I stayed at the Rockwood B&B last night and had planned on a leasurely breakfast. But I checked the weather report and saw that there was a window of "no rain" that would last until noon. So I asked the owner if she could provide an earlier breakfast - so I could try to outrun the rain.
Great idea - but didn't work out. Started raining about 10 miles into the ride. Oh well.
The ground is so saturated that trees are starting to fall over - root balls and all. It's rained pretty much every day for the last two weeks. I am surprised the GAP trail has held up as well as it has. It seems to drain rather quickly - so while it was wet and cold riding today - the path was in pretty decent shape.
Rode over a bunch of former railroad bridges....
One interesing fact that I learned is that while most bridges only had one track - way back in the late 1800's they actually built many of the bridges to accomodate 2 tracks. Think you can see tthe structure for the second track in the above photo.
Wished they had thought like this when the built Route 128 in Boston!
Again the ride continued to be uphill. I checked the GAP website last night only to learn that the first 18 miles of the day was going to be the steepest of the ride. Having said this the promise was that once you reached the Continental Divide, it would be all down hill after that.
I was told to keep looking for a tunnel that would be the dividing line. Kept hoping to see this damn tunnel and was starting to believe that the other riders were lying to me. Finally reached the tunnel and lo and behold I had reached the top.
Now the photo showing the drop from the Divide to the Cumberland was almost too good to be true. And as I unfortuntely learned in the same picture, the first 140 miles of the ride was totally up hill. Don't think I was able to coast once over the last three days.
Now at least according to the mural, it looked like I was going to be able to coast the last 25 miles. Just put the feat up on the handlebars and enjoy the downhil;! Probably could do this on a dry day - but again due to the soggy conditions of the trail _ I still has to pedal - though I was able to up my speed from 8mph to 15mph.
As I started to pass some of riders heading up the trail - I started saying hello with a big smile on my face. As I passed them climbing - all I got back was grunts. Been there... done that. It is amazing how your disposition changes on the downhill!
I must have missed the fact that just after the Divide, I would pass over the Mason Dixon line. It has been a long time since I took American History in High School - but do remember at one time this was the line between "free states" and "slave states".
I crossed over the line without incident. Would have stopped longer at the line but it was dumping by then and I was cold and wet. It was about 15 miles to town and I started counting down the miles. 15, 14, 13, .... Amazing what the mind can do to pass the time.
In about an hour I reached Cumberland. It's the end of theGAP trail and the start of the C&O Canal trail. Phase One Mission completed!
I stopped into the C&O Canal Trail Visitor Center to see if they could proivdie me conditions on the next portion of the trail. Luckily, I meet a couple who had just finished the C&O trail. Like me, they were in the Center trying to check out what the GAP trail was like (they were heading to Pittsburgh).
So we were able to swap war stories though their ride sounded pretty bad. Seems they had to shuttle the last 40 miles of the C&O via van as the trail was impassible.
As Cumberland is the last town that I can reboard Amtrak back to Washinton I have to make a "go; no go" decision on whether to continue. Though weather.com is calling for a "no rain" day tomorrow, the following day they are predicting rain with high probability of thunder storms.
As I planned the last two days as 60+ mile days - I just can't imaging slogging though the mud. Might not even finish before dark if I am reduced to 4-5 mph. So I shout "Uncle", "I Give Up".
Bad news.... is that it looks like I am going to have to come back another day to do the C&O Canal portion of the ride. Good news.... is that I must be getting smarter as I get older!
So it is back to the Cape for some sun and surf (and great white sharks). And of course to get ready for the Brickabetta wedding!
So until the next trip - thanks for reading!
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