My Day One

Now that Firefighter has ruined the Wordless Wednesday by posting words on our blog on a Wednesday, I may as well follow suit...

It wasn't quite a 6 a.m. departure, more like 6:30. After stuffing ourselves with scrambled eggs and pancakes, we rode away from my house, down the hill and to the start of the trail.

The first day brought us through the countryside and past a couple of locks on the canal. They were interesting at first but after three or four, they all started looking the same.

The Paw Paw Tunnel, as Firefighter mentioned, was the highlight of the day. It was dark as hell in there and on the other side there was an eerie fog that obscured the tunnel exit.

I rode part of this section of the trail before but it was much drier then. It rained the day before our start so there were lots of unavoidable mud puddles. I was glad I had fenders on my bike, but I was the only one who did. Everyone else got quite muddy.

We arrived in Hancock, Maryland at about 4:30 p.m. It started to rain a little. We decided to push on to the 60 mile marker and beyond to the nearest campsite, Little Pool, 64 miles from our start point. We arrived there by 5:00 p.m. and everyone set up tents in the rain. Nearly everyone was in bed by 5:30.

While we didn't reach our goal of 80 miles the first day, I was pleased with our progress and even more pleased that we stopped. My legs were fine but my posterior was in pain.

The campsite was interesting. We had the wonderful hum of Interstate 68 in the distance. And of course, there were the native West Virginians camped out across the river having what could only be described as a good time in West Virginia (i.e. fishing, beer, firearms, and fireworks).

Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep.