Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City was on the original agenda, because M was supposed to run a trail race just north of there. But then we had to change our plans due to some work obligations and ended up leaving later. He decided not to run that race and we figured we would take a northerly route. Northerly is a gamble in September/October, but it's a gamble you sometimes win. We didn't win this time. It was 90 degrees when we set out. But after a few shivery days in Rapid City and a winter storm blanketing everything to the north and west of us, we decided to head south and spend a few days in Salt Lake City. We had been there 2 years ago with the kids and my parents, and a year ago just M and I. Those trips were both for trail races and it felt a little different this time to not have that focus. We didn't do much except warm up, wash our extremely dirty car and camper and visit two places we had already been. First, the Aviary, which always seems to have baby flamingos when we visit. And second, the King's English Bookstore, possibly my favorite book store on the planet. It's not a huge space, but they have so many good books. The staff are friendly and helpful, especially to the kids. We
promised everybody could pick out 2 new books and it took us a good hour to do that. We also made a quick visit to my friend Elaina's house and watched her chickens run around for a couple of hours.

From there, we headed to California, but took a detour up around the northern end of the Great Salt Lake to see the Golden Spike and the Spiral Jetty. The Golden Spike is where the railroads came together to link the transcontinental line. There were some really epic details to the completion of this passage. Chiseling through the Sierra Nevada mountains by hand, for one. And then completing 10 miles of track in a single day as part of the final push. The place where the two rail companies came together is out in the middle of nowhere. About 15 miles from the Golden Spike Visitor Center, there is a piece of art worth checking out. The Spiral Jetty, according to Marko, "was very swirly, and very lizardy. I liked the scenery. We walked down a big volcano stone path and then walked around and around the Spiral Jetty to the middle and felt positive energy. The sand had a crust of salt on it."

There really isn't much to in the way of tourist attractions after this. Services are 100+ miles apart. Occasionally you pass a fenced off defense contractor site, or a mine or something. No trespassing. We were eager for some warm temperatures so we drove almost 700 miles in a day and a half, pausing to sleep in a Walmart parking lot. We got in very late, and when I woke up in the morning I was amazed at the surrounding scenery. Prettiest parking lot I've ever been. It was only 24 degrees, though. By the time we got up and over the mountains and into the agricultural part of California near Sacramento it was 89 degrees! The locals thought we were crazy, but we took the kids swimming.

Casper, WY

"You should really go to...."

Everybody has suggestions for places we absolutely must see, and we welcome these suggestions and love hearing stories about places people fell in love with. There were certainly spots that M & I dreamed of taking the kids. This trip has been years in the making and it hardly seemed real as the pieces fell into place one by one....remote job...check. Funds for camper....check. Upgraded tow vehicle...check. Homeschool paperwork for kids...check. Some attempts at planning a route were thwarted by a work trip required for M and a Girl Scout camping trip for Laurel and me. We left Pittsburgh several weeks later than we would have liked. I guess at a certain point we realized that we didn't really care where we went. When we hitched up the camper at the storage lot where we store it, we were not entirely sure that we had packed everything we needed nor did we have a specific destination in mine, other than "west of here." We drove through Ohio and almost all the way through Indiana the first day and stopped because it was raining.

Exhibits highlighting
Lakota (Dakota Nakota)
 history are also prevalent here.

A few weeks before we left, we did a brainstorming activity to try and narrow down everyone's expectations and pick a starting direction at least. Some surprising things came up as we tallied the votes...South Dakota being one of them. This area is characterized by people who like to roam around. Sometimes the roaming was to follow food sources or to avoid particularly unpleasant seasonal weather conditions. For others, it was a certainty that some kind of paradise lay just ahead. We stopped at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, WY and I was struck by the sheer numbers of people who walked through here during a 20 year period, almost half a million, who mostly walked the 2,000 miles, next to their wagons or handcarts full of all their worldly possessions. I have walked 2,000 miles and while it's difficult at times, it's mostly just very tedious. And I didn't have to deal with dysentery or watching my oxen drown in the Sweetwater River.

So, why Casper, WY? It's on the way to Salt Lake City. We were cold and wet. Salt Lake City is warm and dry. In other words, not really any good reason. To me, Casper felt like a town where a bar fight may break out at any moment.  Lots of money, not enough women. We somewhat accidentally stopped at a steakhouse for dinner, and then slept in a Walmart parking lot. Not legal, but politely sanctioned. M had to work in the morning, so I took the kids to the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. Then we drove up onto the high plain towards the pass. The wind was gusting to 50 mph and it was hard work to keep the trailer in the lane. There was not much to see, but we did pass a bison ranch. Unlike the bison we saw at Badlands and Custer State Park, these ranched bison were running and charging at each other. It was amazing to watch. We stopped at Independence Rock so I could unclench my fingers for a moment. The wind died down after we descended a few thousand feet and it was an easy drive into Salt Lake City. Glittery city lights below, with a clear starry sky above and a cartoonish crescent moon setting over the western mountains. Pretty magical. But mostly we were happy to be out of the rain.

I cannot exactly recommend that you go to Casper, WY. It's very far away from everywhere. But should you be passing through, go sit in the tipi and look out at the Platte River and think about the oil drilling and the bison ranches and the wind turbines and the flood of emigrants and the Indigenous people who watched a way of life collapse around them not so long ago.

Rapid City, Black Hills, South Dakota

Picture the look on my face, when I stepped out of the camper to put my boots on and realized they were filled with water. It had rained overnight, but it was really the gusting winds that blew the water from our camper gutters into the plastic mat we store on the ground below...and filled up ALL the shoes with water. "Mom, your shoes have puddles in them!!"

I dumped them out, put some plastic grocery bags over my socks and put them on anyway. I really needed the morning walk. One of the most challenging things about homeschooling, being a mom, living in a camper and doing all of those at once is that there are precious few opportunities for space or solitude. It was not raining so much as the campground was engulfed in a cloud, so my feet ended up being the driest part of me. The morning walk was good and restorative, but the mismatch between the weather forecast we had read (75 and sunny) and the current conditions (55 and inside a cloud) put us into a funk of indecision that lasted all morning. We filled the time by arguing, yelling at the kids, and gorilla gluing pieces of our closet hardware back into place. The kids ran around, whined for snacks every 10 minutes, and kept disrupting the gorilla gluing operation.

Around noon, the cloud seemed like it was getting less wet. Marko really wanted to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse so we decided to just get in the car and drive up there. Maybe it would be too foggy to see them, but it was only a 30 minute drive. Maybe Max, who is in a perpetual phase of needing yet refusing a nap, would actually fall asleep. 

We headed out with few expectations, but friends, you are not going to believe it, the skies cleared as we drove up into the Black Hills. I'm talking it was suddenly a blue sky, sunny, warm, no clouds kind of day. That land is sacred to Lakota people and it felt like a prayer to drive up through these spiraling black rocks and aromatic pine forest. We did a quick stop at Mount Rushmore (it's smaller than I thought it would be, said Marko) and then headed over to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It costs $30 to drive in and there was a special hike taking place that day so it was very crowded. Nonetheless we found a parking spot near the entrance. Max did not take a nap in the car so I ended up taking him out to the deck behind the museum pretty immediately. (Grant me the serenity to survive this phase of his development). Laurel and Marko got scavenger hunt packets from the front desk and toured the museum with M.

Max only wanted to look at the coins tossed in the little artificial pond on the back deck. But soon a little girl came over to him, coaxing him to play with her. They were soon chasing each other around and giggling. It turned out that she was the daughter of the Lakota couple who were doing presentations at the Memorial, and she was as in need of a playmate at that moment as he was. She had her own jingle dress and took part in the presentation. Max sat down right in front of the stage to watch her. Her mom, Jessie Taken Alive Rencountre is Hunkpapa Lakota and grew up on the Standing Rock Reservation and now lives in Rapid City. She just published a children's book, works at a school, and also goes around sharing things about the Lakota culture. Her husband played a drum and sang during the presentation and shared a bit about his perspective on the historic and ongoing misunderstandings between Indigenous and European people. At the end, we all stood in a circle and participated in a friendship dance. When it was over, she gave Max an autographed copy of her book. 

It was so just exactly what we needed as a family. For me to see another mother's perspective on my child, whom I am seeing through a lens of frustration right now. To just let the kids have fun and play with other kids. To learn about another culture, not just the historical but also the contemporary aspects of that culture. And to do it all under a blue sky with the Black Hills surrounding us on every side, was very healing. Jessie talked about the jingle dresses being healing dresses and it really did feel like healing energy was flowing. 

The weather turned back to cloudy and rainy that evening. It's even colder now, but we had another great morning in Rapid City, visiting the library and randomly meeting a bunch of homeschoolers there. In the afternoon, we came back to the campground and met a German family who is finishing out a long tour of North America. They are basically following the route we just took out here, so I was able to hand over a bunch of brochures and maps and recommendations. We have to move on in order to get out of the path of winter weather, but am definitely looking forward to my next visit to South Dakota.

Work From....County Regional Park

The last time M and I drove out this way, we did not have jobs or kids. Logistically it was a lot easier. But there are a few things we have figured out to make traveling now not just possible, but also enjoyable and fun. If we are going to be driving all day, we try to stop every 2 hours for a long break. We look for parks. If it's the weekend, an elementary school or a high school track is a good bet. Weekdays we look for county or state parks. I check the satellite view for big enough parking lots. Our trailer is only 20 ft. long and very maneuverable, but too long for a regular spot, so we usually end up parking across 4 spots. (Not very courteous if there's Little League or something going on, so we move on if that's the case.) Getting out of the car to really run around makes the kids behave pretty well when we are driving. There are a lot of podcasts we all enjoy listening to, and it's also a good time for them to work on their school work.

Right now we have to work around M's work schedule. Last night we stayed at a KOA with a noon checkout time. This morning I did some lessons with the kids, washed our clothes and got everything packed up while he worked. Then on his lunch break we drove about 80 miles to a county park near Minneapolis where we spent the rest of the afternoon. M worked on a really pretty deck overlooking a lake and the the kids and I went to the Visitor's Center, played on the beach, took a hike and did a scavenger hunt. They had a little library collection of all sorts of books about Minnesota plants and wildlife and an indoor play area. The vegetation is not all that different, although we did get to see some sections of restored prairie today. Mostly the kids are still noticing the endless fields of corn and soy that cover the midwest.

Now we're on the road again and will drive until we find another good spot to spend the night.

Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin

These giant turbines sprinkled across the corn fields were not here the last time we came through the Midwest. I remember the corn, though. We have a few wind farms in Pennsylvania and I have biked past some of them on the GAP. I pay extra for wind powered energy, mostly because it seems better than coal. But seeing them stretched out to the horizon like this really hits home how much we change the landscape with our choices.

"It's just corn and floods," Marko said. He was balking at writing anything in his journal. We ended up covering quite a long distance these past two days. Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and now Wisconsin. He's not wrong, it's incredible how much corn is out here. 

M picked Wyalusing State Park because it seemed like it was in the right direction. It sits on these bluffs above where the Wisconsin River flows into the Mississippi. We took the interstate part of the way, and then got off on a series of two lane roads that wound through more corn fields. We pulled over to a cheese store for curds, or squeaky cheese as the kids called it. M also bought a giant foam cheese hat for the kids. We got here before sunset and it wasn't raining so already an improvement over the previous day's travels.

The park turned out to be full of things to do. A decent cell signal meant M had no trouble working. There were plenty of hiking/running trails. There are all these effigy mounds in the shapes of bears and birds around here and the kids were happy to hike around and look at them. The hardwood forest here is filled with nut trees. Hickory and walnuts and acorns were all over the place. We also went looking for our first geocache, which unfortunately was hidden in the burned out trunk of a tree and Max got so sooty he demanded a bath, which is saying a lot.

Oh, by the way, we're on a road trip. I'm homeschooling the kids and M is working remotely. More about that later, but I thought I better get started logging our journey before I forgot. 

State parks often have really late checkouts. This one is 3pm, so we'll hang out here for most of the day tomorrow. M will work and we'll probably play some tennis and go on some more hikes. The kids got these pretty cool workbooks from the ranger with all sorts of scavenger hunts and activities to do outside. Then we'll try some late day driving and see where we end up. When we went through Ohio, the turnpike rest areas actually had a dump station and electric hookups for RVs, so we might try to find something like that. 

August 2019

With August coming to a close, we're finishing our first (official) month of homeschooling. I'll write more later about the hows and whys of coming to this decision, but for now I just want to share the positives and negatives from this first month.

What went well....
Khan Academy works so well on my phone while we are driving. The two older kids are using it for math instruction and practice.  I like that it's just plain questions and not games. I get a weekly report on their progress and can check in on a dashboard at any time to see how much they've done. They do way more when they use the app on a touchscreen, vs. using the keyboard on a computer.

"Cup of Twenty" - it's a cup with 20 objects in it and a pair of dice. Roll the dice, add them, count out that number of objects and the other person "guesses" how many objects are left in the cup. So simple, fun and not a worksheet, but does the work of a worksheet for number fluency.

Keeping the globe on hand for reference during study of any subject. Land and water features make everything make more sense.

Letting them play a lot.

Using the Libby app to check out ebooks and starting the day with reading aloud, either from the app, or from books from our house that they haven't read yet. Sometimes you read a kid a paragraph or a chapter and then just leave it lying around. They won't always pick it up to finish it, but often they will.

Working a day a week at my aunt and uncle's restaurant. My parents watch the kids and teach them all sorts of things only grandparents can. I get a chance to do a very different type of work than I usually do. Everybody wins.

What did not go well...
Kindle Fires suck at everything expect delivering content Amazon has decided you should see. The few things I really wanted the kids to be able to do....check out library materials, work on Khan Academy, play chess and view videos I wanted them to see on Youtube....are really not that easy to make work on Kindle Fires with child profiles set up. And some content, no matter how many times I deleted it, kept reappearing. Passwords are always an issue. Kindles are great for playing Minecraft and viewing Freetime content.

Core Knowledge textbooks for Geography, History and Language Arts are not as useful as I thought they would be. I think it's because I just have PDF versions, and we have yet to really solve the problem of devices for the kids. Also I find that elementary textbooks have so much less information than a regular nonfiction book on that topic.

Focusing attention on the older two, when Max is around. Max kind of steals the show.

Journals. We're writing every day on the principal that I think we ought to, but I can't really say why I think that's important. To me that's a definite sign we should rework this.

Road Trip NY VT PA

Home is where the heart is.

We just spent 2 weeks traveling about 1,800 miles to go to a trail race in Vermont, meet up with friends in the Poconos and just generally enjoy a road trip adventure and time outside. This blog started with a road trip back in 2006 and things are certainly a little different now. We used to sleep in the Saturn by flipping the back seats down and putting our legs in the trunk! Now we have a full size SUV towing a 20 ft travel trailer to accommodate the 3 additional people in our family. We looked at trailers for 3 years before we decided on the RPOD 176, mainly because it has full-size bunk beds and the profile of the trailer makes it very easy to tow. After going on a half dozen trips, I think we made a great decision, although there has been a lot to learn about RVs, warranties, hookups, towing and wifi. M works most of the time we are traveling, which is a slight challenge when it comes to scheduling travel days and where we are going to stop, but there's no way we could travel this much without his employer allowing him to work remotely. So we will find the wifi!

Play. Ground.

One thing I love about our trips now is I usually get really good sleep. This trailer is really tiny. Definitely just for sleeping and shelter in bad weather. Therefore, we are forced to spend a lot of time outside. We do a lot of the same types of activities that we do at home, but the eating, playing with toys, reading and hanging out happens outside a lot more. We all usually go to bed when it gets dark. M reads Harry Potter by headlamp and it's so relaxing to fall asleep with all the summer time insect noises. Max is our daily alarm at 6am, no matter what we are doing or where we are, but Laurel will sleep in until 8 or 9. Laurel became a really strong swimmer this year and she can spend hours in a pool or lake, which I think contributes to her long hours of sleep. After a tough year in third grade, she seems to be back to her creative, enthusiastic self and played for hours with her brothers or with any kids she happens to meet at the campgrounds. Speaking of other kids at campgrounds, we met a family with three kids who is hiking the Appalachian Trail together. It was fun to talk with their teenagers, Max introduced himself to them in the pool one day, but I wondered how much of the trail they would remember. I absolutely obsessed over those section maps along our way (we carried paper way back then, lol). Even now, when I step onto the AT, I can summon some memories of what it was like in 2007.

Life is better with a flower crown.

One of the best parts of this trip was that we were able to arrange a few days together with my friend Leah and her family. Despite living 3,000 miles apart, we've managed to keep our friendship going, even growing I think, for 15 years. Last year we we had the guts to get our spouses and kids altogether in a cabin for 3 days, despite none of them really knowing each other at all. If I didn't write about that trip, I should, because it rained the entire time and I'm talking the heavy summer rain that falls from the sky and rises up from the mossy, flooded yards and mists through the trees and floods the river and knocks out the power to the entire county, which knocks out the well pump. But luckily you can still flush the toilet by putting a bucket outside to collect water from the overflowing gutters. Adventures! And yet, I think all of us considered that a good trip. So we did it again, in the Poconos this time, and it didn't rain the entire time. We spent a lot of time at the lake at Tobyhanna State Park, with our five kids swirling around us casting Harry Potter spells on each other and fighting over sand pails. The cabin had a comically long couch in the basement. A sort of party room set up, and most of the kids slept there, all laid out in a line. We arrived in a vulnerable state, having just come from the Vermont 100 race, and that deserves a post of its own, because that was M's 11th hundred miler and no, it doesn't get easier and that doesn't just refer to the runner. But they thankfully offered to cook the first dinner (we split meal prep, which is a very good idea for these types of trips). We made a lot of campfires and stayed up too late talking and took turns playing with the kids. While I was there I realized we don't do a lot of socializing with other families anymore...we do a lot of splitting up and taking one or two kids to various things. The five of us spend a lot of time together, but not with other people usually.

We finished out the trip with 2 days at Hyner Run, one of our favorite camping spots. This was an excellent place to wind down and then the last leg home was only 3 1/2 hours of driving. Nobody felt tired and there wasn't a ton of stuff to clean up when we got home because we had cleaned everything in the camper pretty thoroughly and had been doing laundry along the way. This trip was kind of a test to see how we could live on the road for a few weeks, It went so well, we are all looking forward to our next trip.

Washington DC to Pittsburgh...By Bicycle Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

Day 3 Hancock to Frostburg

Not pictured, whiskey.

I know I said I planned for 65 mile days, but it didn't come out to that exactly. Due to spacing of trail towns and my desire to stay inside a locked room each night, I had to go 76 miles on my 3rd day of pedaling. From Hancock I got back on the Western Maryland Rail Trail and the miles flew by. What a treat it is to ride through a mountain landscape on a flat paved trail. I saw an enormous woodpecker and so many deer. Shortly after I got back onto the Towpath, I ran into a guy I recognized from the train. We decided to ride together for a while. Thirty miles went by pretty quickly while we were chatting and I started to feel a lot better about making it to Frostburg. Once I got to Cumberland, I would be back on familiar territory and on the much better surfaced Great Allegheny Passage Trail. We vented about the conditions of the trail and how much harder it was than we expected, and traded life stories.

Green, green, green on this part
of the Towpath. Just me and the birds.

We split up after a break and I started zooming down the last section into Cumberland. This was a dumb idea, though because my tire got caught in a deep rut and I took a spill. Hot and sweaty, with a gruesome case of road rash (ugly but not serious), I finally made it to Cumberland where I plopped down on a bench and just sat there for a while. I had 15 miles to Frostburg and although the entire trail is railroad grade, this is the one part where you definitely feel the climb. A storm was rolling in. The Airbnb I was going to was probably an additional 2 miles up the mountain from the trail head. And then I lost my poncho. What can you do, though? I started pedaling. And then just as the rain started falling, I came to a tunnel. What luck! I waited out the brief, but intense storm, and then kept going. The sun came out. I found a little rest area with a picnic table and a bathroom and I cooked the most fabulous pot of tuna mac ever. I forgot to bring a fork, so I carved a pair a chopsticks. Then I got a text from my Airbnb host who was willing to pick me up at the trailhead! During the final mile of the day, a group of college students waiting for the rest of their group on the side of the trail cheered for me as I went by. My Airbnb host was incredibly gracious. I have had several really great Airbnb experiences in Frostburg and even though this town is UP the mountain from the trailhead, I still really recommend it (send me a message if you want some recommendations). Eat at the Princess Restaurant if you like diner food.

Day 4 Frostburg to Ohiopyle

Up and over the mountain. My route was right to left.

It stormed all evening on the other side of the mountain from Frostburg so I had the pleasant experience of laying in bed with the windows open and a cool breeze blowing, lightning flashing in the distance. I had a very restful sleep and made myself a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. I did a little bike maintenance and tried to adjust my bent fender. The brakes were definitely not in great shape, but I figured the terrain was mostly flat once I got back down onto the trail so I headed out. And who was there at the trailhead, but my riding partner from the day before! He had stayed in Cumberland and was taking a break after pedaling the first 15 miles up the mountain. We decided to ride together a little more, and the final stretch of uphill pedaling was a breeze. We parted ways in Meyersdale and I spent the rest of my day riding pretty leisurely and enjoying the solitude. I got a flat that I had to fix outside of Rockwood. It actually turned out to be a leaky stem. I ate a really good grilled cheese sandwich at the Lucky Dog Cafe in Confluence. In Ohiopyle, I stayed in the hostel above the Falls Market Inn. I thought it was a bit pricey at $125 a night, but it was Memorial Day weekend. Before I went to bed, I got an ice cream cone and ate it on a bench by the river and thought about swimming in that river as a kid. The summer of 1988 was particularly hot and dry and the river got really low. I could remember being way out in the middle of it and sliding down the rocks on my butt.

Day 5 Ohiopyle to Home
Originally I planned to ride to Homestead, which is the closest spot on the trail to my house and about 60 miles from Ohiopyle. But M convinced me to ride all the way to the end of the GAP which is at the Point in downtown Pittsburgh. Then my dad decided to come out and bike with me on the last stretch. It would be another long day, but the weather was good. It was fun to ride with my dad, although I was plagued with technical difficulties with my brakes on the way home. Thankfully a guy stopped who knew his way around cantilever brakes. He figured out that a spring was missing and hacked a quick fix.

The GAP changes from scenic green mountains to a much more post industrial rust belt vibe in this section. I love the history of this region, though, and these bike trails only exist because of the railroad and canal construction, driven by the mining and steel industries. These are the things that brought my ancestors to Western Pennsylvania from Europe and I could not stop thinking about immigration on this trip. The hows and whys of people moving from place to place and the things other people try to do to control it.

The best feeling was getting to the Point and saying goodbye to my dad, and then starting up the hill to go home. My family had a cookout feast and a cold beer waiting for me. I felt like I could go a lot further (like I had a brief moment where I thought I should pedal down to Route 50 and keep going until I got to San Francisco), but I was also glad to be home.

Why did I do this? Is it safe to travel alone? What kind of bike do I need? What's the cheapest way to do this trip? Do you get tired?

This is 40.

I have done many trips on the Great Allegheny Passage, but I had never done the C&O Canal Towpath. The idea of pedaling home to Pittsburgh was very appealing to me, plus I like being alone. This felt like the most relaxing way to celebrate my 40th birthday. I think it's pretty safe to travel alone. I carry a knife and pepper spray, but the most important thing to do is remain aware of your surroundings and trust your instincts and just quickly move away from anyone who gives you the creeps. The vast majority of people I met were super cool. Most of the day I was just by myself and kind of far from roads and towns. You can always tell that a trail parking area is coming up because you will start to see people walking dogs or little kids on tricycles. Originally I planned to camp, but I knew I would sleep more soundly indoors and I really needed to catch up on some sleep. That was another reason to do a trip like this...I get much better sleep after some good physical activity and yes I did get a little tired and sore. My bike is a Windsor Tourist, which is a road touring bike I bought from BikesDirect many years ago, and modified a little here and there. You could really ride anything on these trails. They are flat and graded and the GAP is one of the nicest in the country. The Towpath is a different story, but you can certainly manage with any sort of bike, as long as it hasn't rained too much. (It gets very muddy as the path is more packed dirt than crushed gravel.) If you want to keep your trip cheap, you can camp along the way in so many places, mostly for free.

Washington, DC to Pittsburgh...by Bicycle! Part 1

It's been a while since we did any blogging about epic travel adventures, but I wanted to post this itinerary of my Washington to Pittsburgh ride, in case anyone else is thinking of doing this. For my 40th birthday, I wanted to do some kind of solo travel. I've had this trip on my mind for a decade at least, but logistically it was hard to work out the details with the whole family and bike trailers and all that. But for this trip, it was pretty easy. I booked a train ticket for $42 plus $12 to roll on my bike, selected 5 places to stay that were roughly 65ish miles apart and "bike-friendly," changed the brake pads on my aging but certainly still serviceable touring bike and bought some random snacks at Walgreens. If you haven't done any bicycle touring the mileage might seem a little daunting at first, but I can assure you, this is a very doable trip for anyone. Other than a few street miles on either end, the entirety of this trip is on car-free bike trail laid on old canal towpath or railroad. In other words, the grade is 2% at most. The trails go up and over a mountain range, so you are generally going up for half and then down for half, but the trail always looks pretty flat. I usually assume I will pedal about 10 mph on average including breaks. So, 65 miles a day is only about 6.5 hours of leisurely pedaling. I know a guy who just did this same distance in 2 days! But my goal was to spend some time alone and see the wildlife and history along the way, so I took 5 days, plus one day for travel.

Day 0 for Travel

Sunrise view from the train.

The train station is within biking distance from my house (7 miles or so). I had to leave a bit early in the morning to catch a 5:30am train, but this was actually nice, because there were virtually no cars on the roads.
The people at the Amtrak station couldn't have been nicer and told me to take my bike in the elevator to the platform. There were no racks in the train car, which was not as it was described on the website, but we all just kind of laid down our bikes on the floor and there was plenty of room. There were about 6 other people with loaded bicycles. Because the train is often delayed I decided to book a bed at Hosteling International in DC and start my trip the following day. Sure enough, we were sitting on the tracks outside of Cumberland for almost 2 hours, but the train is a very comfortable, if slow, way to travel. Seats are huge and they recline enough to take a very pleasant nap. It was a little unnerving to get off the the train and be swept immediately outside into a huge city at rush hour, but Washington DC actually has some great bike lanes and bike paths so I spent the remainder of the day riding around the Mall and the monuments. The Hostel was about $45 for a bunk bed in a shared room. They did have decent bathrooms and free linens and a locked shed that was inside a locked courtyard for bicycle storage. Breakfast was included. I thought it would be mostly young adults, but there were people of every age there, including a field trip of middle school students!

Day 1 Georgetown to Harper's Ferry

Can you spot the heron?

I heard that it was hard to locate the beginning of the trail and that it would be crowded and difficult to ride, but I basically ran into it by accident and there were hardly any people out.  It is brick and narrow and kind of bumpy at first, but before you know it, you are outside of the city....Potomac River to one side and the swampy canal to the other. There was a fair amount of commuter bike traffic at first, and a lot of highway noise, but by mile 10, it was very quiet. The wildlife viewing on this stretch is amazing, especially for birds. The miles melted away and I enjoyed the solitude. The trail is hard packed dirt, with a lot of rocks and roots. Not the most comfortable to ride, but I lucked out with weather and the mud wasn't too bad. However, there is a section just before Harper's Ferry that is washed out and you have to carry your bike and bags through a creek and up a steep bank. I was spared this unpleasantness because a storm blew in just before I got to that section and I was sitting under a porch on an old canal house next to a parking lot. A couple who was walking their dog offered me a ride around the washed out section, which I gladly accepted. When I got to Harper's Ferry I decided to bike up the huge hill (very huge, actually had to get off and push towards the top) to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. I met a few thru and section hikers on the way and was reminded of how different one's view of the AT is when you are a thousand miles in, compared to after you actually complete it. They were definitely in the "why am I doing this" phase. That night I slept at The Town's Inn, which is a really old (like 1840s old) inn. I had my own bathroom but it was on a different floor than the room. No television in the room, but it did have an AC unit in the window and a small fridge and microwave. 

Day 2 Harper's Ferry to Hancock

Snakes in trees.

I got the tip to get off the Towpath and get on the paved Western Maryland Rail Trail just before Hancock and I have no regrets about doing this. The Towpath gets very bumpy and rocky and covered in black rat snakes and mosquitoes and muddy ruts or hard dried ruts and it was very hot. I questioned all of my motives embarking on this voyage and despaired over choosing such an unpleasant way to celebrate my birthday. Just kidding, but the miles certainly dragged on, and while I was still following the river, the water birds weren't as interesting, or maybe I was just tired of looking. I must have gotten a little dehydrated because that nauseous feeling set in sometime in the afternoon and I had to stop every few miles just to suck on a ginger chew and try to drink some water. This is the problem with traveling alone...you have nobody to talk to if your mood gets low. I was never so grateful to see a Super 8 Motel, my destination in Hancock. The lobby was filled with motorcycle guys who raised their Coors Light bottles to me when I staggered in, all dusty and red-faced. This motel was about what you expect for $50, but I would recommend it. The desk clerk gave me a towel for my bike and directed me to a hose at the end of the building. After I cleaned it off, I was allowed to take it into my room. I heard nothing from the motorcycle guys all night and actually slept pretty soundly. Hancock is a town that embraces bicycling and the rail trails, whether you are going 3 miles or 300, and there is a bike shop and tons of restaurants. Everything is well signed, with is ample parking and you can rent whatever you need there.

Stay tuned for days 3-6!

A Hawk in Laurel Hill

The mountain laurels were still in bloom this weekend when we went camping in Laurel Hill State Park. I could write many things about this weekend, which was wonderful and restorative, but the thing I don't want to forget is that after we had the camper all hitched up and the tanks drained clean and were finally on the road out of the park, we saw a hawk dive down into the ferns and come up with a mouse or something in its talons. The road out of Laurel Hill is technicolor green this kind of year, with a high canopy and the floor covered in ferns. I have seen hawks in the woods before, usually harassing squirrels up in a nest, but I had never seen one dive down into the ferns to hunt. It was spectacular.