Paul, Mom and I had such a great time on our Creeper Trail experience this spring, we planned another bike trip for this fall. On the last beautiful fall weekend of October we headed north to meet up with our buddy, Barrett. Barrett provided transportation to our drop off and pick up points of our adventure, White's Ferry, VA and wherever we ended up, respectively.
We're getting ready to head out. Barrett and Mommy are securing me and the gear in the trailer.
Late Thursday afternoon we hit the road.
We rode a mile and loaded up on White's Ferry to cross the Potomac into Maryland. We picked up the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath on the other side of the river and only covered a couple of miles that night before we set up camp. The temperature dropped, but we were warm and cozy in our tent.
The next day we packed up camp, piled back onto our bikes, and soaked up the warmth of the sunshine.
Soaking up the sunshine and staying warm
We explored the canal locks, admired old knotty silver maples, threw rocks in the river, peed in the woods and the river, played at the playground beside the trail, and covered about 30 miles (one mile of which I elected to run alongside Mommy's and Paul's bikes).
This knotty, old silver maple is a bit bigger than the ones in my front yard at home.
While eating lunch in Brunswick, MD, the restaurateur asked us if we knew of the forecasted snow. We had known it might rain on Saturday, but had not heard of the snow. As we were getting close to the end of our ride that day, a bike commuter rode up behind us and asked, "Do ya'll have snow tires for those?" Always up for an adventure, but always thinking, we ended our day about 2-1/2 miles past Harpers Ferry, WV just in case the weather had us seeking warm shelter in town the next morning.
We had a yummy dinner, roasted marshmellows around the campfire, and enjoyed visiting with some new friends at the campsite. (There are no strangers when I'm around.) Shortly after consuming my third or fourth marshmellow, the rain began. We bid our fellow campers good night and burrowed into the protection of our tent. It rained all night and it was cold; Mommy and Paul guessed it was in the mid-thirties. By morning, our strategy had changed. Paul cooked us some oatmeal to warm our bellies before we packed up camp and headed the 2-1/2 miles back to Harpers Ferry. As we tucked our gear into the panniers and the trailer, the rain transitioned to big, wet snowflakes.
The snow falling over the river and amidst nature's gold of autumn leaves was beautiful.
Upon reaching the pedestrian bridge to cross over the river to get to the actual town of Harper's Ferry, we realized that the only way across was up, Up, UP a long set of metal grate stairs. Paul heroically hoisted Mommy's bike, then his bike, then the trailer, each fully-loaded up the stairs. Mommy and I trailed behind, holding hands, cautiously ascending the stairs, while I courageously looked down, and only uttered, "This is very dangerous" twice. Mommy was very proud of me and glad to reach the top of the stairs without having to carry me.
The pedestrian bridge was beautiful and thankfully involved no stairs on the other side.
Harper's Ferry was charming and a wonderful place to be "stuck" for the day. We warmed up in Hannah's Train Depot (a restaurant in a little red caboose), had some lunch, and then headed out on foot in search of a place to stay the night. The snow was still coming down fast and not showing signs of stopping. We didn't want to make Barrett come out to get us in this weather. From talking with the waitstaff at Hannah's, the B&B we had hoped to stay at downtown was all booked. Thankfully the B&B proprietor made phone calls for us and found us a spot a half mile up the hill with Tony at The Camp Hill B&B. Mom and I walked to the B&B listening to tree branches pop, pop, crack, CRASH to the ground from the weight of the leaves and snow. Paul doubled-back to Hannah's Train Depot to get his bike and trailer to make the long pull up the snow-slick road with our gear. After getting us checked in, Tony disappeared only to reappear a few minutes later with a big tub of Legos just for me. I was set!
Bikes abandoned and snow slowing, we walked the 1/2 mile back downtown to have dinner at the B&B that was booked only to find out they had lost power.
While waiting for Mom and Paul to decide what they were going to do, I pelted this scarecrow with snowballs. It was GREAT! Luck was on our side as there was still power at our B&B and a restaurant one mile back up the hill. After our day's adventure, dinner was a welcome sight when it arrived that evening.
Barrett and Danielle safely arrived with our car Sunday morning. We loaded up all of our gear and cruised back to Virginia. Despite not being on our bikes and camping the whole trip along the C&O Canal, the trip turned out just as we had hoped - full of belly laughs, wholesome exercise, yummy food, outside time, and rolling with it.
