June 27

Because our speed on the stone trail portion of last Saturday's ride was slow, we decided to focus on pace this Saturday. We reduced the mileage from 27 to 20 miles and stayed exclusively on the stone trail. This surface is what I expect the C & O to be like, and I'm hoping we can average 10 mph when we are on the bikes (not including rest stops) at least during the morning hours. Last Saturday we were at 8 mph and the goal today was to pick it up to 10 mph.

Although it was a bit boring going back and forth on a one mile segment of the trail, we achieved our goal. At this blazing speed, however, Debbie complained that it was not possible to sight see. She brought a bottle of Gatorade (we have Gatorade powder for the C & O trip) which she had frozen last night. It was completely thawed in a short period of time, so that turned out to be a good strategy. Debbie is now telling people that the one mile segments were "sprints."

For whatever reason, the chain came off of Debbie's bike during today's outing. It's possible that a stick somehow dislodged it. I've heard that there can be a lot of sticks on the C & O (in fact, falling branches can be a trail hazard) and that these sticks are good at getting caught in wheels and breaking spokes. For that reason, I'm planning on picking up some spokes.

Michelle is scouting out the Custis Trail connection to the Capital Crescent trail today - the only part of the trip that I'm still puzzled about. Also, I've spoken with the gate keeper at Great Falls and it sounds like the paving project will not keep us from parking a car there.

Yesterday I noticed another account of a trip from D.C. to Pittsburgh, and it made me wonder if we aren't being a little wimpy about not doing the combined Great Allegheny Passage and C & O trails. The account is found at http://www.adventurecycling.org/resources/200903_OffRoad_McCoy.pdf