Day 35: Twists and Turns On The Last Big Day

Cumberland to Hagerstown, 96 miles, 1000 feet of climbing, lots of trails, roots, rocks and navigation.

We spent last night and this morning examining route options that would get us to Hagerstown MD, the set up point for the final segment of our adventure.There were really two main options: ride a somewhat direct route along Maryland’s border with West Virginia (which comes with some long and punishing climbs), or navigate a series of trails and roads (also along the border with WV) which bypasses a lot of the climbs but is bumpy, muddy and rough, but would be relatively flat. We thought pretty hard (but not too hard) in making this decision, as there is some switch in our heads that make us want to do hard, difficult and stupid things over more rationale options. However, the 20+ percent road gradients associated with the climb option, together with some solid advice from folks at the bike shop in Cumberland convinced us to take the trail option. We’re glad we did, although surface conditions, along with connections and twists and turns made for some slow, bone rattling, and difficult going. (We’ll have to come back another time to try the road climbs between Cumberland and Hancock, which are considered notoriously difficult in the biking community. That’s what we are saying now because it sounds good, but the next time we see those climbs will likely be from a car window.)

The ride was fun, even if it was also bone jarring and slow going. We spent some time on the C&O Towpath Trail, despite numerous warnings from people that we met along the way to stay off it. We can see why they gave the advice they did, but we lucked out because it has been so dry recently, making the usual mud and standing water almost nonexistent. It was fun for us to ride along what is left of C&O Canal (but 10 miles as opposed to 45 would have been “funner”). The rest of the trails and roads that we traveled on in western Maryland were quite pretty, especially the farms that we came across in our final stretch coming into Hagerstown.

We also referred to this as our “last big day.”  We call any day that involves some combination of high mileage, big climbs, difficult terrain and/or long hours in the saddle “big days.” When we left Cumberland this morning we were roughly 200 miles from Annapolis.  Our big day today cut that down to about 100 miles left.  One of us voted to push on tomorrow with another big day and finish up the trip.  The other suggested, quite strongly (using “strong” language), that it wold be better to break up the last 100 miles and arrive fresh in Annapolis on Sunday. We eventually agreed that this was indeed a wise path forward.

There were other factors at play here as well.  Susan and Ann were unable to be in Annapolis on Saturday, and since our adventure was empowered by them as much as ourselves, perhaps more so, we really wanted them there when we finished. We also both need a ride home, so it would be really good if they are there.

Our day tomorrow will not be a pushover. We have a good deal of climbing to do, albeit the mileage will be well below the 90 to 100 mile days that we have logged of late. And, to remain consistent with our approach all along, we are going to figure out tomorrow’s route now, which means we will be adjusting on the fly all day tomorrow.