  I've done two mountain bike centuries before, but this was a different kind of hard.  Given it was flat, there were no free downhill miles.  The day of riding began about 7:30am and ended riding about 8:30pm.  With a few breaks, that's ~12 hours of pedaling.  I don't train for these things, I just ride them.  As long as the body doesn't breakdown, I'll keep riding.

I rolled into Antietam hiker/biker campsite without my complete faculties.  When you're worn out that much you don't think quite as clearly, decisions are tougher, and you resemble a zombie.  So I slogged into the campsite, picked a spot, and set the tent up quickly.  I was gross, but fortunately the Potomac Bath Works was open so I slid down the dirt trail and fell into the river.  Clean as ever and ready for bed.   Unfortunately, I didn't have time for dinner.  This night there would be none, which isn't what the belly wants.

Here's the last video of the day.

Another crappy night of sleep on that uncomfortable mat.  How in the heck does Jared sleep on that?  I woke up several times and did what I could to sleep.  Eventually I fell asleep and woke up around 8am, without an alarm.  Surprisingly I wasn't feeling too bad.  The first few miles were ok as the limbs got loose.  The huge nag on me right now was hunger.  Oh man, was I hungry.  Fortunately, a town was really close.

I stopped in Brunswick for brunch. Fortunately for me, as I was looking around riding in circles some guy in a car stopped to ask if I was lost.  I asked about food and he pointed me to a pretty cute dinner pictured below.  Quiche and salmon lochs for lunch .. yummy!

Beans and the Belfry in Brunswick

Lunch could have been a real downer for me.  Turns out I left my wallet at the register when I paid for the meal, before I ate.  Later the guy came out and asked if I left my wallet there.  As much riding as I was doing, I would have been in no mood to turn around on the trail and retrieve it.  More kudos to the honest people in Brunswick!

I felt some joy when arriving at Harpers Ferry.  I had ridden my bike there once, so I was feeling pretty good that it was somewhere I had been.  The trail is relentless, one woodsy section after another.  Long stretches of straight trail that dims away as far down as you can see.  I was seriously getting worn down so anything familiar was helpful.

White Horse Rapids near Harpers Ferry

My dad took my sister and I canoeing quite a bit when we were younger.  One specific rapid I remember was White Horse Rapids.  It's just south of Harpers Ferry.  Below is my lame attempt at taking a picture of those rapids.  At this point, stopping was not an option.  The pedals had to keep turning.  I was having 4th and 5th thoughts about not making it to DC on Sunday.







I didn't take much video on Sunday.  After the first few miles it became a slog fest.  An endless unchanging trail.  Every time I put forth much effort the whole body would nauseate.  The only way I was getting through the day was carefully managing the effort.  I could pedal only so hard.

35 miles in and I'm wearing out (again), but I'm only halfway for the day.  The final portion was really a ride from one water pump to the next.  I'd get off the bike and dunk myself under each pump.  I'd cool off and start feeling pretty good.  I'd heat up by the time I rode the 5-6 miles to the next pump.  Again, dunk oneself and do it all over again.

Lunch at Great Falls

I was feeling downright cheery arriving at Great Falls.   Only 16 miles left to DC.  Under those good looks in that photo is one completely shot and worn out person.  Even my jaw was tired putting down the pork sandwich and potato chips.

Managing those last 40 miles was pretty difficult.  Any time I put forth a bit of energy my entire body would nauseate.  It was not pleasant.  There was a certain power level I could keep, but going over it was not an option.  Just keep pedaling.









Mom and her neighbor Brian showed up in Rosslyn 3 minutes after I did to pick me up.  Amazing how that worked out.  I'm dirty, stinky, nasty, and extremely relieved to be off the bike.  One of the hardest things on Sunday may have been getting my bike and trailer up the Key Bridge steps from the trail.  Wow, that took all the remaining energy I had left in my body.

Gramma is always there when you need her

For all you Fitbit fanatics, it recorded 50,797 steps on Saturday for 110 miles, and 36,527 on Sunday for 70 miles.  That 50k+ effort earned me the "Cowboy Boot" badge ... yee haw!

Another bucket list item is to ride the Great Allegheny Trail from Pittsburgh to Cumberland.  That's a mere 150 miles.  Maybe a one-day ride? 

Strava stats:

• Day 1 - 4.5 miles
• Day 2 -111 miles 
• Day 3 -70 miles

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Deep Creek Gran Fondo 2016

DEEP CREEK GRAN FONDO

SAVAGE CENTURY

The Savage Century ride at Deep Creek is the toughest ride in the area that I know about.  On Saturday June 25 I was reminded just how hard that ride can be.  There was some training ahead of this ride, but obviously a bit more was necessary.  I had a great practice run with Dan and Rich out in Middleburg, should have done that 4x more.  I did ride Fountainhead the weekend before, hurt my knee, then didn’t ride all week.  Maybe I should restart my Wednesday rides out to Purcellville?

Bottom line is this is the first century that I happily opted for the metric instead.  That’s 100 km’s which on this course is still very difficult.  I only walked a bit on one hill, Pigs Ear road, ‘cause even at full steam I’m not sure I’ve got the gearing to get up that ridiculous climb (note to self, other people did).

Deep Creek State Park is a beautiful place to spend the weekend.  I rode up Friday and pitched camp.  I didn’t have my typical camping buddy with me (Mom), so I opted for the provided food on Friday night at the aquatic center.  A pretty good night’s sleep.

Amy Charity is a former professional biker.  I think she retired last year.  She gave the guest speech and it was pretty good.  



Amy had 5 points that I might remember. 

• Just keep pedaling
• Go for it
• Practice moderation (while still going for it)
• and I don’t remember the 4^th

The 5^th is the best, “Don’t be a Douchebag”.  Her point is that it takes relationships in the cycling business to get a break, to get that loaner bike, to jump start your career and to get on your first team.  It’s a shame that more people don’t follow this advice in their lives.  So I walked up to her, said “I’m not a douchebag, and I’d love a picture”.  My first professional women’s biker photo!  Yaaaayyyyy!!!!!   For the record, she was quite cool.

The start of the race was comfortable.  Just a slight chill in the air that hung around for the entire day as the sun was hidden behind clouds.  A couple miles in and BOOM! Here’s the first KOM (King of the Mountain) timed hill.  It goes up Wisp mountain. Really not a big deal, just a baby for what’s to come.

It was a routine ride to the first Aid station at mile 20.  The toughest part of the entire ride is between Aid 1 and 2.  There are 3 KOM’s and they are monsters.  That’s what zapped me, just blood-sucking energy draining monsters.  Even the riding in-between hills was no “eat a sandwich” routine pedal.

So at the 53-mile mark there is a left arrow (100 mile) and a right arrow (100 km).  It took absolutely no hesitation for me to turn right.

I was worried that after the ride I would regret taking the shortcut.  No, that didn’t happen.  What did happen as a result of the shorter ride is my knee only hurt until 4am, not the entire next day.

Saturday after my ride, I showered, took in the scenery, talked to a few people, watched the amazing Amy Charity finish the double-metric (126 mi) in 8.5 hours, drank a bunch of water, and eventually cheered on Dan Wolfe as he finished up the century.  Good for him to stick that out.  What a difficult ride that must have been.

Dan cleaned up and headed over to the campsite for some salmon and strip steak.  Yummy!  I got a new grill complements of Michelle and kids for Father’s Day.  Steak was fantastic, difficult to cook salmon on it due to fire from all the oil. 

Then we hear this “ahem” from behind us. The group in the site next to us decided to go camping for the first time.  They had no clue how to start a fire.  They would have died on that Tom Hanks “Castaway” island.  Basically, we carried my fire to their pit.  Then I had to educate them that blowing on it won’t make the fire go out.

A great night’s sleep and then I woke up to drive 5 hours down to Camp Raven Knob Scout Camp.  So far so good here.  Just had a heckuva adventure trying to find the Orange Trail.  That’s in the next blog.

I may come back to Deep Creek because the camping is so great.  I’ll train a little bit harder for it next time as I’m not getting any younger.

Click for Strava statistics

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Raven Knob - Orange Trail

Camp Raven Knob 2016

Day 1 – Orange Trail

Why do I do this?  It’s getting dark, pouring rain, thunder and lightning directly overhead, and where am I?  I have no clue. 

Maybe for the adrenaline rush, lost in the woods with just my bike.  Telling myself not to panic, keep your cool, focus and “just keep pedaling”.  I’m gonna remember this quote, Amy Charity J  

I’m very familiar with most of the mountain bike trails at Raven Knob.  This is my 4^th year and I’ve spent a good number of hours investigating the area.  I came back this year with an almost singular purpose of discovering the elusive Orange Trail.  It’s the loop that goes around the perimeter of the entire reservation. 

Saw this little buddy on the ride

So this evening I took off with the approaching thunderstorm up the familiar Endicott Springs trail.  It’s supposed to dead-end into the Orange trail.  Well, it does.  I’ve flirted with a bit of the Orange at the end before.  However, this time I turned left and up I went.

First off, this is not a maintained trail.  I hit a fork early and stayed right thinking this would loop around as I’ve seen on the maps.  Many trees across the path later and I hit a dead-end.  I took a panorama, heard some loud crashing through the woods off to my right … got scared … and took off back the way I came.  Bigfoot?  Not sure, but it was bigger than a groundhog. 

I took the left fork this time and immediately began a hike-a-bike.  Geez, how many trees can fall across this path?  The rain has been pouring down for a while, the thunder is impressive and the lightning flashes brighten the path.  Oh yea, left the 500 lumens in my tent.  I hike-a-bike’d for ¼ mile and then called that quits. Maybe the thunder was hiding the crashing noises is the forest, thankfully?

I returned to the original dead-end and took the right-side path.  I’ve been on this path before so I was kinda comfortable again.  I came across a “Warrior Mountain” sign pointing left which I had not noticed before.  I’ve been to that place, well, at least a place with the same name.  I turned left and this is where I was really beginning to question my decision making skills.

It was quite a storm as I headed to some place through the narrow path.  I really wanted to turn around.  “Just keep pedaling”.  It was scary as for all I knew I was getting further from where I wanted to be, and I would have been completed f’d if it had gotten much darker. 

The path did lead to the same Warrior Mountain I’ve been to many times.  The relief was quite noticeable.  Pretty quick riding from there and I made it back to camp, sudo shower, and I wasn’t even late for dinner!

After uploading and researching, the trail I was on turned out to be the White Trail.  Not going there again.  Click for Strava statistics

Day 2 - More of the Orange Trail

My second adventure on the Orange Trail was far more successful than the first.  First off, I left at a reasonable time with reasonable weather.  I set off from our campsite up the Hunters Ridge Trail, up and over Warrior Mountain and back to the Orange Trail I had previously found.  The trail was pretty well marked.  There was SO MUCH hike-a-bike.  Too steep to ride, and the calves were getting a serious workout.

Grassy Knob?  Where am I?

At one point, and you can see on Strava, I set off down the fire road for an .9 mile 500' descent. Guess what?  The trail just bottomed-out and ended in a ravine.  Yes, I was a bit annoyed as the hike-a-bike was a real chore.  Someone really needs to remove the Orange Trail markings that lead to a dead-end.

Back on the correct Orange Trail I thought I knew where I was.  I figured the turn-off would put me at the top of the Raven Knob hike .. it didn't.  I was getting a big fatigued as I rode through the single-track up and down the mountain.  

At some point the trail opened up to a gravel road.  I hesitated not to turn on the road and head down the mountain.  Trick was, I was heading down the backside of the mountain, called Paradise Mountain.

Fortunately I had Google Map'd this area before coming down and I "sorta" knew where I was.  Water was getting low, it was hot, but plenty of sunshine.  My personal safety didn't cross my mind.  It was a pretty easy ride down the mountain and back on a few country roads to get myself back to the camp entrance.  That was enough for the day.

Click for Strava data

Day 3 - Orange Trail Success

Day 2 was so physically exhausting that I was in no hurry to repeat that route.  But I had yet accomplished my goal of riding the entire Orange Trail.  So it made sense to ride the reverse direction.

Jared and I at Raven Knob Summit

Our troop was hiking to Raven Knob on Wednesday and I thought I would join them with my bike.  Hike-a-bike to the top of the Knob isn't the easiest thing I've done.  It's short hike but very steep (very steep, there's so much of it here).  I got to the top and waited for the rest of the crew, had lunch, then set off on the trail.  

It was only 15 minutes before I reached the point where I diverted down the backside of the mountain road.  Hallelujah!!!  For the first time ever I knew exactly where I was on the Orange Trail.  It was a pretty fast, exhilarating ride back to the campsite.  There's something to be said about not knowing where you are, supplies dwindling, light fading, and feeling the adrenaline rush and scare of the situation.  Those times are good, but it's also nice to ride a familiar trail.

Raven Knob Sign

Goal accomplished!  I don't think there are any more trails Raven Knob has to offer.  But if any do come up, I just may come back down and give them a go.

Click for Strava statistics

 And yes, it's true.  Despite all the mountain biking and physically exhausting ride, I was still able to spend half of each day learning how to rappel and climb.  For those efforts, a Level 1 Climbing Instructor Certificate.  Woohoo!  Let's go climbing.

Pilot Mountain Rappelling with one of my instructors, Jeff.

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