Day 4: Finished with the GAP, on to the C&O! 32 miles from Meyersdale to Cumberland

Today was a tough start. It was definitely a “2 Aleve” kind of morning. Things hurt that I don’t usually have problems with. The climb back to the trail was steep. The first street was maybe a 4 percent grade. After we cut over to the last street though, it was much steeper, so I bailed and walked my bike up – and that was even hard! I always said I’m not too proud to walk when we’re in these hilly little towns and not on the trail.

 We had the final 8 mile climb up another 300 feet today.  It was definitely noticeable that it was steeper than yesterday, but not brutal at all.  We spent a while at the Eastern Continental Divide, chatting with other riders and taking pictures. It was all downhill from there! Since we are going from West to East the grade going down is much steeper than going up. We kind of planned it that way! Of course, we also expected that would be more likely to give us a tail wind, but that didn’t pan out today. It wasn’t much, but climbing with a head wind isn’t my favorite thing ever.

Anyway, we could possibly have made it all the way to Cumberland without pedaling from the divide! After the Big Savage tunnel the terrain was changing around us. There’s a Western Maryland Scenic rail line that runs right next to the trail. We crossed over it multiple times. It appears to be under maintenance, though, so we never saw the historic train.  We also crossed the Mason Dixon line. Yet another story of amazing feats of human perseverance and ingenuity! 

We stopped in Frostburg for lunch. We didn’t feel like taking the really nice switchback trail they’ve built up to the town to eat lunch so we stayed at the trail side rest stop and ate some of the food we brought with us. I’ve been carrying around pita and peanut butter in addition to my Lara bars, Kind bars, and Clif bars for Brian.

From there into Cumberland, the mile markers seemed to fly by. Cumberland is beautiful! We had dinner at the Baltimore Street Grill. Fantastic food! All scratch made. It’s on a beautiful pedestrian section of Baltimore street that is lined with gorgeous Victorian and mid-century buildings. We’re in a hotel tonight, so we did some laundry in a real washer and dryer! Yay! The next day or two on the C&O, there are fewer options for food and services, so we’re enjoying tonight.