The ride!
The MPH listed above is wrong since I never turned off the tracker as I worked on my bike flat for 30-60 minutes.
I set out on my ride today. It did not go as planned. Here is the write up I did at another site:
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Well guys now that I am home I can give a breakdown of the ride.
We made it to Harper’s Ferry by 7:15 am and I was unloaded, packed up and ready to go by 7:30.  I walked to the stairs to get me on the Canal and I bring the bike down only to realize I dropped my gloves at the truck. I lock the bike up and go back to get them. While there I see this little guy wishing me well on my journey.
 So I get going about 1/4 mile and realize I need to adjust the seat angle. Damn this is a slow start, I am glad to be alone at this point. Since I was stopped I took a few pix. Harper’s ferry is across the river and the cliffs are on the canal side where I am. The view from up there is amazing.    So back to the C&O canal… Some parts are very wide and road-like:  Sometimes the Canal actually has water in it!  In other places it is over grown with vegatation or has no water in it at all.  The Canal was even designed to cross over small bodies of water, to me that is pretty cool.  Despite all the scenery you got to pay attention to the trail surface. Roots pop up out of no where, there are dried tire grooves that conspire against you, branches, twigs and rocks surprise you when you are not carefull. The canal changes to double track and you have more to worry about since you can’t see the stuff hidden in the grass in the center.  I made it 31.1 miles and then the unthinkable happened, I had a blow out.Like a boyscout I was prepared. I had tools, a patch kit and even a spair inner tube. So I go to take the rear tire off and my bike tool wrench is too short to give me the leverage to break the nuts loose. I do not have the quick release on the rear. I am fortunate to have broken down at Edwards ferry because that is a popular place for boats to go into the Potomac river at that point. My problem is the boaters there are all out on the river. I find one fellow and ask him if he has a wrench and happily checks his trunck but does not have anything close to what I need. He offers up a pair of needle nose plyers that just don’t work for me. A little while later some fellow bikers stop to see if they can help out. As luck would have it these are the same guys I had been leap frogging past at different points of interst along the way. The older gentleman takes out a small/medium crescent wrench and tells me to keep it. He got it from a guy the last time he broke down and was allowed to have it as long as he promised to pass it along to another biker in need which he did. I made the same promise to him and on his way he went. All is good in the world! I get everything back to where it need to be, pump up the tire and realize I am screwed. My tire is torn across some treads and my inner tube is bulging through. I let out the air and cut up the old inner tube and use it to line the new one at the hole and pump it back up.   It’s not looking good but there is extra layers of rubber between the tube and canal so off I go…for 5 cranks of the pedals then pop goes my spare tube. I am done, defeated, beaten. Now my tire looks like this!  I am going to try again next weekend. Anyone wish to join me? I will have a spare tire besides the tube and patch kit. The guys at my bike shop told me next time in stead of using the inner tube as padding over a hole like that, to use a dollar bill or candy wrapper since they will not stretch like the rubber is meant to do. Hopefully there will not be a next time. I used a jog tracker app on my phone and I was averaging 10 mph an hour with 5 minute breaks every 8 to 10 miles and a few picture stops along the way. I forgot to turn it off while dicking around with fixing the tire. http://jogtracker.com/HistoryDetails…&JogID=1648621 I hope some of us get to do this as a group. I can see there is some fun to be had sharing the ride. Like I said I am doing it again next Saturday, anyone interested in joining in? I almost forgot, there are some cool historical building along the way…   |
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