Confluence to Cumberland

We left Confluence this morning after a night spent in a very nice hiker/biker campsite shared by a couple with their Down's syndrome son and a young man from Sweden. Perula had just bought his bike and decided to tour America. He had landed a couple of weeks ago in NY and is headed eventually for Seattle. We talked with him for a bit about good routes, etc. He had never seen lightning bugs (aka fire flies) and was flabbergasted when Maggie caught one and let it walk around on her hands, flashing on and off in the dusk.

This morning on our way to breakfast, we rolled out to the campground exit, where our chain broke. It was replaced only about a week ago, so that was a frustrating way to start the morning. Bob managed to get it fixed in about 10 minutes, and after a good breakfast we headed down the trail toward Cumberland.

We'd been pedaling about an hour when we were drizzled upon. Since it was fairly warm, the rain actually felt good, but it did point out one of the disadvantages of trail riding: our bike was quickly covered with grit. Our gear is safe, since our bags are waterproof and close well, but we did stop at one point and rinse the sandy dirt off with our water bottles and pull out the grit which had become packed between our tires and our fenders. It will be good to get to Alan's Saturday and be able to hose things down and really clean the bike up.

We met up with three men from Atlanta who had flown into Pittsburgh and ridden from Boston, PA. They are headed to DC and we expect to see them again. We all converged on the Big Savage Tunnel at the same time, so were able to help each other with the requisite pictures. Riding through the nearly mile-long Big Savage Tunnel was deliciously cool: we highly recommend it on a hot and humid summer day.

The definite downhill ride from there to Cumberland was a welcome change. We realized while coasting at 15 miles an hour that we had actually been climbing since we left Pittsburgh. As we rounded a bend, a doe shot across the trail ahead of us, leaving the tiniest fawn we'd ever seen shivering beside the tracks. It was only about 18 inches tall, and tried to crouch down so that we couldn't see it -- but it didn't work.

So at the moment, we are "camped" at the Holiday Inn and getting ready for dinner at a highly recommended Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away. Again, life is good. Tomorrow we head down the C & O Canal Trail toward Hancock. According to the altitude profile in the tunnel, it will be slightly downhill most of the way through Maryland. Yes!