C&O Canal Towpath || Day 1 || 38.6 miles
- Date: June 14, 2022
- Start: Washington, D.C. (C&O Mile 0.0)
- End: Marble Quarry Hiker-Biker Camp (C&O Mile 38.6)
- Cumulative Distance: 38.6 miles
I stayed with my friends Rodney and Janene in Northern Virgina last night, and I’d had the best intentions to depart early this morning, provided the weather forecast was wrong. Rain was supposed to move in around 7 am, and I didn’t appreciate the prospect of being completely drenched as I tried to navigate my way to the beginning of the C&O.
There was still a 60% chance of rain when I starting packing up my gear around 8 am, and I hoped it wasn’t going to be like the typical Pacific Northwest rain forecasts (where “a 60% chance of rain” is a secret code for, “it’s definitely going to rain today, but just for 60% of the day”).
But, as it turns out, my biggest problem this morning wasn’t the rain. It was my bike.
As I went into the garage to load my panniers onto my bike and shove my rain jacket into my frame bag, I noticed my front tire looked a bit low. I pumped it up with the large bike pump Rodney left out for me, and then went back inside to gather the rest of my stuff.
As I returned, the front tire was now even more flat!!
Seriously?!? I haven’t even started this adventure yet and I have a flat tire? Moreover, since I’m running tubeless tires on my gravel bike, I knew I was going to need to head to a bike shop to get it repaired ASAP. If I start out this trip using my spare tube, I wouldn’t have a free one when I got my next flat tire.
I sighed in frustration, then googled directions to the nearby bike shop where I’d had my bike shipped to. Dammit. They didn’t open until 11am today. Well, I wasn’t going to sit around staring at my bike for the next 2.5 hours. It was time to come up with plan B.
I asked Janene if she’d wouldn’t mind going to the post office to mail the package I needed to send forward to Pennsylvania. With this new development, I wasn’t going to have time to go to the post office and get my tire fixed this morning. Then I pumped my front tire up as much as possible before slowly walking my bike to the metro station while it gradually lost air and deflated.
Once I got to the Rosslyn metro stop, I knew I’d just need to take easy walk across the Key bridge into Georgetown. There were several bike shops in that part of the city. And all of them were open before 11 am!
I wanted to curse my bad luck. But, I suppose if I was going to get a flat tire on this trip, it was better that it happened while I was still in town – where there were plenty of resources to assist me. Yet, I couldn’t help but wonder whether a flat (before I’d even begun riding) was foreshadowing a much more difficult journey ahead.
STARTING THE C&O
With my tire repaired, it was time to finally head to the start of the C&O Canal Towpath. I’d had so many delays this morning, plus the couple of miles it took to get mile 0, that I didn’t actually begin my ride until nearly 11 am.
It was now nearly 3 hours later than I’d hoped to begin this journey. So I guess it’s a good thing I planned an easier itinerary for this trip. I only intended to average around 40 miles per day, which seemed reasonable given my lack or cycling experience (and training). Hopefully, that means I’ll have no problem making it to camp before dark – even with this late start.
As I made my way down the bumpy brick street toward the Thompson Boat Center, where the C&O Canal Towpath official begins (right behind the Swedish and Icelandic embassies), I was filled with excitement. I was finally beginning this journey!
I touched the railing at the water’s edge, and then began pedaling north across a bridge and onto the Rock Creek Trail, trying to avoid the geese and baby goslings who dotted the path quiet path.
All I had to do was follow the towpath as the small wooden posts announced each ascending mile marker. And if I was lucky, in five days’ time, I would hopefully be in Cumberland, Maryland, celebrating with a cool refreshing beer.
The first few miles of the C&O were flat, and slightly muddy from the prior evening’s rain. Meanwhile, the sky ahead of me continued to be gray and menacing, but just a few sprinkles or intermittent drizzle materialized.
As I rode north, I noticed how the individual canal locks varied in their appearance. Some of the locks were maintained in pristine condition, and clearly designed for tourists to photograph.
I found myself compelled to stop to take a photo as I passed each timber- or stone-lined lock, but then I realized the ridiculousness of this goal. There were 74 locks along the C&O, was I going to stop and photograph each one? And if so, then what? Was I planning to turn my photos into a coffee table book? Or a calendar? I was pretty sure those already existed.
In all likelihood, my canal pictures would end up saved somewhere in the cloud, never to be revisited again. I wasn’t going to post them all on my blog. So why was I slowing my momentum every time I came to a new canal lock? I was better off just appreciating each one in the moment as I rode by instead of trying to capture every bit of this journey like I was a amateur documentarian.
GREAT FALLS
After nearly 15 miles of riding, I’d made it to Great Falls. I dismounted my bike and wandered out to an overlook and bridge that took me over a section of the rapids that I’d never seen before. All my prior visits to Great Falls National Park have been on the Virginia side of the Potomac, not the Maryland side, so I appreciated the novelty of seeing the place through new eyes.
After the rapids, I spotted one of the more impressive canal houses near Lock 20. It was the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center. I would have gone inside to visit and check out the museum too, but it was Tuesday and the place was closed.
At least the National Park Service had the nearby bathrooms (with flush toilets) open, so it was still a good place to stop for my first real break. I found a bench where I could stop and make myself lunch, and wasn’t there long before another cyclist joined me.
He was riding in the opposite direction, from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., and would finish his journey today. I asked how long his ride had taken him, and he replied with telling me, “six days.” Riding an average of 56 miles per day was much, much farther than my butt wanted to endure, but I congratulated him on his accomplishment nonetheless.
After lunch, I slowly pedaled along the canal noticing how diverse the conditions were becoming. Sometimes the canal looked like a clear, slow moving river. Other times, it was stagnant water covered in a layer of lime green algae. And occasionally, the canal seemed completely non-existent. It was just an empty ditch because the water drained out to the Potomac instead of running down through it.
The wildlife on the trail was more abundant than I’d anticipated too. In addition to the ever-present squirrels and deer, there were geese, and great blue heron, turtles perched on logs, butterflies, frogs croaking, and I even saw a fox!
Body aches & excited GIDDINESS
By mid-afternoon, I decided to stop near one of the locks to give my butt some much needed rest but was immediately swarmed by small gnats who seemed constantly in close proximity to the stagnant water.
Before I even had a chance to sit down, one of these kamikaze gnats flew into my left eye, which immediately started watering. As I tried to rub my eye gently to get the gnat out, I somehow dislodged one of my contact lenses, then I spent the next 15 minutes resolving that drama instead of resting or relaxing. What a mess!
As I returned to my bike, I was starting to notice the fatigue of the ride. My quads and calf muscles were doing surprisingly well after their intense soreness from my trek halfway up Mt. Rainier just a few days ago. But that wasn’t the case for the rest of my body.
As I surveyed my physical ailments, I noticed my right hand kept going numb, forcing me to shake it out every 10 minutes just to get the blood flowing again. Then there was my butt and my knees, which were combined in some sort of mutiny as I pedaled along. I was learning that cycling wasn’t anything like long-distance hiking, and my body didn’t seem to like this new burden I was asking it to endure.
Near the 35-mile mark, I finally got to White’s Ferry. It was now 4pm and I decided it was time for an extended rest at the small store and deli just off trail. I might as well take advantage of the only town amenities I’d get today and stop for an early dinner. Plus, they had power outlets inside the deli so I could charge my phone while I enjoyed my food and sat in a soft padded chair.
This meal stop was a critical part of my day. I was going stoveless for this adventure, and was attempting to ride with just one or two meals on my bike. I wanted minimize the excess weight in my panniers, and I rationalized this meager food strategy by telling myself that would be in at least one small town each day. I’d get a hot meal whenever I could, and then I’d stock up on snacks or food for the remainder of the day, just as I had on the Oregon Coast Trail last summer.
While I was eating my grilled cheese sandwich and onion rings at the deli, another cyclist came in. It didn’t take him long to notice me – or peg me as the owner of the only other bicycle outside. And before I knew what hit me, he was sharing all the details of his 1,200-mile cycling trip from New York City up to Buffalo, then down to Pittsburgh, and finally ending in Washington, D.C.
I congratulated him on his epic journey. I cannot even imagine cycling 1,200 miles. Yet I definitely identified with his excitement of nearing the finish line. I’ve felt that same emotion so many times at the end of a long hike, with just a few days or miles until the trail’s terminus. You are giddy with excitement about reaching your goal, and you want to share it with everyone you meet.
As we chatted, he said something unusual. He told me he’d heard a lot of rumors that the C&O would have really bad riding conditions. But, that wasn’t his experience at all. In fact, the C&O Canal Towpath was very nicely graded and maintained in his opinion.
I hadn’t given much though to the trail conditions thus far, but agreed they were pretty nice. I’m used to rugged, rocky single-track hiking trails that traverse steep mountains. The C&O’s flat terrain was a dream when compared to that. But, I realize many cyclists use paved roads as their baseline, so perhaps the towpath’s tread was rough going in their book.
Nonetheless, I was happy to hear some details about what lie ahead on my journey from someone who’d experienced it first hand. It was nice to know that my route was going to be a fairly consistent one. If it didn’t get any worse than today’s ride, I was in for a fairly easy journey!
Bridget
As I set off north from White’s Ferry after dinner, I planned to ride another 6 miles to one of the hiker-biker camps and make camp there for the night. 41 miles would be a solid first day, especially given my late start.
However, I was barely a few miles up the towpath when I passed a water pump and I decided to stop to fill up my nearly empty water bottles. I’d asked an employee at the deli if I could fill my water bottles up there, but she said they weren’t allowed to let me use the tap. I could buy a drink from the store, but not fill up with “free” water. What nonsense!
This denial had me worried though. I was low on water, and the last water pump I’d passed before White’s Ferry hadn’t been working. What if I got to my pre-selected campsite tonight and discovered the pump there was also inoperable? And so, rather than risk it and ride past this water pump at the Marble Quarry hiker-biker camp, I decided to make a quick stop at to snag some water… just to be safe.
As I pumped and pumped, I was starting to think I might be out of luck here too, but then a small stream of water appeared. Unfortunately, before I could get my water bottle under it, the trickle disappeared. I was going to have to pump with one arm and try to hold the bottle to the spout with the other, which was damn near impossible with this finicky pump.
But then, another cyclist (who was already set up at the campsite) suddenly emerged from her tent and came over to help. She worked the arm of the pump while I put my bottle under the spout, and soon I was back in business with two full waterbottles
I thanked her as I walked back to my bike, and discovered her named was Bridget she had flown in from Germany for this bike trip. She’d started in Washington, D.C. today – just like me – and wasn’t shy about asking me if I wouldn’t mind staying at the camp tonight. She wasn’t 100% comfortable being out here alone her first night on the trail, and the idea of another female nearby made her feel far more comfortable.
I hadn’t planned to stop here at Marble Quarry. I was still shy of 40 miles. But then I said, “what the heck??” It wasn’t a big deal to stop a few miles early. I could make the miles up tomorrow. I knew what it was like to feel a bit apprehensive on a trail as a solo female traveler. If I could be an ambassador for the C&O and make a foreign cyclist more comfortable, then so be it.
After I set up my tent, Bridget and I talked for the better part of an hour at the picnic table, comparing gear and itineraries as the mosquitoes devoured us. Finally, we retreated to our respective tents to begin camp chores. Today had been a good day, but I was ready to settle in and enjoy the beer I’d carried out of White’s Ferry.
As I rested in my tent, trying to mentally recap the first day of my journey, loud frogs croaked nearby. Turtles randomly plopped off their logs and into the water. And the occasional jumbo jet heading to or from Dulles flew overhead. The noises of the C&O were an unusual cacophony, but somehow they were lulling me to sleep.
HIGHLIGHTS
- I’m finally on the C&O Canal Towpath!!! I’ve been looking forward to this journey for such a long time.
- The lockhouses along the canal are really diverse. Most of them have their own unique look and appeal, which makes the ride all the more interesting.
- Meeting a handful of other cyclists during the day was awesome. I really enjoyed Bridget’s conversation at the hiker-biker campground, and I’m glad I shifted my plans to stay here for the evening.
CHALLENGES
- Having to deal with flat tire before I even started the trail was a real disappointment! I sure hope the rest of the trail goes easier.
- Trying to find my pace was pretty difficult today, given my late morning start, my penchant for stopping to photograph every canal lock, and my cranky, tired legs.
- Getting a gnat in my eye (and dislodging my contact lens) on one of my breaks was a real bummer. Luckily I was able to fix the problem in 15 minutes, but I’m definitely wearing sunglasses 100% of the time from here on out to avoid a repeat of that issue.