Day 5-Hancock to Harper’s Ferry

The threat of rain and a meager breakfast tried hard to discourage us.  Fortunately, God had the Oregon people from Ohiopyle in the breakfast room this morning.  After speaking to them about our plans and the different things that have gotten us to where we are, we realized they likely had a similar relationship with God as we do.  It is so cool when you meet other like-minded people… it seems like you’ve known them forever and the conversation is so easy and sweet. So, we’ll take that encouragement, packet in a watertight, Ziploc bag, and try to outrun the rain.   (And we will look forward to the potential of second breakfast down the road). 

We put our rain gear on before we left the hotel room but took it off in the parking lot. Then we put it back on again around mile 10 when the rain began.  Other than a small amount of time around lunch, we were pretty much riding in rain - whether it was falling from the sky, splashing from the puddles, dripping off the leaves or spraying from our tires. We decided it would not be a proper ride on the C&O without the experience of riding in the rain. Now that I’ve done that was, I really don’t need a repeat. 

We were able to follow the western Maryland Rail Trail for about 10 to 12 miles. The jump back to the C&O was not too bad and the trail was pretty well maintained in that area. We rescued Myrtle, Yertle and Bob turtle early in our ride. I almost ran over another turtle closer to Harpers Ferry and was too tired, wet and cold to go back and move the poor thing off the trail. Shortly after moving Myrtle (the first little guy), our good deed was repaid by a rogue rabbit who now has skidmarks on its back end. Fortunately, no one was injured in the making of that movie. 

 Conversation along with way—the breakdown of sixes within our ride. We are doing the ride in six days. We have four-60 mile days.   Those days breakdown such that at 10 miles, we are a sixth of the way done; at 20 miles we will be a third complete.  Thirty miles is halfway…. and lunch.

We found a Paw Paw!!!  And we tasted it-very sweet. We only took a little lick just in case it was going to make us sick.  But we were tickled to have found them. 

Would you believe it! Guess who we ran into again… the couple from breakfast, whose name is happen to be Bruce and Mickie.  We joked about the rain and how God has it all under control. Bruce quoted verse about how God makes our way perfect… I think it was 2 Samuel 22:33 but I really like verses 32-34. 

Bruce and Mickie came upon us as we stopped at an unexpected, major detour dam five.  There was a stairway with a bike rail and some other pretty crazy terrain. Another lady from a supported tour also wrote up on her very heavy e-bike.  The poor lady seem perplexed about how she’s going to get her bike up the stairs. Fortunately, Bruce and JB were able to work together to help her out. Then we took turns helping each other push bikes and packs up the thin rail to the top.  Once that plot twist was navigated, JB and I pulled away from our new friends, wondering if we would run into them again. 

Right before reaching Williamsport, we came upon a functioning, Aquaduct. Until you actually see water crossing a bridge over another body of water, it is really hard to comprehend. There are several places along the trail where it is more safe to walk the bike. This was one of them. Many of those places have uneven, stone surfaces that become very slippery when wet.

As we checked the phone to how exactly to get from the trail to Williamport, up ride Bruce and Mickie!!  We ended up riding up the hill into town to eat at Williamsport Diner. We were definitely a sad looking group! The waitress was wonderful and the food was amazing.  Hot lemon water and sausage gravy over biscuits and home fries really hit the spot.  After lunch, we parted ways again. 

We stopped for some pictures at Dam number four and the inlet sluse house. 

 

We came across two local gentleman standing by a mill house next to the Potomac River. They asked us why we decided to use our vacation to explore the C&O Canal. They did not feel it was a very big part of local history and wondered if it was a waste of land and money to have the trail maintained. 

Overall, the day was just difficult. Being wet and muddy and unable to avoid many of the obstacles on the trail made the miles go by very slow. I also had to ride a good portion of the day without my glasses. Turns out that riding a bike without glasses on is much harder than running half marathons without glasses. I had a couple near falls and had to rely on JB to tell me when sticks or nuts were in my path. It seems like every mile marker we passed was “just another 15 miles”.  I began to question my existence and life decisions.

The mid-way marker was a bright spot. 

Below are some other pictures of how trail looked. Winding right by the river was really cool!!

We finally hit Harpers Ferry around 6 PM.  We had to get our bikes up a set of steep metal steps in order to cross the bridge into the town where our bed & breakfast was located. Chris at the Stonehouse B&B http://hfstonehouse.com/  was amazing-so cute and wonderful history!! We were able to clean off our bikes and get them stored on the back porch. He was concerned that a lot of the restaurants were closing early because the rain was keeping the tourists away. He advised us to walk up the street and see what was open. The restaurant we plan to eat at had already closed for the evening.

We found a place called the Rabbit Hole. Because, at that time, we were still muddy messes, we ordered the food to go. It is definitely a place. I would love to go back to and eat in.

 Most of our things will still be wet tomorrow, but we have everything they hang out around our room in hopes that something dries. Tomorrow looks like sunshine for the last leg.