Day #6 (5/12/24) – Bike Across America

I slept with 4 young women last night. In the bunkhouse. There were 8 bunk beds, and I was at one end, and they were at the other. 🙂 They were touring the C&O trail together, but arrived separately due to mechanical issues. I met the first one before I went to dinner, the second one when I returned from dinner, and the last two rolled in just before dark. I liked the bunkhouse setup. There were hot showers and plenty of space to spread out. It was nice to have conversations with the other cyclists. I called it a night at 8:30, but in some earplugs and slipped into my sleeping bag.

Got woken up at 9:30 by a bad thunderstorm. Lots of thunder and lightning. Found out in the morning from one of my bunk mates that there was a tornado warning issued.

I woke up with the sun and packed up my gear. Then I went to the 7:30 church service at the local Episcopal church. I got there early and had some time to talk with Father Steve and his assistant, Tim. They were very nice, and during the announcements Father Tim introduced me to the five parishioners that were in attendance and told them about my bike journey. Afterwards, many of them told me that they would pray for me, and Father Steve asked that I share my progress with them. It was such a blessed way to start my day!!

I walked down to the local Sheetz and bought breakfast, some fruit, and a sandwich for the trail. By the time I returned to the bunkhouse, the others were about to leave. I ate my breakfast, brushed my teeth and was on the trail by 9:00.

The trail was very wet and I was constantly trying to avoid mud puddles. I passed an old cement mill that was used back when the canal was running.

After 45 minutes on the trail (about 7 miles) I came across a large tree that must have fallen across the trail in the storm.

There was no way I could get my bike past this downed tree. I was resigning myself that I would have to take the gear off my bike and move that over first, then try to weave my bike over and under these big logs. I swear that I have angels watching over me on this trip, because as I was walking back to my bike to take it apart, two other cyclists came up the trail. Now, I hadn’t seen another person on the trail all day, and didn’t see anyone else until 11:00. But Dale and Wendy appeared when I needed someone the most.

We cleared as much of the tree as we could, then paired up to lift each bike over the tree.

We biked about 100 yards and there was another downed tree across the trail. Same routine for that tree and two more. It took over 30 minutes to go one mile.

Thank God for Dale and Wendy!! It would have taken me forever to get through those downed trees myself. Probably would have hurt myself doing it too.

Here are some pictures from further down the trail.

There were many of these purple and white flowers along the trail. Thanks to my friend John, who hooked me up with the Seek app on my phone, I know that these flowers are called “Dame’s Rocket”.

About noon the sun finally came out. I stopped in the sun at a lock house and soaked it in for a few minutes. Just like the turtles in the canal.

At 1:00 I got to the Paw Paw tunnel. It is a 3/4 of a mile tunnel that was built for the canal. An impressive feat of engineering!

At the entrance I met Big O. We had a great conversation and connected with each other immediately. Big O share with me advice from his days backpacking over 600 miles of the AT that I will use on this adventure. He introduced me to his friend, Dorothy, and we talked again by phone later in the day. I’m looking forward to staying in touch with him, as he is such a positive person with great insight and wisdom.

I met up with my bunk mates after the tunnel while they were having lunch. I asked them about the downed trees, and they told me that they took the Western Maryland Trail out of Hancock instead of the C&O trail. They joined up with the C&O trail 24 miles down from Hancock. They didn’t have any downed trees on that trail – lucky.

There were several miles where the canal was full of water lilies. It looked like their flowers were going to bloom any day. It would have been great to get a picture of one in bloom for Elizabeth.

One last picture from the trail. Here the Potomac isn’t on my left, but a tall cliff is.

The last 12 miles were wet and muddy, which made them slow and difficult. When I got into Cumberland, MD to my hotel everything (including me) was caked in mud. Fortunately, the hotel had a hose outside for cyclists to clean their bikes. Once I got to my room, I took a shower and then did laundry.

For the day, I biked 60 miles with only 234 feet of elevation gain.