kristingbridges(No wifi again, so pictures will have to wait. I think I’ll do a photo album to share at the end. We’ve also been running a time-lapse on the Go Pro the whole time that we’ll edit and share.)
So today we learned that “down hill” is not synonymous with easy! Technically this trail is on the down grade towards Chesapeake Bay, though since it’s a canal tow path, it’s very gradual. However, the trail is much less, how should I describe it, “polished” than the GAP. At about 5 miles out of Cumberland, it actually narrowed down to the size of one car tire track. It went on that way for a bit. It finally did widen back out, but instead of the full trail, it was divided down the middle by a large grassy section most of the way, leaving two tire tracks on either side. That’s not a problem, though. The real challenge was the condition of those tracks. There were many large sunken areas that at a minimum held slick mud, and at their worst could break a spoke or bend a wheel like a pothole. Other places, the “corduroy” bedrock of the trail has become exposed, letting rocks, that in some cases are big enough to throw you, to jut up through. The same goes for tree roots. I compared the trail to the equivalent of the bunny hill in skiing, for mountain biking. In fact, you wouldn’t be wrong to go with a well equipped mountain bike on this trail instead of a touring bike.
We spent most of ride watching the trail in front of us for the next hazard. I honestly think I stood as much as I sat today! I’m even sore in my arms and shoulders instead of my legs tonight. That said, we still saw more wildlife today than in the last four days! The canal ran along to our left. Being abandoned, in some places it’s dried up, most places it’s covered with algae or lily pads. There were hundreds of turtles sunning themselves on random trees that have fallen in, and the occasional tire. We saw two Great Blue Herons up very close, just staring at us. We had a Pileated Woodpecker fly up to a tree right next to us. Then I spotted couple families of Wood Ducks on and around logs in the canal. We saw a Green Heron, too! In the final two miles, we had two groups of deer just standing on the trail watching us, both were a doe and two fawns. They casually wandered off the trail as we got close. The owner of the B&B we’re at tonight has had a bear around a lot this summer. He showed us picture on his phone from the other day when it had tipped his dumpster over on its side!! I’m not going out of my way to see him.
There are all the old abandoned locks along the way. Some are in good enough shape you could imagine them being used today. Others are just the stone walls, with no water in them that the trail actually goes down through. We also went through Paw Paw tunnel today. It’s over 3100 feet long and took 14 years to build, lined with over 6 million bricks! Crazy feat of engineering and just shear will! Anyway, the canal and the tow path run through it with just a wooden rail separating them. There are also no lights. You are supposed to walk bikes through with headlights and tail lights on. We did, but man it seemed to go forever! The whole “seeing the light at the end of the tunnel” is a lie: it just seemed to keep getting further away!
The place we’re at tonight, Town Hill Inn, is 8 miles uphill (mostly) from the trail, so they offer a really nice shuttle service. After seeing the winding road, I’m not sure I’d want to do it even without any steep grades. It’s historic US 40, and even today there’s more traffic than I’d want to deal with on a bike. The inn was around during the heyday of leisure highway travel, so there’s lots of cool history here. They’ve done a great job restoring it and making it very comfortable.
Tomorrow is another 42 miles, so time to sleep!