Every summer I drive down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina to spend a week with the in-laws. We always stop half-way in Richmond to stay with my wife's parents, spend the night, then continue the journey the next day. Two years ago, I started getting into bicycle touring. Each summer I spent three days on either the C&O Canal trail or the Great Allegheny Passage trail with friends. The trips were between 170 and 190 miles. Last year I hatched a plan to ride my bike from Cumberland all the way to North Carolina, meeting up with the family for the beach vacation. My wife, the ever sensible one, quickly quashed that idea because it would take up too much time. So instead I opted to ride from my home in Cumberland to Richmond to meet up with her there.
I spent a couple of months working on the perfect route. I used several resources such as bikeforums.net, MapMyRide, Google Earth, etc. The final route went from my house in Cumberland, south on the C&O Canal trail to Brunswick, south on roads to Nokesville, VA where I would link up with US Bicycle Route 1 and the ACA Atlantic Coast road route to Richmond.
A word on equipment... Everyone always talks about their equipment because after all, that is the fun stuff. I rode my trusty 2009 Surly Long Haul Trucker, Blackburn rear rack, Topeak front low-rider rack, Nashbar panniers in the front and Axiom Champlain panniers in the rear. I carried tent and camping gear, including a small camp stove.
Day One: I started out at 6 a.m., rode into downtown Cumberland and jumped on the C&O. I rode pretty steady, stopping after about 20 miles for a short break. This section was fairly boring as I've done it a couple of times. I made it to Hancock, about 60 miles away, by Noon. Shortly before Hancock, I passed a group of kids riding with a couple of adult chaperons. It looked like the typical boy scout group you often see on the trail. Several minutes later, two of the boys caught up with me and started to quiz me on my journey, starting with "How old are you?" I learned that they also started in Cumberland but were on their third day of the trip. Needless to say, they were in awe that I had only left there that morning.
While riding, a tick dropped out of the sky and landed on my arm. This instantly made me remember that I forgot to pack the bug repellent. I stopped at the bike store along the trail in Hancock and bought a can of OFF (for almost twice the Wal-Mart cost) and some Gatorade. I stopped in the park at the Hancock trail head and ate lunch, my peanut butter and honey sandwich staple. After about an hour, I jumped back on the bike. This time, instead of continuing on the C&O, I jumped on the Western Maryland Rail Trail which parallels the C&O but is paved. I was disappointed to learn the trail actually started several miles back in Little Orleans and that I could have been on paved goodness some time ago. After about 10 miles on the WMRT, it ended and I was back on the C&O.
I rode all the way to the detour, at which point I was dead tired and it was getting close to 6 p.m. After passing the detour, I thought I should start finding a campsite. The first hiker-biker site I found on the trail was occupied with tents but the occupants were nowhere to be found. I wanted to find them and ask if they minded if I joined them but I still had daylight left so figured I would ride to the next site. The next site was literally packed. There was a large group there that had come up the Potomac by canoe from Harper's Ferry and a couple who were hiking from the same place. One of the hikers, a tall, bearded guy with a straw Amish-type hat, told me there was another site "just down the trail a little," which turned out to be four more miles. By the time I reached the site, Killiansburg Cave near mile marker 75, I was beat and had logged 116 miles on my odometer. I quickly set up camp, made a dinner of beans and rice on the camp stove and went to bed.
Day Two: I woke up early with the sun at about 5 a.m. I did not sleep well, waking every hour to turn my sore body on the hard ground, but I still felt rested and ready for another day on the bike. I was off and riding by 6 a.m., after breakfast of oatmeal from the camp stove. I quickly knocked out the 20 or so miles to Brunswick where I would depart from the trail. I left the trail and started out on the roads, at first crossing the Potomac, leaving Maryland and entering Virginia.
There were more hills here which weren't so bad before Noon but when it started to get hot, the hills became unbearable. I rode from Brunswick to Purcellville. After Purcellville, I got a little lost and ended up on the wrong road, which was too busy with car and truck traffic for my liking. I found a side road to get me back on my route, which ended up being a gravel road. And not only was it gravel, but freshly poured gravel and dirt. It was like pedaling through sand. That led me to Philomont, VA where I stopped at the Philomont General Store for lunch. I ordered a cheese sandwich and bought two Gatorades. The temperature was quickly climbing into the high 90s and eventually up to 103 degrees.
After lunch, I pedaled on to Middleburg, through Virginia's ritzy horse country. Again, the hills were killer with the fully loaded bike and the 103 degree sun. I stopped in Middleberg for a little while to buy oranges in a grocery store and take short nap on a park bench at a "sporting" museum, which apparently is a museum for fox hunters.
As the day wore on, I reached The Plains and then went east toward Nokesville. It was later in the day and cooler. I arrived in Nokesville feeling pretty good. I stopped at a Sheetz gas station to refill my water bottles and grabbed an ice cream from a shop behind the gas station. I was finally in civilization after two days of trail and empty back roads. I rode on from there, looking for a place to stay. I originally was thinking of staying with a friend in Leesburg but because I was ahead of schedule, Leesburg was 40 miles in my rear-view mirror. Instead, I stopped at a Nokesville fire station and asked them where I could throw up a tent for the night. The firefighters there suggested I go to their other station further down the road, and still on my route, and they would probably let me stay behind the station. I rode on, almost to the other fire station, but stopped instead at a Brethren church. I poked my head in a side door and found some ladies doing aerobics or yoga or something. I asked if they minded if I pitched a tent for the night in their backyard. They were very nice and said I could. Because I was camping in their yard, I decided not to fire up the camp stove and instead went to the 7-11 across the street and bought a couple of things for dinner. I set up the tent and went to bed. I slept better this night, likely because I was so tired.
Again, here is the route for day two.
Day Three: I was up again very early, this time around 4:30. I quickly packed up and went across the street to 7-11 for breakfast. I had to clear out of the church before 6 a.m. because, as the woman there told me, they had day care kids coming in the morning. Once it was light enough to start riding, I took off and continued on the route heading south on the west side of Quantico Marine Corps Base. It was morning and the road going north toward the base was packed with cars. Luckily, I was headed south and didn't have a problem. While on the road, however, someone in a pickup truck going the opposite direction screamed very loudly out the window at me, likely in an attempt to scare the crap out me and cause me to fall. It did scare the crap out of me but I didn't fall. I've had this happen before while riding around my hometown of Cumberland but this was the first such incident on this trip.
I continued south on the ACA Atlantic Coast route, a web of deserted back roads running from Maine to Florida. I was in Fredricksburg in no time and stopped there at the library for a quick rest and to refill my water bottles. In Fredricksburg, my route took me through a Civil War battlefield park there. Being a battlefield, it was at the top of a series of killer hills, this just when it was starting to heat up outside.
I charged on, leaving Fredricksburg but stopping twice, once at picnic table outside a factory of some type and again at a Christian high school where I went inside and refilled my water bottles with nice cold water. After leaving the school, I was near dead by the time a reached the Guinney Station market and gas station, in the middle of nowhere between Fredericksburg and Richmond. The Asian woman at the counter asked in disbelief, "Did you ride a bike here? It's hot out there." After a stop there for another Gatorade and water bottle refill, I continued on, crossing over I-95 and into the heart of Virginia.
It was very different here than in the northern part of Virginia. There was a lot more poverty and tiny cracker box houses in the middle of big fields of tobacco. By about 2 p.m., I was beat and decided to stop for a break. I stopped again at a church and found a perfect patch of grass in the shade. I dozed off for a little while but was awakened when a truck pulled into the parking lot. A guy got out and asked if I was OK. He was there to water the flowers. I asked for some water from his hose to fill my water bottles. He offered water from inside the church instead but I had to get moving so took the hose water then moved on, looking for another place to stay.
By about 6 p.m., I rode past another church, the Elon Baptist Church just north of Ashland, VA, and it looked like the perfect campsite. There was a tree-lined area behind the church with a fire pit and picnic tables. There was a truck in the parking lot but all the doors to the church were locked. I knocked and seconds later a man came to the door. He was the pastor of the church and was more than happy to let me camp there. After I started setting up camp, he came out and brought me a few bottles of cold water and asked if need to use the bathroom inside. I took him up on his offer and then spent a while inside talking to him. We talked about education after he asked what I did. He had been a middle school teacher so we had something in common. He was a very nice guy.
It didn't take long to fall asleep this night either. I was glad to be on the eve of the final day so close to my destination.
Here's the route.
Day Four: Final day! And the shortest day. I was up again by 5 a.m. and on the road at 6 a.m. It was a short ride into Ashland. I wanted to stop at a grocery store to get some fruit but it was too early, nothing was open. I had a light breakfast of peanut butter and honey, again because I didn't want to fire up the stove behind the church for fear of setting the woods on fire. It was very dry there.
After Ashland, it was a short jump into Richmond. I crossed I-295 into the metro area around 8:30 a.m. I rode rather leisurely through "The Fan" area of the city up to the trendy Cary Street, occasionally riding among other bicyclists headed to work and school, they in clean clothes and and looking trendy and me looking like a hobo on a fully-loaded bike. I stopped in a fancy organic-type grocery store for fruit and Vitamin Water (they didn't carry Gatorade). After eating the fruit at the tables outside the store, I strolled over to Starbucks. This was where I'd arranged to have my wife pick me up. I made it to Richmond before she did though, so I knew I had some waiting to do. I called the in-laws to let them know I was in town. Instead of having me wait, my wife's father came to pick me up. The trip was over.
In total, I rode 311 miles over 30 hours of ride time, or three days and three hours.
Here's the final day's route.
The End: It was a great trip and I was sad to have it end yet happy I had done it. I was pleased with the time, finishing up much earlier than I had planned. I even thought it might take as long as five days. In some ways, I was surprised with the generosity of the churches where I spent two of my nights. I guess I sort of expected them to say yes to my request, which is why I asked in the first place, but it was nice to know that it worked and that there are still nice people out there. Would I do it again? Of course. Except next time I would plan for fewer miles per day, maybe around 75, and plan overnight lodging a little better. I would have liked to see more campgrounds along the way but there were none. Perhaps next time I would plan the route around campgrounds. I would also hope to have a more flexible time schedule next time. I felt like I was in a rush the whole time. Regardless, it was a fun trip and I can't wait to do it again.
Great post, I felt like i was right there with you. Glad you had fun and I hope to ride with you soon.
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