46.6 miles today, 3646 miles overall
We were pleased to camp under a ramada last night, where the late thunder storm posed no threat and our setup (and tear down) was minimal. We were forewarned that a rail line ran close by, but we didn’t realize it was this close!
We decided to have someone cook breakfast for us today so we wound our way back through the old station…
… into downtown, and found ourselves at the Cafe Mark.
After we were fed and stocked up at a grocery store, we met Steve’s friends, Tim and Vince, at the end of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Trail (called the C&O canal trail, for short (and also a national historic park)) and started riding.
Within just a few miles we were out of town and riding between the canal on our left and the Potomac River on our right.
There are at least 75 locks between Georgetown and Cumberland and at this end none are functional. Large parts of the canal are dry or blocked.
Some more more pictures of the canal and towpath below.
In some places the canal had to cross tributaries of the Potomac and aqueducts were built to carry the canal over them. All of the aqueducts we encountered were now dry.
The engineers who built the canal chose to tunnel 3000 ft through Tunnel Hill, rather than try to follow 6 mi of the winding River course. We enjoyed walking through the dark tunnel separated by a guardrail from the canal on our left. It was mercifully much cooler in the tunnel than on the towpath today.
On the east side of the tunnel there was a long cut, shown in the picture below, where there was a nice boardwalk to ride along.
As has become common, we saw many deer and several fawns on the trail today. We also saw this character who retreated into his shell when I tried to take a photograph.
After stopping and enjoying a beer, down-hill from our campsite, Vince facilitated additional beer consumption and Steve and Bob enjoyed it thoroughly.
Footnote…
In the Farrell household we recognize that someone always has to be last and there is only a problem if the same person is last every time (Iona, you know who you are). And I’m pleased to report that Steve, in theory at least, is no longer a problem. Today, on day 68 of this trip, he was ready and waiting for me and Bob to finish packing. We were shocked, he was cocky, and he thinks he can do it again tomorrow. We’ll see.
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