The day dawned cooler and cloudy, with some possibility of rain along the way. After a quaint breakfast in the quaint hotel with our quaint host Karen, the ride plan totaled out to 99.4km. I’d need to do some extra just to be sure.
The ride would start with the bridge and staircase from yesterday afternoon, then a roll downhill to Washington DC.
It seemed like the trail might be a notch more downhill than it has been, or maybe people are just getting stronger. The whole group was moving pretty fast.
I had a good talk with our elder statesman Alan on the trail; he’d been celebrated the night before for his 15th Climate Ride.
The day’s structure was a little different; we’d have two water stops, then have lunch with some DC-based Climate Ride alumni, and a speaker from the Great American Rail Trail. So we had 80km to lunch; we’d almost be in DC by the time we were there.
The trail started out more or less the same as yesterday, smooth crushed gravel, good riding. There was a little more water around, and we saw some beautiful blue herons.
There was more canal infrastructure on this section; old lock-keeper houses (which apparently you can stay in), and some functioning locks.
After the second water stop the trail rolled by Great Falls. Most of the group was in a hurry to get to lunch, but a few of us, including Mike T. and Alan headed out onto the boardwalk to check out the falls. The boardwalk highlighted a granite island ecosystem and views of many different cascades.
Mike talked about how the falls would normally be much more impressive, but Maryland was in a drought after the driest August on record. More climate change impacts.
The boardwalk took a while; by the time we were back to the trail I was running late for lunch. After the falls, the trail surface became rockier, so I had to work harder to maintain speed, which was fun. Real gravel riding.
Lunch was up another hill off the trail. Learning about the Great American Rail Trail project was cool. We took a group photo in unflattering jerseys and got ready for the final roll into DC.
The RWGPS route suggesting reconnecting with the trail a few klicks up from where we left, but one of the local riders said that construction made that entrance inaccessible. Most people decided to stay on the road to head east, but that didn’t look fun to me. Greg and I retraced our steps, which required backtracking a bit, and rejoined the canal where we left it. We met up with Greg’s wife Amy after she reached the canal through her own devices. Their shared pace was slower than mine, so I went back into hammer mode. I made good time, even passing some people I could see on the parallel paved trail. It was pretty fun.
The van was set up about a mile from the official end of the trail in DC. Me being me, I wanted to get all the way to Mile Zero, so I continued on past the place RWGPS told me to turn. I didn’t get far, though; all of the canal towpath segments in Georgetown were under construction.
I tried finding my way through but it was so diverted and confusing that the sense of Mile Zero being part of the same adventure faded away. I looped back towards the waterfront and found the van.
Most of the group was already there, packing bags and breaking down bikes. We exchanged some info and talked about the trip. Nancy and Beverly rolled in, Beverly expressing dismay that there wasn’t a “Welcome to Washington DC!” sign. We got some pictures for her.
After helping break down Beverly’s bike, Nancy and I hopped into a fossil fuel transportation device (Lyft) to get to our hotel.