After yesterday’s, cold, wet, and snowy weather, it was a huge relief to have a weather forecast that was increasingly warmer and mostly sunny. We woke up in Cumberland to completely clear skies, and while temperatures were near freezing first thing in the morning, the day warmed quickly.
Cumberland is the place where the GAP (Great Allegheny Passageway) ends after 150 miles, and the C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal path starts. The GAP is a rails-to-trails project, a wide smooth crushed gravel path, while the C&O is a mostly a packed dirt towpath that parallels the old canal, following the contours of the landscape and the adjoining Potomac river. The C&O feels more like riding on the woods, which both Chris and I liked.
Construction of the C&O Canal began on July 4, 1828. By the time of its completion in 1850, the canal stretched 185 miles from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland. Along with normal trade, the canal was extensively used during the civil war.
Along those miles are 74 boat locks. We passed many of them today, accompanied by the old lock-keepers houses, now unoccupied. The C&O Canal is like a staircase, where canal boats traveled along the flat sections and then used the locks to take a “step up or down” of about eight feet, covering the 605 feet of elevation change between Cumberland and Georgetown. The locks typically had hand-operated miter gates that were simple and followed Leonardo da Vinci’s original 1485 design. Entering the lock was the most demanding part of canalling.
Today’s ride was lovely! It started with that cold, crisp feel of Fall in the eastern United States, and then the temperature rose rapidly to about 15° more than the previous day. The air was dry and the smell of fallen leaves filled our nostrils as we rode across a carpet of fallen leaves. It was a long day – 60 miles – with an hour delay in the middle due to the detour over the Paw Paw tunnel due to landslide damage. We were now in West Virginia. Chris sang John Denver’s iconic song and Terri did amazing since this is her first long tour.
And as we entered West Virginia, we were all
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