Day 4 Cumberland to North Mountain (McCoys Ferry)

Well today was kind of rough. We did get a decent nights sleep and did laundry at the hotel last night. We ended up getting a late start today (10:40). Mark had to go over to the bike shop and get his squeaking bike checked out (just across from hotel). We also had to share a bathroom to get ready. Oh, and we all had stuff to drop-off and pickup at Phil's car.

So we rolled out of Cumberland and started down the C&O canal towpath. Let me tell you, the C&O canal makes the Great Allegheny Passage seem like an interstate highway! The canal towpath is in much rougher shape and doesn't drain the rainwater away, so most of the day was spent dodging mud puddles. Our bikes still got pretty muddy. Due to the late start we didn't have an official lunch break, just ate during our 5 minute breaks.

We got to the Paw Paw tunnel and stopped for some photo ops. Again, the flashlight headlight system worked well for getting through the 3,000+ foot tunnel (although I left my sunglasses on in the tunnel for the first few hundred feet wondering why my flashlight wasn't so bright - no joke).

On the other side of the tunnel we met a young couple from North Carolina doing the entire trip from D.C. to Pittsburgh. Oh, I should also mention that we've met a young lady named Diane riding by herself the same direction as us. We keep leapfrogging her. We met her just before Rockwood, PA.

Hancock was our next goal - dinner out. We hooked up with the Western MD Rail-Trail at mile marker 136 and rode a wide paved trail into Hancock (and out of Hancock to mile marker +/- 116 - 20 miles). This was one awesome trail you could make some serious time on!

Before long though we found that Phil's rear tire was coming more and more out of true and would need attention very soon. He could feel it wobbling as we rode now. Mark decided to blast ahead down the trail and try to catch the bike shop open in Hancock. I stayed back with Phil and we met up with Mark in front of the bike shop at 7:20 - shop closed at 6!

We had to make some decisions on what to do. First we looked Phil's rear wheel over and found a bunch of loose spokes and one broken spoke. So we tied up the broken spoke and tightened the loose ones. Phil test rode and decided he could make the bike shop in Williamsport (mile marker 100) the next morning.

We were planning a nice sit down meal since it was likely our last opportunity before D.C., but decided to settle for Sheetz to try and get going toward our destination before dark. Well the guys had to stop at the Dollar General and Sheetz took forever with our food, so we didn't get out of Hancock about 8:45.

We continued on the Western MD Rail-Trail about another 6 miles and it quickly became very dark (it's tree-lined). So this again was another opportunity to use my flashlight headlight mounts. This worked out great; I could dimly light up the entire width treelike to treelike (about 30 feet) and spot a brighter beam ahead about 300 to 400 feet ahead. I was using my 3 watt LED "People's Cree" light which only runs on 3 AAA batteries. I left it on for an hour and a half as we rode in darkness.

At mile marker 116 we had to drop back down to the C&O canal and go 6 miles on that. This was nowhere near as fun in the dark and quite spooky. We finally reached our destination of North Mountain campsite (a typical hiker-biker campsite) near McCoys Ferry at 10:30pm. We had already eaten dinner so all we had to do was setup our tents, no easy task on the dark!

So there you have day 4! 74.5 miles in one day with a late start! I must apologize, as it seems I can't get any photos uploaded again. Apparently it's only working when I'm on a WiFi connection. Sorry for that, I really wish I could have added photos to this entry!

Tomorrow should take us about 64 miles (we're 6 miles ahead of the original itinerary) to the Indian Flats hiker-biker campsite.

EDIT- I was able to upload a few photos to my Picasa website in the "During the Bike Trip" folder again. I uploaded the 0 mile marker for The Great Allegheny Passage and some photos of the Paw Paw tunnel.