Miles this week: 210; Miles to date: 1000
The Week Days
Most of my weekday riding was commuting to work. On Wednesday, Craig, Paul and I met up
to do the Arlington Loop, 18 miles around Virginia. The climb on the Custis Trail, along
Lee Highway was tough, but the rest of the ride was worth it and we managed to get home
before dark by doing the 18 miles in just over an hour.
Harper's Ferry Weekend
This weekend was the Harper's Ferry weekend - an overnight ride sponsored by the World Bank,
with many props to Paul Bravery for his excellent organizational skills! A bunch of 40
odd brave souls showed up at Glen Echo Saturday morning, very early I might add. Unlike last
year, it didn't start of with a massive downpour, postponing the ride for 2 hours. Also
unlike last year, the rain began half way through the ride and continued the entire weekend!
Saturday started off with a bang - after milling around and getting ready, having the safety
speech and learning the proper form for indicating a cyclist is in trouble (bent over, butt
sticking out, with arms making an "X"), we leave Glen Echo. About 2.5 miles down
the road, we have our first flat, one of many on this trip. Michelle and Mark change the
tire and we're on our way. We make it to pit 1 and
notice not all the group is with us. After Nirali
and some sweeps arrive, we find out that Paul Earhart has had 2 flats and
derailleur trouble, putting them about 5-6 miles away from the pit. We decide to continue
on, as the threat of rain is becoming more and more of an issue.
Michelle is leading out of pit 1 and at the top of a hill, I notice some llamas
so I had to take a picture - when else are you going to see llamas in Maryland? We ride through
the rain to pit 2, the lunch pit with the best fries in the world! We relax for a bit at
lunch and thankfully, the rest of the group appear and
we hear the whole story about the flats and mechanical difficulties.
As a group, we leave pit 2 and tackle the hills.
The portion of this trip from lunch to pit 3 on day 1 is very hilly and challenging. Lots
of time is spent in the lower gears listening to your own breathing (or gasping, which
may be more appropriate). It's a tough 11 miles and we were very glad to arrive at pit 3.
At this point, the rain is pretty heavy and the pavement slick. We are now supposed to
veer off the roads onto the C&O Canal. Given the weather, many people decided not to
venture forth and took the sweep van in to camp. Mark, Michelle, and I wanted to not skip
all those miles so rode down to check it out. It
looked as bad as we had thought so turned around to go back. We got caught behind a
train and had to wait til it passed before we could
ride back to the pit and get driven to camp. Not everyone decided to be swept - some
braved the tow path.
At camp it was very wet and muddy. For awhile, the group
hung out, showered, made a campfire, ate dinner, chatted, but it soon got too cold and
most retreated for the relative dryness of their tents around 9pm. Michelle and I stayed
fairly dry thanks to the extra tarps she brought. Others were not so lucky.
Sunday morning dawned bright, early, and raining. We huddled
under the porch and ate breakfast before setting off. Since the route changed to
avoid the C&O Canal, we rode as a group to were we could follow the cue sheets again.
Part of this path took us over a bridge,
down a metal, spiral staircase, and up some stairs
that were acting like a waterfall as water drained over the edge into the swamp below. So
our feet were wet for the entire day.
It was a wet day and we chugged along together through the rain and hills.
At pit 3 we had lunch and rested before the
last 20 miles home. By the time we pulled into the
parking lot, we were ready to be done, mostly to get clean and dry.
Next weekend is Memorial Day so there will be some extra riding going on. Looking forward
to sharing that with you.
Rachael
Back to the index