More of the C&O including Harpers Ferry

        Stopping at one historic spot after another slowed our pace but well worth it.  Harpers Ferrry took two hour to get a good look see.  John Brown, the armory, the nineteenth century brick and stone houses, it is a really nice place. We finished up at Brunswick, Maryland with about fifty-five miles behind us for the day.  Another night of camping and for a change there are plenty of tents and much fewer monster RV motor homes.  Needless to say, there are trains very close to our site passing us every half hour, more horns, less sleep. Jon, Aaron, Eli and I have been together for five days, terrific guys. A good time has been had by all.  Tomorrow we will finish up in Washington, check out the Mall and then go our separate ways. From there I will find a Warmershowers place and hang out with Cyrus for a day. Getting through Washington over to the eastern shore is my next adventure.

Took my first fall today

The C&O canal is a beautiful ride with the Potomac on one side and the old canal on the other.  The locks are still in place as are many of the stone structures making up the canal.  However, the path is anything but pleasant. The constant struggle to avoid roots, rocks, mud, ruts and occasional broken tree limbs wears on the entire body.  Aaron, riding in front of me, swung into me as he was swerving around a five inch downed limb. I braked but not enough. Hitting the rear left side of his bike.  I lost my balance and dumped the bike into a shoulder of grass. Everyone stopped and helped pick up my bike, about a minute passed.  I reattached my front pannier, climbed on the bike and started up again. No damage to the bike and no physical injury to me but I was a bit shaken.  

        Other than a long break for lunch, including some excellent beer, we chugged along until we reach Williamsport, seventy-five miles from campsite to campsite  Our only overnight option was a KOA campsite costing $60, welcome to the East.  A guy we met a few days earlier reappeared as we were weighing our lodging options. He joined us, bringing the camping fee to $10 per person.  

          We set up our tents, ordered some pizza from the front desk, which was delivered. Eli built a fire for the fourth time in as many days. We combined all our dirty laundry and did a much needed load of laundry.  Being on the road, it is hard to keep our clothes up to snuff.  We are grateful to have a shower ever night and not much else. It is amazing that I have a shave every morning.  Maintaining ones standards is essential.

       There remains one hundred miles on the C&O before we reach Washington.  Harpers Ferry is our next stop or we may push on a little further.  Ninety day on the road as of tomorrow! 

Crested the Eastern Continental Divide

         A gradual climb both yesterday and today brought us (John Hay, Aaron and Eli Spiegel and me) from Rickwood, Pa. over the Easturn Continental Divide to a camp site on the C&O Canal just past Old Town, Md.  In Cumberland, I picked a new tire and had some minor adjustments taken care of at a local bike shop before heading onto the not so user friendly C&O trail.  Rocks, roots, pot holes, mud puddles and plenty of mud have made for a difficult ride for the first twenty miles.  I almost dumped the bike twice as I navigated through stretch of slippery mud.  The next one hundred and sixty miles to Washington should be interesting if not a real slog.  

        We found two great places along the trail for lunch and dinner before stopping for night on the other side of the canal. No showers but  a dip in the Potomac River did the job  The trains are paralleling the trail and we are hoping that the train horns will not be blaring every thirty minutes as was the case last night. The volume of train traffic funneling through the Gap is astounding.  Coal and oil cars, stacked up trailer trucks and standard freight cars are passing by in the thousands. 

      The Great Allegheny Paasage and the C&Q canal trails are beautiful in every aspect.  The mountainous landscape and temperate forest which surrounds them makes for a very enjoyable ride. The ride to Washington should take another three days.  Meanwhile the four of us have our tents set up with the site to ourselves.  The bullfrogs in the Lillie covered canal are croaking away and the crickets are making a racket.  It is very pleasant as I lie in my tent writing this blog.  

Three flats

        So a little rain is no big deal but when a flat tire strikes, it isn't so fun.  Off loading four panniers, one bar bag, four water bottles, turning the bike upside down, protecting the Brooks saddle, digging out a new tube, unbolting the titanium skewers holding the wheel on, removing the tire with the irons, replacing the tube, checking for a tube pinch, pumping the tire up to the right pressure with only a hand pump, reattaching the wheel to the bike and, finally, loading up the bike again with all the panniers.  Now do that three times.  John Hay, who I met yesterday, assisted me but still it took about thirty minutes each time.  It is all part of bicycling long distance but, nevertheless, a real pain in the backside.

       We stopped for a leisurely lunch and still managed to put in fifty miles.  Riding on an unpaved surface, no matter how smooth, requires more effort because of the rolling resistance.  We found a nice camp site in Rockwood, PA, had dinner at the only open restaurant and enjoyed ourselves over a few beers and a nice camp fire. 

         Tomorrow we should finish the GAP trail and get a little bit of the way down the C&O canal trail.  The C&O is in poor condition with pot holes, rocks and tree roots. It will slow us down considerably. 

On the GAP trail to Cumberland, Md.

         For pretty much the whole morning Edward took me around Pittsburgh, helping me mail home more clothes and maps, go to REI for new riding gloves and other asundry stops.  After a light breakfast, Edward showed me the way to the GAP trail and off I pedaled.  Ten twenty miles down the path, I met up with three riders like myself.  We rode another thirty miles to Connellsville where the town has built lean-to dwellings for us to sleep.  No showers on sight so we scrubbed up in the Youghegheny River right next to us..  The water was clean and cool, just right for us road worn riders.  

       John, one of the riders, has bicycled through India, Vietnam and Kenya.  Each time he has hired a local company to provide a SAG vehicle and set up places to stay.  Real inexpensive which always sparks my interest.  Traveling solo in second and third world countries can be dicey so it may be wise for me to take the SAG approach.

        Tomorrow, we will cover another sixty miles but in the middle we plan to divert to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water house, a very cool building which I have always wanted to see.

Now for the GAP trail

        A note about the writer of is blog.  The hour is generally late when I put the ink to the paper, my fingers are too pudgy for the key board and, for sure,  I am not Charles Dickens.  The original manuscript will go through several iterations before it goes to press.  Mr. Peter Nichols has graciously volunteered his services as editor in chief. 

        So where was I, ah yes, my bicycle adventures of August 8, I think.  Harmony, Pa. faded into the back ground as I pushed south.  Route 68 to an unmarked route led me to Pittsburgh.  Miraculously, I was spared from having to climb the steep hills like the ones I granny geared up yesterday.  Yet, getting into Pittsburgh was so bicycle unfriendly,  I had to pull off the road to find a safer route via my google map.  The drivers are seriously inconsiderate when it comes to giving bicycles the safety

margin they need.  I found what I thought was the GAP trail but I ended up at the Science Museum not having a clue as to how to find my way.  Once again Warmershowers.com came to my rescue.  Edward picked me up in his SUV and brought me back to his place.  No beer but good white wine, a shower and a late afternoon nap. His friend Gary cooked a absolutely to die for pot roast and mash potatoes while Edward put together one of the best three bean salads I have ever tasted.  

          Their house, mission style, is located high above downtown Pittsburgh with a small neighborhood viewing area  thirty seconds down the road, pretty cool.   

          Tomorrow Edward and I will bike to the beginning of the trail and stop at REI on the way to pick up some new riding gloves.  My old gloves can be classified as hazardous waste.   Now for some critical hours of rack time.

        

My fourth flat amount other things

      The Amish regularly show up at the Camp site every morning to sell their pastries. What a spread to behold.  Needless to say, I didn't hold back; two days of delicious Amish food.

     Before setting off I had to adjust my dérailleur which wasn't synced with my indexed gear lever.  Losing gears on a steep hill is maddening. A five minute Youtube video was instrumental in helping me figure out the problem. The fix ate an hour of morning riding time.  Three hours later ss I rode along I thought I would probably have another flat before too long.  Be careful what you think, I had   a flat an hour later.  Now for the interesting part. Coming up on a house set back from the road a bit, I saw a man and asked if I could use his property to fix my tire.  I needed shade and some distance from the road.  Nice guy, twenty-six years old, just finished a tour with the Air Force.  We talked it up and he offered to help.  We continued to converse when I noticed a handgun in his waist band.  A wee bit concerned, I asked him what size gun it was. He took it out and unloaded a clip of bullets from of it but not before ejecting a round from the chamber.  A second or two went by as I thought he was cocking it, not a good feeling.  Anyways, it was a nine millimeter with hollow tip bullets! Jeremiah turned out to be a decent person who offered to take me to a bike shop if I wanted.  After fixing the tire, he gave me his cell number in case I had troubles down the road.  I was relieved to move on.

       Ok, so now two hours down the tubes fixing the bike.  Not to be out done, the hills were steep and unrelenting.  I slugged out thirty-seven miles with a few missed turns to round out the ride.  I followed route 19 instead of the established route and put up with the Penn drivers, not bike friendly at all.  Thank god for my horizontal flag protruding out from my left rear pannier.

       Zelienople was the first town of any size I reached after leaving Mercer.   After having a super lunch at Z town cafe, I decided to seek out a camp site and call it a day.  Back in Harmony I parked myself at a private camp site.  Two guys at a parked RV struck up a conversation with me as I rode in looking for someone who could sign me in.   They invited me over for a few brews after I cleaned up.  As well, the owner of the camp invited me to a pot luck supper.  She exempted me from having to bring a dish, good thing. Later when I revisited the RV,  Randy (from Mississippi with a thick southern accent) feed me

an enormous steak with cheese potatoes. On this trip I been shameless about what I have eaten, anything and everything. Tomorrow I should be rocket man given all the protein I consumed tonight.

        With an early start and the re-routing to a less congested route, I hope to make Millvale where the GAP trail begins and the killer hills end.