Day 5 Wednesday, Sept. 29th. Little Orleans, MD to Cumberland, MD. 45 mi.



Another Beautiful Ride, Our Last, on the C&O Canal

  The day will take us again through beautiful forests with the trail sandwiched, as always, between the Potomac on one side and the canal on the other.  At just about 5 miles, we would come to the single most impressive feat of engineering along the whole C&O Canal route, the Paw Paw Tunnel, (http://www.fred.net/kathy/tunnel.html).   It is impressive for several reasons.  When it was constructed between 1836 and 1850, there were only Irish and German laborers using picks, shovels and dynamite to blast, shovel and muscle their way through 3,100' of hard rock.  No bulldozers, cranes, earth movers or trucks.  Just men with their hands.  It took years longer and much more money than originally estimated to complete, but allowed the engineers to cut several miles off the length of the canal.  As always, water was lifted up the grade to and through the canal via locks along the route.

Gathering at the Paw Paw Tunnel
We Had To Walk Through That. 3100'

On this day, we had an explanation of the process of building the tunnel by Kim, a very knowledgeable Park Ranger who explained, the history of the Canal and the economic and social ramifications caused by the delay in building the tunnel and after a short break, we walked our bikes through the tunnel – it is not lighted - so we had only the lights on our bikes to light the way and the ambient light from the tunnel entrance 3100’ feet away to guide us.

Once through and to the other side of the tunnel, we all got back on our bikes and set off for Cumberland.  These last few miles would be bringing us to the end of our time on the C&O Canal and tomorrow we would start another day.  Those last few miles were both satisfying and a bit sad.  The Canal had come to be a friend, a beautiful place along the way filled with history, new friends made, challenging distances to ride and a short few days away from the real world in which our families, friends and loved ones lived waiting to hear from us when they could.  They would be hard pressed to understand our physical accomplishments and for sure, hard pressed to appreciate what we would be going through over the next couple of days.

As always, we ended the ride with dinner for all over at the campground where a few hearty souls were spending the night in spite of the forecast of heavy rain.  

This night we had some interesting news to discuss.  A weakened weather front was making its way up the east coast of the US and the weather forecast predicted rain, heavy rain as far inland as to cover virtually all of Maryland and Pennsylvania, with rain predicted to start in the middle of the night while we slept in Cumberland on day 5 and to rain hard most of the next day, clearing sometime late afternoon or early evening.

It appeared that this strong weather front might either continue on its path just directly east of us or veer slightly further east.  In the former situation, it would be really, really, really wet and in the latter, just really, really wet.  The options were to remain in Cumberland and stay inside all day, avoiding the rain, or get up in the morning and ride.

After some discussion it was decided by a vote that we would ride.  Easy to decide when you’re sitting around a camp dinner table, no rain coming down and nice and dry.  Some of us had decided the previous evening – in fact, most of us – had decided to get hotel reservations for this night to get a good night’s sleep before we took on the heavy rain predicted by the weather service.  A fellow I had met, Wayne Maloney, had already had his wife make such a reservation at the Fairfield Inn in Cumberland and asked if I’d like to share the room with him.  Of course, and with that settled, we all went off to bed that night in the Fairfield Inn in Cumberland, MD. 

Just as we turned off the light, we switched the TV over to the weather channel to get the latest forecast.  The massive green overlay stretched from Virginia almost to Pennsylvania and across all of New York.  It was moving slowly north and slightly east.  Very slowly, and the forecast was for strong rain and winds, 10-15 mph across southwestern Pennsylvania that evening and most of the next day.  Very slowly.  Sweet dreams.




There's one in every crowd.

 







At Cumberland, the last length of canal on the C&O Canal