We welcomed Wynn to our group on Friday morning. He came from St. Petersburg, FL after teaching his summer school class at U of S. Florida. He was ready to ride with his Mr. Peanut riding shirt. We measured his bike, my Scott bike, and fitted everything to him and off we went, riding uphiull then downhill through town to the trail. It was another beautiful ride on the canal towpath. We again saw lots of wildlife, had a magnificent trail experience as we rode first to Hancock, our first stop and lunch stop in Hancock. What a surprise. There was Barbara again. We think she has tagged us with some sort of a GPS signal that lets her locate us. We enjoyed our sandwiches we had packed that morning, went to a bike shop and discovered to Ralph's chagrin that we had missed about 11 miles of paved pathway (the adjacent Western Maryland rails to trails path) but we fixed that by following it up the mountain for another 10-12 miles. The railway paralleled the canal but was about 20-30 feet higher. The old telegraph line poles were still evident. It went through some rugged country where the workers had blasted a path and then filled in he "saddles" so the roadway was regular although uphill. Then back on the towpath and we arrived at the Little Orleans campground. It was eventful. Gene in the bike shop in Hancock told us to be sure to stop at Bill's at Little Orleans before going up to the campground. We did and Ralph went inside. He carries his "man-purse" handlebar bag that has his watch, money, credit cards, glasses, etc., with him when he leaves his bike. When he came our from Bill's he said they were getting ready to take someone to a float trip and would take us up the hill to the campground if we put our bikes in the truck bed and road back there. Ralph and I agreed, but Wynn and Tom decided to ride up. When we got to the campground Barbara was already there and had check us in so we sat around waiting for the float trip to leave. Ralph realized he didn't have his handlebar bag and we began searching. It was gone! We went to our place to camp, set up tents and Barb and I set up and air mattress courtesy of Tanya and Bruce and put a tarp over the fleece sleeping bags and pillows we brought. Took a sleeping pill, Barb took two, and we settled in for the evening. Only it got really cold sometime during the night and I was too tired to get up to get more clothes on so just stayed there and froze. Barb had more sense and got up to get more clothes. We awoke the next morning, having not had much sleep, cold and coughing, and packed stuff up to get ready to go. I should add that we did go bakc to Bill's for dinner, added a dollar bill to his ceiling, and drove around a bit looking for Ralph's bag.
Anyway, we did make it through the one night camping somehow before the next day's ride to the final stop on the C&O Canal - Cumberland, MD.
Again we were dirty and tired after our ride up the canal. It is very dusty, is fairly bumpy, especially for Ralph who doesn't have an suspension on his touring bike. And Tom is riding a Gary Fisher bike but his rear shock is losing its oomph and causes his pedals to drag occasionally. He filled it with air but the problem isn't solved.
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