Yesterday we finished the GAP part of our trip and today we began the C&O Canal towpath. It rained a lot last night and I was anticipating the C&O path to be very muddy with lots of puddles. It certainly was muddy, but not as bad as previous times I’ve been on the canal.
The C&O is much more rustic than the GAP. I’ve heard that they’ve done some significant work on the path down towards D.C. but for the most part, the towpath is packed mud with some patches of light gravel. My recollection was that this first 60 miles heading east were the worst. It honestly wasn’t too bad. I was covered in light mud by the end of the day, but it was not nearly as bad as some previous rides.
There are not many towns between Cumberland and Hancock, so if you travel this way, make sure to bring plenty of water and food to get you past those 60 miles.
About mid way is a town called Paw Paw, WV. I had arranged to meet a fellow rider from Paw Paw along the way. He is a volunteer for the National Parks and lives in Paw Paw. When we found him, he introduced himself and shared some local Paw Paw fruits with us, teaching us how to open and eat them. I enjoyed the fruit. It tasted like a mix between a cantaloupe and mango. I tried find a few more ripe ones, unsuccessfully.
Before reaching Paw Paw, we had to navigate over three downed trees. We helped lift each others’ bikes over the large trees and resumed our travel.
The Paw Paw tunnel is located on the north edge of the town. It was built to take the canal through a mountain instead of going around. The project was much bigger than anticipated and it took nearly 14 years to complete. Over the last few years, the National Parks engineering team was doing a scaling project just outside the south entrance to the tunnel and had the towpath blocked off. I have not done the detour, but I’ve heard that it can be challenging. Fortunately, they just finished and reopened the towpath a few weeks ago! So we were able to go through the tunnel without the bypass!
Dan bid us a farewell as we pointed towards Hancock. The next stop along the way is the tiny town of Little Orleans. I sort of remember looking it up a few years back and seeing that the population was less than 40 people. We stopped at “Bill’s” place – a little biker and bicycler place that serves food, drinks, and some basic groceries. I picked up some sweet teas and a bag of chips to tide me over. There’s a tradition of putting a dollar bill on the ceiling at Bill’s place. Someplace on the ceiling, I have two bills. I couldn’t find either of them today – perhaps I’ll have another trip here and more time to look.
My bike had been collecting a lot of mud under the fenders so I was happy to clear some of the mud and then we joined up with the Western Maryland rail trail. This paved path parallels the C&O from a few miles east of Little Orleans all the way to Fort Fredrick. JB felt like it was cheating to jump off the C&O, but I welcomed the non-muddy surface for the 14 miles into Hancock. Flat digital Billy made a few appearances as well, including tumbling down a fallen rock zone. Poor Billy…
I also saw this super cool little guy along the trail. He seemed completely nonplussed about us. He didn’t move an inch while we took pictures.
I had my first mechanical failure of the ride today right after getting on the WM trail: the cleat on my right shoe was twisting. One of the two screws had backed out of my shoe. It made it rather hard to get it out of my pedal! Once we freed it up, I was able to screw it back in and resume. I also decided to buy a spare set of cleats to put in my spare parts kit – it hasn’t been on my packing list prior, but I realized today that if I had lost a screw, it would be very difficult to pedal. So when we got to Hancock, I purchased a spare set just to be safe.
We arrived in Hancock in the early afternoon. A beautiful day of riding in the books. We hosed our bikes down at the local bike shop. Wow, so much mud. We arrived at our AirBNB and settled in. I’ve stayed at my fair share of AirBNBs – this one was the only place I could find with availability. Uh, let’s just say it was cheap and leave it at that…
Dinner at a local place was good and now we’re ready for bed. Tomorrow’s destination: Shepherdstown WV.
Today’s Stats: 61 miles. No rain. One loose cleat. No tubes or tires used.
May the Lord grant us, and you, a restful night and a peaceful death. Amen.
— Dcn. Matt
Deacon Matt's Blog 