We’re still alive!

(this is Brice writing – post was written last night/posted Saturday. Note that we won’t have cell service for decent stretches so a lack of posts doesn’t mean we were eaten by a bear. )

Another two days have flown by; though not much of note has happened we’ve been kept pretty busy on our bikes. Thursday we got a very slightly earlier start (10:15) and then we met Susan’s coworker Karen for lunch in Shepardstown WV, just over the Potomac from the C&O trail. Accessing the bridge requires climbing out of the valley, so we were plenty hungry for some giant burritos. Later in the day, we hit a 6 mile detour around a washed up section of the canal. The detour is 6 miles over rolling farmland (emphasis on the rolling) – we definitely aren’t ready to tackle hills in bulk yet. We called it a day after 44 miles, roughly 84 miles short of Cumberland, MD (the end of the C&O) and the beginning of the Great Allegheny Passage.

We had great plans last night and this morning of getting through those 84 miles today (and grabbing a motel/shower in Cumberland) but it was not to be. Despite setting an alarm and hitting the trail at 9, when we’d only made 30 miles 4 hours later, we amended our plans. So here we are, camping one more night after 53 very tired miles – I think we’re still feeling the hills from yesterday.

One problem with our routine we’ve identified is breakfast – we’re having oatmeal and coffee and maybe a couple handfuls of gorp before heading out and it just isn’t sticking – we wind up stopping after 5 miles to inhale more gorp and whatever else we can lay hand to. So if anybody has good ideas for breakfast items that are compact, shelf stable, high calorie and most importantly tasty, leave us a comment.

Tomorrow we’ll roll the last 30 miles into Cumberland and take the rest of the day off before tackling the GAP Sunday. Finally, some pictures:

1: Awesome iron-y/iodine-y water from the pumps along the trail. Tastes great!

2: Changing flat 1 of many

3: Pretty flowers

4: Susan knows a cool trick to keep gnats away from your face; if you hold your hand up they’ll swarm up higher. Unfortunately there’s a limit to how long one can hold one’s hand up. At least gnats don’t sting/bite.

5: the view from our tent tonight. I’ve never been anywhere else that encourages camping 5 feet from a river. On the other hand, gray camping water is probably the nicest thing anybody ever dumps in the Potomac.