I rose early this morning, very early. Well, at least the alarm went off at 7:00 AM. Actually, I rose closer to 7:30 AM, showered, got dressed, and headed off for breakfast. So, my first disappointment of the day — IHOP was closed for unexplained reasons, and I had to resort to going to Bruegger's Bagels. Not a good second choice.
I guess that slowed me down a little bit because I didn't get home till a little after 9:00 AM. Mark and I had agreed to meet and push off from his place at 10:00 AM, and, as it were, I didn't leave my house till about that time. Of course, we're both notorious for running late, so that was par for the course.
But it was a beautiful morning as I made my way through Arlington towards Courthouse, arriving at Mark's by 10:15. He was just about ready, so we left shortly thereafter, made our way down to Rosslyn, crossed Key Bridge, and made our way into Georgetown. While there are faster ways to get onto the Canal's towpath, I'm a bit of a stickler, so if I say I'm going to bike the C&O Canal, I'm going to start at the very beginning. So that required us making our way down M Street through traffic to the beginning of the C&O Canal, which is at the mouth of Rock Creek.
From that entry point we basically had done a U-turn and would now follow the Canal, which is parallel to M Street, all the way back to Key Bridge. The Canal's towpath starts on the north side, but before you get to Key Bridge, you have to cross over to the south side, and from there you remain on the south side pretty much all the way to Harpers Ferry. The National Park Service usually runs canal boat tours through the Georgetown section in the summertime, but currently the Canal is under construction and full of equipment and overgrown with vegetation. So it's not the pretty sight you would normally see.
Looking back on the C&O Canal from our crossover at 34th Street. We came down the north side, to the left. I guess we could have crossed earlier and used the more generous south side. Mark did ask me about that lol.
But after passing under Key Bridge, we started the serious part of our journey, moving away from the city and along the towpath towards Harpers Ferry. The towpath, as with most canals, is not paved, so the going is a little rough and slow. Plus, there are still plenty of people enjoying it as far as Great Falls, at which point the crowds dissipate and the towpath becomes less crowded.
The Canal and towpath parallel the Capital Crescent Trail, which is paved but separated, for about three miles before it veers off to the north on this old railroad bridge.
Further along, this part of the Canal always impresses me, as it is very wide and almost lake-like. It shows how the builders took advantage of the natural terrain and basically only had to build a levee on the Potomac River side of the Canal.
The rocky terrain of Great Falls is on the famous "fall line" that stretches the length of Virginia, defining the Piedmont from the Tidewater. Virginia History 101.
The further west we went, the worse the towpath seemed to get. Mud holes and mud puddles with soft mud like sand that wasn't soaked but was saturated enough to be difficult. Fishtailing was a concern. And Mark hates to get wet.
We stopped at White's Ferry, got Gatorade, and watched the General Jubal A. Early dock. There is a statue of him on the Maryland side, looking south, of course.
But Great Falls is only at MP 18, so we still had a long haul ahead of us. And like I said, we weren't moving at rocket speed. In fact, we were averaging about 10 mph. But it was mostly an eventless day with only two major adventures. The first was Mark's flat tire on his front wheel. Flat tires are one thing, but he is riding Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, which are supposed to be fairly puncture-proof. But he's had two flat tires with them since he purchased them, so he's not too happy!
Surgically removed and impressive in size. It had been there for several miles, I'm sure, and slowly worked its way through the tire. It was a slow leak, not a blowout.
The second notable event was a true adventure. We heard from other cyclists traveling the canal that there was a closure where the towpath had washed out during a major storm. We heard about this before getting to the site and were told that the Park Service was offering shuttle service around the closure. We weren't too keen on that. But we also heard that people were making their way through by various means. As we got closer, we ran into a local cyclist who gave us more specific information and two options for passing through. The first was to follow a path downstream and cross the creek if it was dry enough to get through. The second was to go upstream and cross on the railroad bridge, which was quite wide.
While I will hear grief about this from my engineering friends who work on railroads, that was the choice we made. The stream was not dry enough to ford. And the railroad crossing was actually a large and very wide filled section with ballasted track, so it made it easy to move along the right-of-way without encroaching on the rail bed. Or at least not encroaching much.
Yes, this looks dangerous . . . but I can explain. We actually took serious precautions. Professionally, it would be highly embarrassing to me if anything untoward happened.
After that, it was smooth sailing into Harpers Ferry. To get into Harpers Ferry, you need to use a pedestrian connection that is attached to an active rail bridge. But the only challenge is you have to carry your bike up a winding staircase from the towpath to the top of the bridge. Oh, and you're not supposed to ride your bike on the crossing.
On the towpath between the two railroad bridges crossing the Potomac River into Harpers Ferry.
Our hotel was located at the top of the hill, behind town, so we had to make a relatively steep climb up to our lodging for the night. But it all went pretty smoothly, and we were cleaned up and headed out for dinner in no time.
We were now in the Heartland, the hilly part of the Heartland.
Tomorrow, Mark heads east and back to Arlington and work, and I head west for Hancock. I will miss having him as my partner for the rest of the trip but will have the memory of this day all the same.
Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km) Total: 66 miles (106 km)
