Rain again. Got up early and headed up to Hancock. Jonathan's knees were still out so he wisely took the day off of riding. Paul, Sheena, and I booked it the 15 miles back down to the Lockhouse for breakfast. After we ate, we helped pack up the van and get the place cleaned up. Then we set off in the rain again. The day before was soaking wet but I think because the last 10 miles happened to be paved, we were drenched when we arrived, but not that dirty. Today was just muddy and nasty. At first we tried to swerve the puddles, but ended up slipping more in the mud that way. It was better to just plow right into the center of the puddle so that your tire stayed on the most firmly packed part of the lane. Consequently we were covered pretty much head to toe with mud spray. That just about epitomizes our entire day--now multiply it by 50 miles and you've got the picture.
Our favorite part of the day, hands down, is when we were going along Big Slackwater--a portion of the Potomac that is dammed up and more like a wide long lake--they had shored up the trail in many places with concrete embankments and in those places the trail was paved. So we had several decent little patches of paved trail. What a difference that makes!!
Also at points during the day we saw on the trail a huge snapper turtle, probably a foot across on its shell; a crawdad that reared up on its tail and opened its pincers as wide as it could, apparently trying to look its scariest; lots of deer and rabbits; a chicken that had escaped from a nearby farmhouse; and Paul and Sheena even saw a red fox!
The last few miles were really hard, not the least of which was because the map was off. Our destination was supposed to be at the 74 mile marker (counting down to DC) but in reality it was 2 miles further at 72. That, and when we got close we saw a guy walking (always a good sign you're within spitting distance of a parking lot). He was dressed all in white and didn't look the slightest bit dirty--a nice contrast to us!--and he was carrying an umbrella and a couple of other things just loose in his hands and fiddling with his cell phone. We were totally sure that the parking lot was right around the corner. Turns out it was still three miles away at that point. We shake our fist at you, deceptive man!!!!
Luckily when we finally got to our Comfort Inn in Shepherdstown, it turned out there was a car wash and laundromat exactly next to the hotel. We drove into the car wash and hosed down not just the muddy bikes but our own bodies, so we could walk into the hotel without leaving a nasty trail and clogging up the shower drains.
After we got cleaned up we realized that we had put all our bike bags into large garbage sacks to keep the mud contained, and we forgot to get them out at the carwash to rinse off. Another job for the morning...
We went down to Kazu, a local Asian eatery and had our fill of delicious food. Shepherdstown is a really cute community--lots of great restaurants and boutiques. So many places we have to come back to!
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