inside nice and cozy. I came in to check in after I was caught in a downpour. I was quite the sight. Should have seen the look on a fellow traveler's face as he looked at my bedraggled self. Disgust? Curiosity? But the hotel is used to us and was very gracious and accommodating. Yay Cobblestone. Boo fat guy who comes by car.
I'm baaaaaaack. The trip that I have been training for needed to be stopped half way. I was trying to focus magical thinking ignoring warnings and the rangers' advice hoping all would be just right if we'd wait but in the middle of the night, I awoke my friend and said, we need Plan B. Can't it wait until morning? No it can't..not if train reservations are involved.
Damn.
And we did have fun and saw other stuff. Maybe we had even a better time than we would have had the trail not been under ten feet of water with the Potomac ready to sweep us away any moment. I will post some pictures later. But I didn't get to be a through rider so no biker cred for me. And there are not many female through riders much less those at my advanced age. I did find women on bicycles on the trail But they were going from B&B to B&B with their husbands covering at most 20 miles a day.. And I did learn a lot. Number one: don't carry everything you need on your back. Panniers are the way to go. We were equipped with some tools, which I don't usually carry because, sad to say, I wouldn't know what to do with them. The few things I did carry were useful in our minor emergency..flat tire. Lipstick marked the spot of the leak and my tweezers extracted the sharp stone that would probably repenetrate the patched innertube. And my friend needed a spoke wrench to fix his suddenly way out of round wheel that was impossible to go further on. Fortunately we were near a bike shop then and all was repaired.
The true through riders camp..none of these sissy hostels for them. Free camp grounds abound. At the end of the second day, a particularly tough day due to the steady climb, I approached a pair of handsome young dudes in the lone bar in town. All their camping stuff still on their bike, which puzzled me as it was late. I asked them how things were going (2 days of rain, yeah just great).
Terrible, just terrible. One of them was near tears. The campground was a half mile past town. When they got there , they were told they had to register back in town so extra biking for them and bonus, up hill into the town. This set them both over the edge. We are not fucking cooking tonight dude. Thus in the bar (which had terrible food btw). They were very tired.
I ran into them several times the next day and they were in much better moods especially when they could finally go downhill. They were allowed to camp under a pavilion which made setting up a tent in pouring rain more manageable. Someone had taken their photos at the Continental Divide (common photo op) and someone's thumb was over their faces which they didn't see until the end of the trail where I saw them last. So cute guys from Louisville...happy trails. I know they learned a lot.
The trail begins at The Point in Pittsburgh where all the rivers converge. Did that 5 years ago. Plus, the Point Park was covered with some Three Rivers art festival thing complicating many riders' lives. (couldn't park where they had planned.) We started high in the hills from my friend's brother's place on the south side of Pittsburgh. High in the hills. There are trails along the water that eventually hit our desired GAP. The most obvious road down to the water is narrow, twisty and full of Trump voters who hate bicyclists and say endearing things like Get the F off our roads. And no sleep for Sue. His brother had taken in out of the goodness of his heart a 20 year old street person with a toddler. She watched TV all night on full volume right next to me. Lots of old sitcoms with loud laughtracks. Her boyfriend was there, not the father of the toddler as he was in jail, not for beating the crap out of her which he definitely did but for something else, arguing loudly with her. I was thinking that domestic violence was about to start. The baby cried too but not nearly as annoying as the TV and fights. Also it was very hot and I couldn't get the 150 year windows open so at the crack of dawn, I woke my friend up and said we have to leave ASAP.
One break: it was supposed to rain all day in Pittsburgh and it did not. We were dry until we were just a few minutes from our first night spot and then all heal broke loose. Still our path was wet, not a problem in the beginning paved sections but the sand and gravel sections were harder to plow through.
The hotel had a bar, yay! once I got clean. Once it stopped pouring we went to a Dairy Restaurant, which is a different concept in Pennsylvania than in New York. That was good. There was a pool but I was so, so tired, off to sleep.
Waffle machine in the morning with different flavor batters. Had to teach several old ladies how to make waffles from a bus tour of historical sites. They were puzzled by my bicycle attire (you are going where????) All my stuff is in plastic bags so I had clean dry clothes though the first half of the day was in constant drizzle. I did not realize then that while we got a fraction of an inch of rain, down further that day, they got 5 inches to an already swollen river from rain and rain and rain. Forests were so lush. Lots of full waterfalls on the sides of the trail and in the river down in the canyon. Ohiopyle State park has the tallest trees in the northeast. Lots of debris on the trail so when I saw a curvy black stick on my path, I was going to go over it until I saw the viper cheeks of a timber rattler. My friend wondered why I screamed until he saw it too. Inches from my foot. We hung around Ohiopyle for a while hearing stories from other riders. Lots of friendly vibes. Outside of our lunch stop in Confluence, my friend's spokes started breaking making the wheel out of round making travel hard as the brake was rubbing. Fortunately the bike mechanic in town was excellent full of lots of useful info on maintenance and alternate routes into DC as the flood rumors were coming up the trail all ready. The town park, next to the bike shop, had a sign saying absolutely no metal detectors allowed. Very puzzling. On the road again. Now it was getting steeper and steeper and the going was tough and slow. Now back here at home, I do my 30 mile Sunday ride in a bit more than 2 hours for 30 miles.Slogging through uphill pea gravel, breaking 10 mph was a miracle. No coasting at all. If I stopped pedaling at full force, I stopped. My friend wanted to rest along the river and told me to go ahead. I just wanted to get the day over and find that beer so it was an hour before he pulled up to our bare bones hostel which we had for ourselves.
It is Sunday and I came back close to midnight last night. Too tired to continue. More tomorrow
Now it is Monday, a week after our third day of riding which was our driest. We still went up hill for the first half of the day but the gravel was drier and more compact so less getting stuck in wet sand piles so we could go faster. We were soon in the Amish town of Meyersdale, which is known locally for maple syrup. I had stayed there on my other ride. Even though we had breakfast less than 2 hours ago, my friend wanted to go into town for more food. Here the trail is much higher than the town. I was not going up that hill from hell and said I would wait at the train station which was converted to a museum This was a problem with my friend always wanting to stop for food even though he had snacks. He could buy snacks at the station and was quiet for a bit. Back into the mountains making the climb to the Eastern Continental Divide. Beautiful views of the surrounding valleys. A woman was chugging up the hill in the opposite direction, which is much steeper. Where had she ridden from? Cumberland. She had tried to start out halfway from the DC end but said the C&O trail was impassable. The 5 inches of rain Sunday on top of 10 inches over the past week flooded everything so going on side roads, which were washed out too. Lots of downed trees and power outages. She said we would not be able to continue but if we didn't believe her (I didn't want to)we could stop at the ranger station in Cumberland for updates. Maybe all would be gone with a day of dryness?Not those downed trees though. I do read their website and it needs to be bone dry for them to get their tree removing heavy equipment out there. Someone had gone through and had climbed over 22 trees in a very short period. And climbing over trees while carrying a fully loaded bike is not fun. We now had 25 miles of glorious downhills. Yay! We crossed the Mason Dixon line, which did NOT separate the north from the south as I learned in school as Maryland was part of the North. We went through the 3/4 mile long Big Savage Tunnel which I was prepared for with my lights. But it was lit! I did learn from the bike repair man not to ever focus on the light at the end of the tunnel as it is too bright and our eyes won't adjust fast enough to the dim lights of the tunnel Obvious right? But not to this slow learner.
Lunch was in Frostburg, a small college town known for good places to eat. Unfortunately it is on top of a mountain. No I was not going to ride up there. We left the bikes near the trail and did the big climb on foot, strenuous enough.
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4 comments:
Some great photos.
My claustrophobic self doesn't like tunnels. Glad it was lighted this time through.
I am sorry you had to cut your trip short, and hope that on balance you are still glad you went.
I figured 5 years ago I didn't need lights as I could see the end of the tunnel but then had such huge sensory deprivation feelings. I am very glad I went though disappointed I missed Harper's Ferry. We did bike through Virginia and had great weather later, much better than DC usually has this time of year.
What a great adventure!!
Kathy
It was fun even though we didn't finish as we had hoped, We need to get together sooon
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