C and O canal

In Maryland has anyone biked the whole 182 mile,,,,,Trying to set up a trip ..The ride is good . It
is how to get to and from Cumberland and Washington
DC .... Looking for some ideas ... Bruce

 

"albrugi" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> In Maryland has anyone biked the whole 182 mile,,,,,Trying to set up a
trip
> ..The ride is good . It is how to get to and from Cumberland and
Washington
> DC .... Looking for some ideas ... Bruce
>
>

I've ridden the whole thing from Cumberland to D.C. We had a support vehicle that carted us up and
brought meals at overnight camp locations. The support vehicle were the non riding parents of one of
the riders. The used the 4-day 3-night trip as an excuse to camp and hang out along the Potomac.

It was a great trip and one I hope to do again.

Marty

 

albrugi wrote:
> In Maryland has anyone biked the whole 182 mile,,,,,Trying to set up a trip ..The ride is good .
> It is how to get to and from Cumberland and Washington
> DC .... Looking for some ideas ... Bruce
>

Yes. All once and I do pieces all of the time (it's local to me). I did the whole thing starting
with a group. We did 60 miles the 1st day, and lost one to a new seat that he just couldn't get used
to (he couldn't ride for 2 weeks after that from toughing it out as long as he
did). The 2nd day, the rest died at about 70 miles and I figured "what the heck" and finished it
myself that same day/night .

One of the wives was kind enough to drop us off in Cumberland. My wife picked me up in DC.

We stopped at the small towns all along the canal to eat or to get food to eat on the trail. There
are primative camp sites every 10-15 miles or so. Each has a well, a porta-john, and room for tents.
The water from the wells is ok, but some of them have a pretty bad taste (sulpher/iron), and some
don't work bacause of vandalism (broken handles). I took powered gatoraide and mixed it as needed in
my water bottles (hid the flavor of the wells), but bought bottled water / found public water for my
hydration pak. I brought a small bedroll and slept under the stars. The others shared a tent.

Depending on your conditioning, I'd suggest 3-4 days; maybe 5 if you've got younger kids. It's
mostly level (except where they're working on it and put you on surface roads for a short). I
believe that most shoot for 3 days.

Unless you like lots of much slower traffic in the more popular areas (especially towards DC and
around Harper's Ferry), it's best to do it during the week.

And, the speed limit's 15 mph . But, I've never seen anyone enforcing
it. And, that's a pretty stiff pace on a mountain bike all day (I know, we tried ).

David

 

On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 13:29:49 -0700, David Kunz wrote:

> albrugi wrote:
>> In Maryland has anyone biked the whole 182 mile,,,,,Trying to set up a trip ..The ride is good .
>> It is how to get to and from Cumberland and Washington DC .... Looking for some ideas ... Bruce
>>
>>
> Yes. All once and I do pieces all of the time (it's local to me). I did the whole thing starting
> with a group. We did 60 miles the 1st day, and lost one to a new seat that he just couldn't get
> used to (he couldn't ride for 2 weeks after that from toughing it out as long as he
> did). The 2nd day, the rest died at about 70 miles and I figured "what the heck" and finished it
> myself that same day/night .

Is it all back together now? The year I was "finally going to do it" was the year we had the huge
floods and washed out most of the Fisherman's Inn section (Carderock MD). I left that fall and never
got to do it. Been meaning to go back.

I've done several sections of it (one was 59 miles, my longest one-day ride ever). I would suggest
September-October, ditto on the during the week part. The fall colors are lovely and the humidity
won't kill you. It's not something you want to do in the Spring or Summer or the skeeters'll
eatcha alive!

gabrielle

 

"gabrielle" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 13:29:49 -0700, David Kunz wrote:
>
> > albrugi wrote:
> >> In Maryland has anyone biked the whole 182 mile,,,,,Trying to set up a trip ..The ride is good
> >> . It is how to get to and from Cumberland and Washington DC .... Looking for some ideas ...
> >> Bruce
> >>
> >>
> > Yes. All once and I do pieces all of the time (it's local to me). I did the whole thing starting
> > with a group. We did 60 miles the 1st day, and lost one to a new seat that he just couldn't get
> > used to (he couldn't ride for 2 weeks after that from toughing it out as long as he
> > did). The 2nd day, the rest died at about 70 miles and I figured "what the heck" and finished it
> > myself that same day/night .
>
> Is it all back together now? The year I was "finally going to do it" was the year we had the huge
> floods and washed out most of the Fisherman's Inn section (Carderock MD). I left that fall and
> never got to do it. Been meaning to go back.
>
> I've done several sections of it (one was 59 miles, my longest one-day ride ever). I would suggest
> September-October, ditto on the during the week part. The fall colors are lovely and the humidity
> won't kill you. It's not something you want to do in the Spring or Summer or the skeeters'll
> eatcha alive!
>
> gabrielle

Gabrielle,

It's been about a year and a half since I've been on the C&O but I don't believe the section at
Carderock has been repaired yet. You're right about the sept/Oct time. That's when we did it
(mid Sept).

Come on back and ride it again!

Marty

 

gabrielle wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 13:29:49 -0700, David Kunz wrote:
>
>
>>albrugi wrote:
>>
>>>In Maryland has anyone biked the whole 182 mile,,,,,Trying to set up a trip ..The ride is good .
>>>It is how to get to and from Cumberland and Washington DC .... Looking for some ideas ... Bruce
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Yes. All once and I do pieces all of the time (it's local to me). I did the whole thing starting
>>with a group. We did 60 miles the 1st day, and lost one to a new seat that he just couldn't get
>>used to (he couldn't ride for 2 weeks after that from toughing it out as long as he
>>did). The 2nd day, the rest died at about 70 miles and I figured "what the heck" and finished it
>> myself that same day/night .
>
>
> Is it all back together now? The year I was "finally going to do it" was the year we had the huge
> floods and washed out most of the Fisherman's Inn section (Carderock MD). I left that fall and
> never got to do it. Been meaning to go back.
>
> I've done several sections of it (one was 59 miles, my longest one-day ride ever). I would suggest
> September-October, ditto on the during the week part. The fall colors are lovely and the humidity
> won't kill you. It's not something you want to do in the Spring or Summer or the skeeters'll
> eatcha alive!

When we rode it 2 summers ago, there was only one section that was still rerouted to surface roads.
Probably about 10 miles, but the temps along the canal were tolerable (cool breeze over the Potomac
-- when we hit the surface roads, we ROASTED! Got back to the canal, stopped a the first well and we
were amazed at how much we drank -- even though we still had water with us!

If you're not prepared to be rerouted, it's a pain because every direction away from the canal is a
good climb out of the river basin -- even if you're only going a short distance .

David