8 July Rides

[Kalidurga]

Another east coast non-slacker here I had an awesome late-day ride on the C&O Canal today. Drove out to Shepherdstown, WV, for lunch of fritatta and English muffins at Sharazade's Tea Room, then crossed back over the river to get on the C&O at about 4:00pm.

I had planned to duplicate the 65rpm/13mph pace of last week's ride since I felt so comfortable at that combo, but I quickly settled into a faster rythm of 75-85rpm/15-17mph over the dirt, gravel and tree roots of the towpath.

Headed upstream all the way to the Big Slackwater area, at which the canal used to let out into a smooth section of the Potomac River to bypass some cliffs along the Md shore. As a result, there's a detour onto nearby roads to get back onto the towpath farther upstream. Well, I rode as far as the stop sign warning of the detour, and noticed that fishermen/hikers/etc had worn a nice little singletrack trail along the river's edge beyond the detour. And of course I had to ride it After about .5 lumpy, bumpy miles of parched dirt and one spot where I had to shoulder the bike to climb over a fallen tree, I got to the fence blocking the other end of the detour and had to turn around.

The 15 miles back towards Shepherdstown were blissful. It was late enough in the day that most folks were heading home, so I saw very few people. This is the kind of ride I love the most: just me and the bike, the river and the trees, with mental processes reduced to nothing but the perceptions of my five senses as I push myself just hard enough.

I got back to the car with just over 30 miles on my computer and cranked the stereo for the drive home through the Frederick County countryside. After a shower to wash away the sweat and grit, in the words of Lillie Von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles, "I feel wefweshed!"