Mud, Mosquitos and Whispers of the Past

Our trail cycling has not exactly been the serene, laid back ride we expected, but has definitely been filled with adventure and insight.

Jim's brother Greg dropped us of at the W and OD (Washington and Old Dominion) rails to trails. It was a lovely paved trail, heavily trafficked with bikers and runners in spots. We took that for about 18 miles and then wound our way from Leesburg, VA to the ferry across the Potomac River into Whitesburg, MD were we started on the C and O (Chesapeake and Ohio) tow path. We were thrilled to be on the beautiful, wooded, calm bike trail... oh, the easy life of trail riding, or so we thought.

On C and O trail, we bike where mules and horses pulled long thin boats up canals. This 185 mile system of canals, locks and aqueducts were dug by Irish, German and English immigrants in pretty horrific conditions to shuttle coal and other items between Cumberland, MD and DC. Digging was started in 1828 and took 22 years to complete. The trail is next to the Potomac River that provided the water to the canals and was our constant companion while we were on the trail.

Our time off in DC had been well timed as it rained while we were on break, the result of this, however, was that the trail was very muddy. This meant slogging through puddles and mud holes and catching my breath as we slid on to drier ground. In the midst of the mud we had two trailer tire flats and our chain came off, not easy to put back on when covered in mud. Much of the former canals are now standing water that we discovered during our repairs, are wonderful breading grounds for mosquitoes.

That night we made it into Harper's Ferry, WV just as it began to rain. We carried our bike and trailer up the spiral stair case and had a glorious walk over the bridge in town. Harper's Ferry was a magical place for us. The Appalachian Trail runs right through the town, so we met folks who had been walking for over 1000 miles from Georgia and had over 1500 to go to reach Maine. We stayed in a little in Inn and ate on the porch overlooking the hillside historical town.

In the morning we went to several museums and learned that Harper's Ferry was home to one of the first African-American colleges in addition to the location of one of W.E.B. DuBois's Niagara Movement meetings. A trip to Harper's Ferry would not be complete with out viewing the sites of John Brown's occupation of a US arsenal in opposition to slavery that led to his hanging.

We carried our bike and trailer back down the stair case on hoped on the trail to meet up with my sister and her family, Matt, Sydney and Bailey in Williamsport (they were on their way down from Toronto to visit folks in DC).

We need to get on the road, so we'll post pictures and share more once we find another place to access the Internet.
upper L- Bailey, Matt, Tasha, Sydney, Jim and Gabriela during a brief meet up in Williamsport
lower L- Tia G with twins. Right- Jim and Gabriela upon arrival in Harper's Ferry infront of our Inn.