Day 8: 37 Miles from Shepherdstown to Whites Ferry

Today we had our first backtrack, but it wasn’t more than a couple tenths of a mile. We were looking for “Deli on the Rocks” which is supposed to be right off the trail. At the locks that are dry, you usually have a choice to either take the trail down through or get off and walk all along the top.  When we got to Point of Rocks we took the low path. I had noticed the name and a bridge to the left. After thinking about that the name and the name of the deli, I asked Brian if we passed it. Fortunately we had cell service (it’s really been pretty good) so Brian was able to check Google maps and see that we had passed it. After a  couple sandwiches, we got back to the trail  and pressed on.

When I say “pressed” it’s because it really felt that way today. There weren’t a lot of landmarks to look forward to on the trail today and I was pretty tired from yesterday. Climbing hills in too high of a gear yesterday had made my knees sore and I just generally wasn’t feeling 100%. Brian was tired too. The trail downward grade seems to be very shallow now. With the increased rolling resistance of the rough surface,  if we stop pedaling to coast, we lose speed fast and have to pedal harder to get back up to speed.

After the luxury of our stay at the Bavarian Inn last night, I hated to leave! But the Comfort Inn here in Leesburg is pretty nice. We took the last operating cable ferry on the Potomac from Whites Ferry to the other side. From there, we called the inn and they sent a van down complete with bike racks to take us the 5 or so miles up a really  narrow winding road from the ferry landing in to Leesburg.  They’ll take us back down to the ferry in the morning.

So, tomorrow is the last day on the trail. It’s sad that it’s almost over, but I’m ready to give my body a rest from the daily routine of 4-6 hours on bike. It’s not just the pedaling. It’s the jarring of the rough trail, avoiding, and sometimes not, tree roots, bedrock jutting up through, and then there’s the dust. I’m glad there hasn’t been a lot of rain because it would be muddy, but I’m tired of everything being dusty at the end of the day. Our waterproof panniers are at least keeping our stuff inside clean.  

Tomorrow we get to Mile 0 in Georgetown. Then we’ll spend a couple days seeing the sights in DC before taking the train  back to Pittsburgh. 

At Harper’s Ferry. We didn’t go into town because it involves hauling everything up a spiral staircase to the bridge into town. It was a busy day since it was Sunday and it would have been  a major operation taking all our stuff off the bikes, one of us dragging  the  bikes up the stairs while the other stayed with our things.

Waiting for the ferry