This is a departure from the regular trip reports which, at a minimum, are for at least one overnight stay, usually in a foreign country. We had planned an overnight trip and we ended up in rural Maryland which is as foreign from Metro DC as you can get so I guess the trip qualifies for a report.
The plan was to drop one vehicle off in Shepardstown and drive the other truck with the bikes in it to Cumberland, Maryland. We would then ride the C & O Canal tow path from Cumberland to Shepardstown, a total of about 120 miles, with an overnight stop in Hancock which is about halfway. We would then throw the bikes into the truck parked in Shepardstown, drive back to Cumberland for the other truck and head home. In and out real fast, nobody gets hurt. You know what they say about the best laid plans.
There were three of us riding; Doctor Window Boy (DWB), Scooter and myself. The weather was perfect for the ride with sunshine, blue skies and reasonable humidity for this time of year.
We got off to a late start as DWB can’t quite get his act together in the morning. You remember him from the failed trip to the Bahamas? He was the guy who couldn’t make the 6AM flight. He even has a job where he doesn’t start work until 10AM. By the time we got on the trail we were about an hour behind but it didn’t seem important at the time. We made good progress the first 17 miles, doing a good 12 miles an hour which is pretty good for us on a dirt trail. We saw deer, wild turkeys and a great blue heron. And turtles. Lots of turtles sunning themselves on logs floating in the canal.
Picture 1: The trail and canal a few miles out of Cumberland
Then Scooter’s bike started falling apart. There is a hex screw that holds the pedal crank onto the crank shaft. That screw had worked itself loose and the pedal crank was all wobbly. So we dismounted and got out the tool kit (thoughtfully prepared by DWB) and found that we had a tool for every screw and nut on a bike except this one screw. Scooter tightened it up using a pair of pliers and we were on our way. For a mile. Then it came loose again and we had to stop. This is how it went for the next 43 miles with us stopping every mile (more frequently as the day wore on) to tighten the screw.
Picture 2: A familar sight. Scooter tightening the crank screw
Here’s how fast our progress down the trail was. There was a family out walking the trail. Grandpa, a couple of little boys and a teenaged girl (whose face showed how much she was enjoying walking along the dirt trail with her family). This walking family passed us. Twice. That’s how fast we were going between riding and fixing.
I rode ahead to the town of Paw Paw, West Virginia, to see if I could buy a hex key that would fit the screw. The business district of Paw Paw consists of a gas station and a Dollar Store. Neither of which sells the kind of tool I was looking for. I asked one of the locals if there was a bike shop in town and he said no. When I asked about a tool store or automotive supply store his face lit up and I thought I had hit pay dirt. He told me that they were going to build a tool store right across the street. I wasn’t going to wait for that so I headed back to the trail to wait for DWB and Scooter.
Picture 3: The Paw Paw Tunnel, 3280 feet long
While I was waiting a herd of teenagers on bikes went down the trail heading towards DWB and Scooter. One of the kids was on the wrong side of the trail with his head down, heading right for DWB. His friends were yelling at him, DWB was yelling at him but he just kept going. DWB thought he was just screwing with him, playing chicken, but the kid looked up at the last second, saw DWB and swerved. The kid missed DWB but swerved around him and nailed Scooter. Down they went. Scooter ended up with cuts and contusions on his arm where the kid’s brake handle got him. Scooter wasn’t having a good day.
At one point we had stopped to fix Scooter’s bike and DWB saw buzzards circling. He thought they were coming for Scooter but I was sure they were after Scooter’s bike. DWB was convinced that bad things happen in threes and was waiting for a bear attack next.
By now the afternoon was wearing on and I was getting concerned about being on the trail after dark. DWB rode ahead of us to the town of Little Orleans to see about tools or maybe overnight accommodations. Little Orleans is even smaller than Paw Paw and has a bar. That is it. We tossed around a few options but decided to forge forward to Hancock.
And forge forward we did, getting up to 10 miles per hour for less than a mile at a time, stopping so that Scooter could fix his bike. It started getting dark. There is a substantial tree canopy of the trail and the moon wouldn’t do us any good. DWB rode ahead of us to secure accommodations in Hancock and left Scooter and myself to cover the last 10 miles alone. The last hour or so on the trail was dark. We could see fires off in the woods where people were camping. We heard a woman in a farmhouse yelling at us and then she sent her dogs after us. I guess people lurking on the trail at night make her nervous.
A couple of times that screw managed to work itself right out of the hole and fall onto the trail. The last time it did this it was dark out and we couldn’t find it. Walking was too slow so Scooter took the pedal off of his bike and rode it like a scooter (hence the nick name) for the last 3 miles, pushing along with his left foot.
DWB rejoined us on the trail just as we pulled in to Hancock, 60 miles and 10 hours from our starting point. He had more good news. Both of the hotels were booked solid. We hadn’t made reservations because the Super 8 is never booked up (per DWB). If we had made it to Hancock in the afternoon we probably could have gotten a room. But now it was 10PM and everything was booked. We tossed around a few ideas. Scooter suggested we crawl under a pile of leaves (for insulation) in the woods. I thought that would just make it harder to find our bodies. So we gave up on the second half of the ride and called Bunny for a lift home.
We had a while to wait in Hancock so we went to Sheetz gas station for dinner and then out for a few beer. The beer was cheap ($1.25 per glass) but the bar was interesting. There were animal heads all over the walls. Heads from animals not from around here like zebras, wildebeest and gnus. The only local looking animal was a big plastic wild turkey on top of the cigarette machine. When is the last time you saw a cigarette machine? And it was a well used machine and everyone in the bar was smoking except us. Everyone looked kind of the same in an in-bred kind of way and the women were all bigger than the men. There was even a village idiot at the bar. Not just a slack jawed yokel but a real blithering idiot.
After a few beer it was time to go. Bunny was good enough to come and get us and not give DWB too hard a time (at least while we were there). We met her at the pick up point and she drove us home, arriving after 1 AM.
We still have to finish the Hancock to Shepardstown section of the trail and then it’s off to other rides. DWB has found us a trail that goes from Cumberland to Pittsburg, about 120 miles. We have already picked out a town about halfway along where Bunny can pick us up.
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