CnO_Day2

Day 2

Saturday, 6 August 2005
Licking Creek Aqueduct Campsite, MD to Indian Flats Campsite, MD
82.8 miles, 6h59m, 11.9 mph
Elapsed Time: 12h00m, Max speed: 26.4mph
Total mileage: 158.4

I'd like to say that we were up at first light, but it was probably more like third light. Paul Rito was quickly up and packed and on his way to clear the spider webs off the trail for us. He did a good job. The rest of us were ready to go by 7:30. The hikers still hadn't stirred by the time we left.

While riding along Big Pool we got to see a guy drop his boat off his trailer and onto the boat ramp when he was trying to pull the boat out of the water. That had to hurt.

Shortly after that we reached Fort Frederick, an impressive 18th Century stone fort that has never seen battle, mostly due to its location in the middle of nowhere. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. After a short and unneeded rest it was back on the trail in search of breakfast.

Fort Frederick in the morning.

Some unremembered lock.

Scenic Dam 5--scene of this photo.

By the time we reached Williamsport we were pretty hungry. We climbed the hill into town and found that the place we always eat (every five years) was closed and for rent. The place across the street looked promising, but it was going to take a while and the place was full of smoke. So we rode a little farther and ordered breakfast sammiches at the Sheetz. We took our stuff to a nearby park.

Fun in Williamsport.

At the Sheetz we ran into Paul Rito again. He was going off trail to save some miles. He would eventually get back on the trail to avoid some climbing and then jump off to head toward Gaithersburg. That was the last we saw of him.

I'm not sure that he was just as afraid as all of us were....Curt.

After breakfast we returned to the trail and soon encountered the Big Slackwater and the Big Slackwater Detour. The detour is about 5 miles long and is the only real opportunity to get out of the saddle and climb on the entire canal. Naturally, we had to race.

Everyone stayed together for the initial steep climbs but then Melissa attacked. Curt and I responded and soon it was just the three of us. We took turns attacking each other but no one was dropped until about mile four, when I fell back. I figured I could rejoin on the descent (I was mistaken). With about a half mile to go Kevin bridged up to me, but there was no hope of catching the other two and Curt and Melissa took the stage.

After that we were pretty tired, but we got to wait a few minutes for everyone else to catch up as we admired Dam 4.

"Dam 4 is one bad mutha..."
"Watch your mouth!"
"I'm just talkin' 'bout Dam 4."

This part of the canal is especially twisted and we covered something like 18 miles in 30 miles of riding. There was a store at Snyders Landing (I think) but Melissa and I were the only ones interested in climbing up to it. I was getting tired of the crappy water and I really needed a Gatorade. It was sometime around this that Curt got another flat and went missing. Eventually he came riding back with Tony. Tony has been riding sweep for most of the trip. He's just laying back, waiting to attack.

Soon after that we reached Scotty's bail out point at Shepherdstown. He was originally planning to ride as far as Harper's Ferry, but after day one he decided that Shepherdstown would be far enough. All he cared about was getting farther than JT did in 1995. He beat him by over 50 miles. Woo-hoo!

Scotty, trying to escape by water...or taking a picture.

Also at Shepherdstown we failed to find some tokens left for us by an officemate who was in the area the previous weekend. He left a couple of quarters on top of a pair of wooden posts that support gates used to allow construction vehicles across the trail (they are building a new bridge there). We didn't know what to look for so we didn't look hard enough. Those quarters are still there if anyone wants them.

From there it was 12 miles to Harper's Ferry. We didn't want to leave our bikes unattended on the trail so we hauled them up the stairs onto the railroad bridge and then walked across into town. Then we leaned the bikes against a hillside and left them unattended. Tony ran into his family, who wisely declined to eat with us (remember no showers last night--only pump baths).

We ate at the traditional place--the outdoor patio at the Coffee Mill. The food was hot and the service was excellent--or was it the other way around? We decided to hang out in HF for a while because it wasn't far to our campsite and there wouldn't be anything to do there. So we walked around for a while, had an ice cream, sat around, filled our bottles with very warm water at the water fountain, took some pictures...got tired of sitting around and left. Back across the bridge, down the stairs, on to the trail.

Back across the river.

It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people riding tubes and rafts down the river. The weather was a little bit cooler than yesterday and there was very little chance of rain. So far we'd been very lucky not to get rain and the trail was still dry everywhere.

A fine, fine day.

It was about five miles to Brunswick--"Home of the Iron Horse." On both previous rides we had camped in the town park in Brunswick. The park appears to have many permanent residents who don't mind listening to the jarring sounds of trains mating all night long. There is a switching yard in Brunswick and it's about 100 yards from the park. This year we decided to try for the next hiker/biker site.

We did, however, want to visit Brunswick to pick up supplies. Kevin and I rode into town and returned with Gatorade on our breath. The others didn't believe our story about a strip club, so they rode into town and bought some stuff for themselves, and some beer for everyone. Woo-hoo!

Our projected campsite was Bald Eagle Island. We were sorely disappointed when we got there. The place was basically a mud flat, and a family was living there already. Apparently they had come over from West Virginia by boat to camp for free. It looked like they were set up for the weekend. Not really the intented use of the hiker/biker sites.

Anyway, we didn't like it and it was still early so we rode on. We passed the town of Point of Rocks and reached the Calico Rocks Campsite. It looked like a good campsite with lots of space and grass--most of which was occupied by a tour group that was doing a four-day fully-supported and sagged ride down the canal. That would have been okay, but there was no water. The Park Service removes the handle from the pump if the water isn't safe to drink.

We decided that we wanted water, so we mounted up and rode off again. The next site was called Indian Flats. This one had less grass than Calico Rocks, but more than Bald Eagle Island. It also had a waterbourne West Virginia family and no handle on the pump. We couldn't ride all night so we just set up camp and drank our beer. Without a pump bath capability we had to settle for a partial muddy river bath. It was a long and buggy night.

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