D25 NE Canal Ways

We began the final 186 miles of our trip today on the C&O Canal Towpath at its starting (or ending) point in Cumberland MA. Cumberland is also known for its trains which drive through your hotel all night but that’s a different, sadder story. The C&O (Chesapeake & Ohio as it literally connected the Chesapeake bay to the Ohio river in Pittsburgh) towpath is the least developed of all the trails we have been on during this trip. And while we have heard from multiple westbound riders how “rough” it is, we have been pleasantly surprised not only by the path but the feeling of wilderness. Today we rode about 60 miles, in Maryland no less, and only found one place to stop and get some food and drinks near the trail. It was pleasantly secluded.

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We are pretty much self appointed experts on towpaths and canals of the 1800s now, having ridden alongside hundreds of miles of canals. What I find so interesting with them is the unused canals that are (see left photo above) often left as mosquito hatcheries. Along the C&O there are some 70+ locks and in some places they have been pretty well preserved which is nice to see (middle photo) but then there are old houses for the lock keepers that are boarded up. (Make them hostels for bikers/hikers!). The final photo shows the canal being used for something better than mosquitos – empty it and let the grass grow. However, I think that if there were a section of the canal with a replica canal boat that floated through a couple locks, it would be a big seller. Of course, every idea for business I’ve ever had has failed so don’t invest in the C&O renewal project.

Almost all of the day, we were just across the river from Gloria’s ancestral lands, not Alberta, but West Virginia. The Potomac river behind Gloria is the border between Maryland where we are riding, and West Virginia where everyone is dying from drug OD or black lung. Sorry, I mean where Gloria’s grandmother lived before marrying her mother’s father and moving – site unseen – to Alberta at the age of 19 in 1919. Sorry, I’ve been to both Alberta and now looked across the river at West Virginia, and I feel sorry for grandma. Alberta is beautiful, if you don’t like trees and you like really cold weather blowing across the prairie. Granted, there are pretty mountains in Alberta, but this is pretty amazing, thickly treed, country.

There was a 1.5 mile section of not so fun trail today but it wasn’t actually the C&O towpath. The towpath runs through a 3000+ foot tunnel called the Paw Paw tunnel. The tunnel is being repaired so we had to take a detour. Apparently the company contracted for the tunnel had to put in the detour as part of the deal and there were no specifics about the trail in the contract. They were tunnel fixers and NOT trail builders. I think one day, one of the employees was sent up the hill above the tunnel and over the top with a small tractor. He or she was trying to get it done before lunch so they drove straight up and straight down. Their scar, I mean path, left us doing some hike-a-bike but who can complain about 1.5 miles in an otherwise beautiful 186 mile trail.

Dragging Gloria through a rainstorm that almost drowned us, through traffic in Philadelphia that could have killed us, and across a 1000 miles or so of roads and trails before bringing her here was smart on my part – although I can’t actually take credit. I just went north first thinking we needed to go there before the weather got cold. This is memorable in every wonderful way. The weather has been perfect. The trail is flat and very comfortable to ride. The scenery is repeatedly and endlessly incredible. I feel blessed. The real question is does Gloria – as I hope this will be her memory of our ride:).