M3's Day Two

Day two finds us 64 miles down the trail. The rain has finally stopped. We get up for breakfast and pack our gear.

Upon loading my gear into my panniers, it seemed like I had more than what I left with. Granted I did find a small Y-stick for fishing on the trail, this did not account for my sudden inability to load all my gear.

Once packed, I pushed my bike up to the trail, hoping to delay as long as possible the point where I had to actually sit on the seat again. My rear was still hurting.

Once on the bike and after a mile or so, everything started to feel better. We pedaled on, sloshing through the mud puddles until we reached Williamsport.

The water from the pumps at the campsites in the early part of the trip was clean but poor-tasting. Now the water from the pumps was not only poor-tasting but varying shades of yellow and brown. So we stopped in Williamsport and rode into town to the nearest Sheetz gas station.

There, I bought a few more PowerBars and some Gatorade. The PowerBars were much needed considering that I only brought three with me and had eaten two.

We pushed on, and found the detour. I didn't think it existed because everything I've seen on it was from a year or two ago. Well, it's there. There are two places to leave the trail, we chose the second one, staying on the trail a little longer. Once off the trail, we were on the roads in rural Maryland, hills and all.

I didn't find the hills all that hard but it was a change from the "flat" trail.

Speaking of the "flat" trail. I don't know if it was an optical illusion or what, but it seemed like we were pedaling up a slight grade the entire day. I realize we dropped a few hundred feet in altitude but I don't remember ever going downhill, other than the short slopes next to each lock.

Later in the day we passed by Harpers Ferry on the other side of the river. This is where we first started seeing other people, including lots of people tubing on the Potomac. At this point, all of us were ready to toss our bikes in the river and get a tube.

We ended for the day at the Calico Rocks campsite with just 50-some miles left. We did 70-plus miles this day.

We set up camp, had dinner. It was nice doing this without rain. The site was right next to a busy train track though. If you've never been in a port-a-potty next to a train track as the train goes by, you don't know what you're missing.