Posted on by admin

Cycling Through History On The C&O Canal.

Back in the Spring of 2013 we had a week or so off for Spring break from teaching and chose the historical Chesapeake & Ohio Canal; aka The C&O Canal. We had 5 fabulous days of cycling from Cumberland, MD to Harpers Ferry, WV. It was a bit cold but that also meant we had the path basically to ourselves. Here is a snapshot of our 2013 bicycling segment of the C&O Canal.

6 years ago it was a bit colder and we had a bit more camping gear.
The NPS provides wonderful hiker/biker sites for free every 5 miles or so. They even provided free spit wood for our campfires.
Check out the mirror images here. The canal water was extremely still on this March day.
  • The Paw Paw tunnel was closed…
  • we had a 2 mile walk over the mountain
Little did we know when we had this picture snapped in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia 6 years ago we would someday actually complete the Appalachian Trail!

Fast forwarding to 2019 and 2 days of warm and fabulous weather to finish the C&O Canal. We bicycled the last 63 miles of the canal path from Harpers Ferry to the Georgetown district of Washington, DC. The canal path is not paved so we pulled out the same trusty tires that we had used in 2013. Modifying our tandem so the wider tires would fit meant taking the fenders off and hoping it would not rain.

Needless to say, it poured all day!
We are not sure if the tandem has ever been that dirty? Time to run it through a car wash when this ride is over.
The logistics of this trip included the bike, the scooter and the truck.
Pictured are the towpath for the canal and a lockhouse where the lock keeper lived and worked.
A few of the many locks have been restored to almost working condition. Fascinating.
And in some of the locks were left so we could also see the original pieces of the once working canal system.
A restored canal boat. We wondered if any of the boats way back in the day actually looked that nice?
The water from the mighty Potomac River fed the canal system back in the day.
We wondered if these cliffs were man made by blowing them out to make room for the canal?
This area on the Potomac called Giant Falls reminded us of the rivers in the White Mountains, NH.
I wondered where my partner in bike crime was?
  • A detour?
  • Nicely done by the NPS

As the canal corridor is federally protected land there are many species of animals that call it home:

Not sure if this was a turtle family or simply a party to celebrate the warm weather?
This duck does not seem happy that his party is being crashed by all those turtles.
We are not sure why many of the turtles appear splayed out on the logs. All 4 legs are stretched to their fullest.
The deer here were not timid at all. They simply looked up to make sure we were only human beings and not a larger animal and then kept on eating.

There seemed to be a blue heron such as this one conveniently spaced out along the canal path. They are really fun to watch when they are hunting for their dinner or as they take flight to escape us.
Not sure what this reptile is called but boy was it fleet a foot.
Happy to be back on the bike after months on the hiking trails.

One Reply to “Cycling Through History On The C&O Canal.”

Comments are closed.