Day 76 – Aug. 27, 2015 – Cumberland MD – Hancock MD 60 miles

Day 76 – Aug. 27, 2015 – Cumberland MD – Hancock MD – 60 miles

How to end this journey well. Can we go out with a bang or a whimper? This evening I feel like whimpering. We hit the C&O and it was just like people had warned us about, deep ruts, roots, rocks, single paths of just a couple feet separated by grass about a foot high. It was not a good experience for us “paved road warriors”.

We left Cumberland with hope and optimism that this will be a nice ending to our tour. About 3 miles in we passed the city water treatment facility. The scent of what was to come was in the air. Poo poo kaka and that it just what the trail was, especially for the first 10-15 miles. I was riding too close behind Gregg at one point and almost crashed when I hit a 3-4 inch deep rut in the trail. Since it rains so much the trail gets eaten up by people riding into the puddles and creating these huge ruts. It is super dangerous for us with loads of 90-110 lbs. Scary.

Eventually the trail became a gravel rocky that rattled your bones and butt all day long, and just imagine doing this for 60 miles! not good. We had to modify our estimated arrival date in Washington DC. We added a day just in case. Just as I am writing this, Gregg is trying to find alternative routes to DC. So, as nice as the C&O is in its wildness and beauty, after 3500 miles this is not really pleasurable for us. It is actually torturous. I don’t say this lightly, I will take riding on a Interstate Highway over this. My fingers are still numb from the constant vibrations and holding the handle bars too tight. Trust us, we are seasoned bike tourists and this is not a good bike touring route.

We met a group of about 10-15 mountain bike riders without bags. They were having a blast. Yep this is an easy fun ride for mountain bikes with suspension.

But the day was not all bad. The weather was great, low 80s and very little humidity. No bugs. No mosquitos. That was a blessing. Riding along the Potomac was very beautiful and even what is left of the canal provided some great wildlife viewing. We saw Great Blue Heron, a “mystery bird” like an egret King fisher mix, giant snapping turtles, ducks….And many many deer. At one point I rode near a doe that was lying in the moist marsh land of “what used to be the canal”. She looked up at me, not 35 ft away, but didn’t move. I stood still, motioned Gregg to stop. We stood there for 5 mins watching her and her 2 little bambis. She began grooming herself and relaxing, seemingly comfortable with our presence. That was actually a magical moment.

I also saw something that looked like a beaver run right in front of me across the path. It was larger than a cat, or racoon, and had a big tail. Maybe it was a ground hog? We met a fellow bike tourist who stopped us and asked us whether we saw the bear? A woman who he met just a mile back had said she saw a bear. We did see various sizes of scat but no bear. Too bad.

We finally arrived in Hancock MD with no accommodations reserved. Exhausted I told Gregg we should stop at the nearest tavern for a cold one and figure it out. We found main street and stumbled upon the first and only bar in town. The Town Tavern was a little special, it had a Confederate Flag painted on the outside. Nonetheless, we have been treated well in all the dive bar across the country, so we ventured in. Sure enough, as soon as we entered Buster the bar’s labrador retriever comes running up to us hungry for pets. We sat down and asked for our favorites which they did not have so I ordered a beer — a Yuengling — which is not my favorite. We looked around, there were just a couple of other patrons, or maybe it was the owner, at the end of the bar. But there were more Confederate flags, and a collection of dead animal heads that you could imagine seeing in a hunting lodge in South Africa – a Cape Buffalo, a Gnu, a Zebra, a Moose, an Ibex, and several other antelope. And smack in the middle of all that was another big Confederate flag. Yep, Gregg was shocked. But that was not the most shocking thing about the town. We had rode past a martial arts club where there was a large sign on the door that said “Only US Citizens may join”. Wow. Hard for us to imagine this really exists.

Anyway, we moved on to the restaurant down the street where we met our bike touring friends. We met them first in Rockwood at the B&B, again at a bar and grill in Cumberland (and they where were staying at the same hotel), and now here in Hancock. Chris is the tour guide for these close friends who somehow connected through flying airplanes. It’s a long story. But they have been our companions and new friends for most of this journey down the GAP and C&O. Will we meet them again? Who knows? But we shared some good laughs and a couple of pints of draft beer. Glad we met them.

Tomorrow we will see how far we get. Hope Gregg finds an alternative route. We hear there is a paved rail to trail for the next 10 miles!! and something else from Leesburg into DC, also paved. All of that sounds good to me after this trail. But….we will be done in just a few more days. Hard to imagine!??