We drove down to Pittsburgh from Michigan to find ourselves in a heatwave, which was a great way to start our cycling adventure on the GAP.It was actually pretty fun and it was nice to be away from traffic for the time we were out there. However, I’m not going to write about the trip here. If you would like to read about our bike trip from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, I’ve documented it over on Cycleblaze at https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/cherrypicking/our-first-day-in-a-long-time/. Hope you check it out!
We finished our ride and picked up the van, intending on heading over to do a few day rides along the C&O canal. Our first stop was at the Paw Paw tunnel in Maryland. Here we were able to “camp” for the night at the trail head. There are government camp sites along the route, and using my Lifetime Senior National Park Pass, we were able to pay just $10 to use the site. We set up and ate dinner at the picnic table assigned to our site, but still slept in the van as it was warmer. In the morning as we ate breakfast, the rain started to fall, but it was pretty light and we decided to cycle anyways. The night before we had walked through the tunnel and so were anxious to cycle through and see what the trail was like further on. It’s a pretty long tunnel and the pathway bumpy, so cycling through it was a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, Jim had fully charged up our two lights so we were able to see our way. On the other side, we found some really amazing rock formations before the track took us to some of the locks. This whole canal was the brain child of George Washington! His thought was to build a canal system that would connect DC to the Ohio valley, and although the canal was built and used for a time, the arrival of trains soon made it obsolete. However, it is a wonderful way to see this part of the countryside outside of DC and we highly recommend it!
The Paw Paw tunnel, all 3118 ft of it is one example of the ingenuity of men on a mission. The brickwork going the whole way through is incredible and when you go through it, either on foot or by bike, you can really appreciate what an amazing feat of engineering it was, having been built way out in the middle of nowhere.
From the tunnel, the track quickly led us to several oddly named locks. We weren’t sure how this happened, but it does make for some interesting pictures.
We traveled down a little further, but as the track was pretty bumpy with roots and muddy with puddles, we decided to make it a short day and headed back to the van. Once there, we drove on to the town of Hagerstown where we planned on staying at a Walmart that night. We couldn’t get a reservation at any of the campgrounds for that night – oh well. In town, we accomplished a few little shopping things and I was hoping to find a place to get my hair cut. However, Jim wanted to catch a little football at a sports bar and that sounded a whole lot better to me so we ended up at a Buffalo Wild Wings for a beer and some half decent nachos. It was a fun way to spend our afternoon off the bikes. Later, we parked at the Walmart where there were several other RVs to keep us company.
In the morning, we dropped into the Waffle House for some yummy waffles before heading once again to the C&O. This time, we dropped in at a trail head where there was information about the building of the canal. It was interesting to see how it all developed and a little sad that such a wonderful form of travel was so quickly made obsolete with the need for faster travel. We are big fans of slow, and what more slow way to go that to walk, which we decided would be our mode for this day. The C&O here at Williamsport was so much better than up by Paw Paw! It was smooth, firm and very well used by both hikers and bikers. I used my app, Seek, to help me identify many of the trees and plants that we found along they way. It was a lot of fun, but sure kept us from going any great distance on this day!
Later, we drove on down further to the campground at Antietam Creek, where we were hoping to park for the night. There weren’t any spots technically for us, but we booked a spot for the following night, and since we were sleeping in the van, hoped that it wouldn’t be an issue. We didn’t realize that this was a long weekend here (Columbus Day or Aboriginal Day, depending on where you were) and all the camp sites near here were booked solid. Nice to see so many people out enjoying nature though! Since we still had some time to kill in the afternoon, we decided to head up to the Antietam Battle Field National Park, a short distance away. Neither of us really knew a lot about the battle fought here in the Civil War, so it was a very informative time for us. Informative and sad. Over 20,000 men died in the one day of this battle. More than all of the casualties in the War of Independence and the War of 1812 combined. What a terrible loss. The battle field is immense and is best viewed by driving through, where you can stop and see different areas where parts of the battle raged. We came away thinking of the tragedy of war and how sad it is for us to see Americans so divided now. We wonder where it will all lead.
Troubled and a bid down, we drove back, stopping for dinner at a little bar in Sharpsville before ending up at our camping spot on the side of the road. It was actually a very quiet location and we slept well. Come morning, we ate our breakfast before unloading the bikes to ride the 10 miles down towards Harper’s Ferry. It was really the most pleasant cycling we have had yet! Such pretty countryside, the river flowing along side of us and trees gradually changing colours along the way.
It seemed like no time and we arrived at the bridge which goes over the Potomac to Harpers’ Ferry in West Virginia. We locked up the bikes and walked over, finding a lovely little town where we could get coffee and delicious cinnamon buns before wandering through some little shops and stopping to look at the many historical displays. Of all the tourists towns we have been to, this one was actually the nicest for us. It has just the right balance of commerce and history.
After looking through some of the buildings, we stopped by the Shenandoah River to put our feet in the water and enjoy the warmth of the day. How delightful!!!
Later, back at the campground that was now totally deserted, we broke out the cooking materials and made ourselves some good old bangers and mash for dinner – what a perfect way to end this lovely day. The sun eventually set and with it went the warmth. We retreated to our little home on wheels to enjoy another movie before turning off the lights and settling in for another quiet lovely night on the road – does it seem like we are having fun? Yep! We are loving this time! So much so that we are really taking our time in getting down to DC. We will get there eventually, but not before a few more days wandering this lovely area of the country.
Coleen and Ernie
October 25, 2019 at 2:46amOmg….I just love following your excellent adventure….funny, even before I saw the pic with the almost most heaven building I had that John Denver song in my mind! How could you not with sheanenoah River close by😎
Sue and Jim
October 27, 2019 at 9:58pmit was so pretty there and fun to see some many references to that song!
Mike
November 4, 2019 at 8:58pmI am so impressed that this whole camping in Walmart parking lot is working so well! You’re really trailblazing for us future retirees! Surprised to find that campgrounds are full up this time of year. I’d kind of assumed that when we retire and can camp outside of summer that we’d never run into full campgrounds
Sue and Jim
November 8, 2019 at 7:00pmIt depends on where you go. There are a whole lot of retired folks wandering around!!!