Like Owlice I also just finished the C&O Canal with my sister. We planned it starting about a year ago and were going to do it over 4 days. Plans change though and in August I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a bilateral mastectomy Aug. 19th, so this was four weeks to the day from the surgery. We decided we'd better drop the mileage each day so the trip ended up being over 6 days. And yes I was a bit deconditioned after getting ready for this trip for a year but we still went. We averaged between 30-36 miles a day. What a great trip it was. The trail changes every mile and is beautiful all along it in different ways both on the canal side as well as the Potomac side. Owlice did a great report and I used it at the last minute for anything I forgot. The few things I'd add are: You definitely need a bike with suspension/shocks. There are four really rough sections of the trail. I took my Trek 7.5FX instead of my hybrd after swapping to 700-35c tires and I rattled the whole way through those sections. It was a good thing I had no loose teeth. One is a 20 mile long section from Harpers Ferry down. One is about ten miles from Cumberland which lasts about 5 miles and unbelievably the last one - and seemed the most cruel after all those miles - was from about mile 12-mile 2. You definitely need bug spray or wipes - they don't bother you when you're riding but the instant you stop the gnats are all over you. And you need to take toilet paper since some of those every present porta potties were empty on paper! Funny how the little things in life become important! People are right - there is absolutely no cell coverage on the trial in a lot of parts, especially in the upper end towards Cumberland. It is very isolated up there...one day we saw 10 peope and another day we saw 6 people. This is such a beautiful national park and it would seem so underutilized.
We had no flats. No major malfunctions on the bikes although my brakes kept rubbing so we went to the C&O Bike shop in Hancock,MD. If you ever get a chance stop in there - that guy is the friendliest bike shop owner I've ever met. We did credit card touring staying in hotels/motels every night. They were all pretty good except the Red Roof Inn in Williamsport - ruined me on those forever but you get what you pay for I guess. We used Adventure Sports for a vehicle shuttle so the car was there every day when we were done. We met a lot of nice people along the way at the hotels because it seemed like everyone at them was biking or touring on motorcycles or something. We had no rain although they called for it 3 out of the 6 days. Our temperatures ranged from starting at 60 degrees the one day and another day we ended the days ride at 90 degrees and humid. We had everything we needed in our packs for the trail and had to bring along our own lunches as places are scarce to get food along the trail. We did stop at the Schoolhouse restaurant in Oldtown which is a great place about a mile off the trail. The famous Bills Place was closed on Sunday when we passed by there but we got the obligatory photos outside anyway. No one has mentioned the dust. Within an hour of starting we were covered, our bikes were covered and our packs were covered in the stone dust and that continued until Mile 0. You felt it, tasted it and spent every evening wiping it off the bikes promising the bikes you'd take better care of them the next trip you took to somewhere!
Mile Marker 0 for me was not anti-climatic for me as Owlice felt, although we spent a good 20 minutes trying to find the darn thing. The trail brings you out smack in the middle of Georgetown where you're actually riding on busy city streets - talk about culture shock after being isolated for days on the trail! We found the marker and it meant so much to me after the struggle to even get to this trip during the last month, I actually hugged the thing! I would do this trip again without a doubt. I'm actually glad we had to drop the mileage each day as it gave us a chance afterwards to do some things like go to Antietam and Harpers Ferry and to take a few sidetrips during the days ride like Fort Frederick, etc. It's too beautiful a trail with too much history on it to fly down it.
Favorite spot on the trail - Feeder Dam #5 - was absolutely beautiful.
Worst spot on the trail - Had to be the 20 miles from Harpers Ferry down
Biggest lesson learned on the trail - You can do anything you decide to do in life if you just get up and do it!
Because of the breast cancer(which has turned out pretty well if there is such a thing for breast cancer) this trip which originally started out to celebrate my 50th birthday became very very important to me. My sister hung in there - she had never done over 28 miles and had done that only once - and we rode celebrating life. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!
