Today I had to do something twice that I have not had to do this entire trip! But first I have to tell you about the storm last night. When I talked to Don, he said it was only going to be sprinkles, not heavy rain. I’d been hearing thunder from about 6:00, but no rain. I finally retired to my tent at about 7:00. At 9:00, I was awakened by the repeated flashes of lightning. Guessing that rain was coming, I closed my rainfly door. Pretty soon the rain arrived, along with more thunder and lightning. It was right overhead! The flash/bangs were one after another. I said to myself, “This is NOT sprinkles!” The rain was a deluge. My tent was dripping on the inside. My quilt was wet where it touched the sides of my tent (I think this tent is done for after this trip). It was a bit scary. Finally, it passed, but another bout came about an hour later. I think the rain finally quit around 1:00. When I packed up my sleeping pad, the bottom of it at the feet was soaking wet.
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The closed cell foam pad (the grey thing) kept the rest of the sleeping pad mostly dry. The floor of the tent was very wet.
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But, there was blue sky! I’m hoping (and the forecast says so) there is no more rain. I guess I just had to have one more thunderstorm before I finish.
I took my time packing up because today was another short day at 44 miles. My goal was to not get to camp before 4:30. I left Indigo Neck at about 8:30.
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| Sun streaming through the trees! |
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| Storm evidence. |
There is a paved rail trail that runs parallel to the C&O. At one point, the C&O was closed, and the detour was the Western Maryland Rail Trail (WMRT). My, was it nice!
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| Super smooth pavement! |
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| The C&O is literally just over there! |
When the detour was over, I decided to just stay on the WMRT. It would take me to Hancock, and I was going to stop there for food anyway.
As karma would have it (punishment for not sticking to the route?), I came to a big downed tree.
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| I’m sure this happened last night |
I couldn’t go under it with Wanda, and I couldn’t lift her over. There was nothing else to do but take off the bags so I could lift her up. Of course, as soon as I got the bags and Wanda to the other side, some people came along. They cleared as much as they could. The one guy continued on, but the couple (Ron and Portia, who Ron calls “Poor Sarah”) decided to turn around. Ron was riding a recumbent trike. It would have been tricky getting it over the tree. I rode with them to Hancock.
In Hancock, I asked Ron where this Buddy Lou’s restaurant was. It seems every person I talked to told me I needed to go to Buddy Lou’s in Hancock. It’s right next to the trail.
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| I’m wondering if Buddy Lou was maybe a dog, or at the sat a dog lover. |
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| Crab quiche! |
It was delicious, and well worth the stop! The server even filled my water bottle with ice!
At the trailhead, I remembered to dump my trash before getting back on the trail. I continued on the WMRT for about 1 mile. I saw a sign for Blue Goose Market. I took the little trail to it. My plan was to get a banana for my breakfast tomorrow. Well, it wasn’t that kind of market. It was a bakery and emporium. No bananas. Instead I got two Whoopie Pies. Who needs a banana when you can have Whoopie Pies!
Back to the trail I had about 8 more miles before I would have to get back on the C&O. I saw this wild animal.
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| Meow meow kitty kitty!!! |
There was a sign saying C&O riders needed to turn right at the gate to return to the Canal. It went down a short road, and onto a trail that put me back on the C&O.
As I was pedaling along, I was thinking about how soaking wet my tent was. I decided at the next campsite, I would stop and dry it. The next campsite happened to be Fort Frederick State Park.
After having a look in the museum, I went ip to the Visitor’s Center. There was a picnic table outside in the sun. I asked the young man in the Visitor’s Center if it was okay if I dried out my tent. He was fine with it. With the sun and wind, it only took maybe 10 minutes to dry everything. I packed up my nice dry tent, and returned to the trail.
There was another campground (not C&O Hiker/Biker). There were quite a few people walking on the trail. It was kind of cool how it went around the rock.
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| Boaters out on the river. |
Not much later, I came to a detour. I think it was Ron who had told me about this one.
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| These stairs were quite steep |
For the second time today, and the second time of this whole trip, I had to take the bags off Wanda to be able to push her up this crazy steep ramp. First I just took the rear bags off. Nope. Still couldn’t push her up. Then I took the front fork bags. Still couldn’t do it. I took the tent stack off the rear. Then, I could just barely push her up.
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| Then this trail wasn’t easy either. |
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| Dam work…why the trail was closed |
I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to go down stairs on the other side to get back to the canal. Fortunately, it was a road. Once I was back on the trail, I came by a little girl and her dad. They were on bikes, but not riding. I asked if everything was okay. The little girl said, “Okay-ish.” I stopped. I asked her, “ Did you say “ish”?” She said yes, and asked me if I came by a campground, and did they have food. I told her I did, but I wasn’t sure about food. I asked if she was hungry. Her dad said she’s always hungry. I gave her one of the Whoopie Pies. Her name was Abby, and she talked a mile a minute. Dad was Ben, and they had ridden about 7 miles so far from Williamsport. I told them about the detour. He figured they would probably just turn around at the detour. Good choice, I said.
I made my way to Williamsport. It’s a “canal town” like Hancock, but they don’t make it easy to get to the other side of the canal (more stairs with a ramp…no thanks). I did, however, stop at the lock house. Carol gave me a quick tour.
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| See the sign on the step near the top? That was how high a flood was. In fact, the flooding was kind of the end of the C&O as a functioning canal. The railroad beat the canal to Cumberland (by 12 years), so the need for the canal was moot. |
She told me an Australian guy had been by. I said that was probably Paul. I told her we had left Seattle the same day. She laughed and said now she had the rest of the story.
I had about 4 more miles to Cumberland Valley campsite, my destination for today. I didn’t quite make my goal of arriving at 4:30 (I arrived at 3:40, which was surprising considering how much I stopped today).
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| This campsite is the same except the potty shack is on the other side and the pump is where the potty shack was. |
I’m so looking forward to a night with no rain!!!
Oh, I passed this today.
I have less than 100 miles to go (96 to be precise).
