Traveling at Mach 0.012

Start – Aquia/Quantico
Destination – Brunswick
Day total miles – 83
Journey total miles – 245

The storms that rolled through Tuesday evening cooled things down. Riding was more enjoyable except for the hills. Started out on Garrisonville Rd with lots of traffic but soon transitioned to less traveled roads. Then, we were at the gate to Quantico. I was wandering what MCB 2 meant on the cue sheet. The ride through the base was good; lots of traffic, but all very respectful of our presence on the road. Out of the base, we were onto back roads that had some interesting traffic and some big hills to concur. This led to Rt 234 and on to Manassas. So this is what it is like to come into Manassas the back way.

Next we were off to concur Fairfax County. Let me rant a little. So, the program I am using, ridewithgps.com is really flexible and lets me pick some interesting routes. But, when I set it to give me bike trails, sometimes it thinks all trails are bike trails. Rocky Run trail was fun and interesting, but quite the challenge on a fully loaded bike. We zig zagged across the county to the Washington and Old Dominion trail. Back to familiar territory. With a tail wind and flat, paved and mostly vacant paths, we flew down to Leesburg. Saw geese at Goose creek.

A short hop to White’s Ferry and into Maryland. One state down. The ferry took us across the Potomac to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal tow path, our route for a few days.

With some anxiety, we got back on the bikes and hit the path. Now, the WOD is a nice paved path, lots of crossings, but generally an easy passage. The canal tow path is a mostly gravel, often muddy and sometimes a challenge. Our pace slowed way down. We are averaging about 8 MPH compared to 12. The canal path is beautiful and well worth it. Our destination was the Brunswick Family Campground in beautiful Brunswick, MD. Ok, not sure about whether Brunswick is beautiful or not, we did not really get into Brunswick. The campground was great. For $5 we got to set our tents under a pavilion, take hot showers and enjoy the vistas over the Potomac. Ok, the light on all night in the pavilion took some getting used to and the trains were making noise all night, but overall a good stay. I slept well at least until the family with a trailer and at least 34 screaming teens, a bossy woman and apparently a truck/camper driver who needed lessons. The screaming teens decided to come over to our camp and check us out, at MAXIMUM VOLUME. And the woman directing the ill fated driver to back the camper into a spot let the world know about his inability to do anything right, including driving. I am sure his manly prowess must also be lacking to her. She may have screamed that at one point. Then we all settled in and went to sleep and lived happily ever after.

Oh and I can’t forget the best part. EK’s wife, Carol drove up with a resupply and dinner. Cold beer, roasted chicken, salad and dessert. After a long day riding, almost anything tastes good and will be eaten, but this was great. Thanks Carol!

Now about the turtles. I saw many turtles in the trek from Yorktown to Brunswick. Some were box turtles and others were what I call sliders. The tough part is that they don’t do so well on the roads. I think we need turtle crossing guards, or special turtle cross walks or maybe go high tech and breed them with flashers for their shells, glow in the dark and day glo yellow shells, or maybe titanium shells to withstand the pressure of cars running them over. So they next time you think you have it tough, think about the poor turtles.

Pictures to come. I promise, but it involves cables and that little memory card in my camera, and it is dark and raining…

White’s Ferry