Today was a challenge. I really wanted to see Antietam. It’s the bloodiest battlefield in American history. That makes it sound really morbid that I wanted to see it, but it was more because I love learning about our history and seeing it like this really makes it more real than reading any book ever could. I know I had heard of it, but couldn’t remember its significance. Wow. The museum was good, but the movie narrated by James Earl Jones was excellent. I was too wiped to do the full 8 mile driving tour, but we saw some key things near the main building. We had climbed some serious grades to get up from the trail to Sharpsburg and then on to the battlefield. I swear it was all uphill! It was almost 3 miles off the trail, but so worth it. We’ve all heard of Gettysburg, and maybe even Harper’s Ferry where we’ll pass tomorrow, but if you don’t know about Antietam, read up on it.
Going back to the trail wasn’t all downhill, but it was a lot better than the other direction. I was pretty wiped out by then, but we had a few more miles to go to get to our stop tonight in Shepherdstown, WV. Brian had intentionally not told me about the switchback up to the bridge across the Potomac to get into town. Ugh. But I made it! Oh, what I left out about all this climbing was that before the very first climb, I tried to shift to my lowest front ring gear, but discovered something had gotten out of wack with my derailleur and it wouldn’t go there. So through all the climbing today I couldn’t go any lower than my middle ring. Brian shifted back to his in solidarity. It’s probably a minor adjustment, but we’ll either have to look it up or have a pro help us.
To end the ride today also required a climb up the road from the bridge to the Bavarian Inn. Again, totally worth it! This place is amazing! We had oktoberfest beers in the Rathskeller before our dinner reservations. Then we had a four star German meal on the patio with a perfect ambiance.
Another thing we learned about today is what a paw paw is. We kept smelling overripe fruit along the trail for the past few days. I assumed it was apples from all the pioneer apple orchards. That may be part of it, but after we went through the Paw Paw tunnel, I looked them up to see what they were. Today I started noticing the fruit on and along the trail. They sound really good and are super loaded with nutrients. Now I want to try some! I also have the song “Way down yonder in the PawPaw patch” stuck in my head. If you know it, now you do too. You’re welcome.
 |
| Paw Paw! |
 |
| Not my favorite informational sign on the trail! |
 |
| Getting onto the new section at Big Slackwater |
 |
| Dam 4 on the Potomac
|
 |
| So close and yet so far. That’s our stop for the night across the river! |
kristingbridges
Dam 4 is a dam fine photo