7/17/2012 Day 2 Hot Hot Hot

Day 2

We woke up at 5 am this morning wiht the intentions of being on the road by 6, but we procrastinated since we had made plans the night before to spend the day in Harpers Ferry, and we would white water raft, canoe, or go tubing.  More or less we were just going to have a relaxing day of fun since we biked 60 miles yesterday not to mention it was going to be 100 degrees and who knows how hot with the heat index.  So we figured after we swam or did something fun all day that we would just do our miles in the evening. Well the majority of them since we did have to bike 10 miles to get to Harpers Ferry.

so our journey started  at about 7am, about 3 to 4 miles in to the trail we seen the most goregous water fall and the scenery well put it this way a camera just could not capture the amount of beauty. It was so breathtaking.  Well anyways we got to mile 15 and couldn't figure out why in the world we weren't there yet ,all the map said Harpers Ferry was only 10 miles out.  So guess what?   Yep we miss it. Apparantly there was another trail that ran off the C&O that took you there.  uuuurgh the story of our life.  So the we decided we would just go into the next town and find something to do, so 12 more miles to Shepardstown, no big deal. We figured we would catch some lunch and then just sight see in that town.  Before we got off at the exit we seen a boating ramp so we decided to get some pictures and relax down there for a bit.  It was gorgeous there to. We sat downa minute a nd stuck our feet in the water.  Tadpoles were swimming up to our feet.  By then I became extremely tired and I just had no energy at all. I think Ashley was a little mad because she wanted to sight see. So we just decided we would just go to the next town since it was only 7 miles away and we would just catch lunch there because we werne't quite hungry yet..

7 miles later we seen a waterfall and a perfect place to swim so we took some pics and decided we would run into town and Maryann could get our things to us so that we could swim.  Ha yeah we see we now have a detour that was horrid.  100 degrees the sun was just beating down on us like there was no tomorrow and the hills were so steep and never ending. It like you would climb one hill and when you got to the top of that one there was yet another one twice it's size.  It got to the point we had to walk up some of them, the heat just made everything that much more of a struggle.  I was so mad and furious, I felt like we were going to die out there.  Put it this way when we were able to finally go down one of the hills that we climbed, I clocked our speed at 30mph with my bike brakes on!  Yeah I know that is crazy right? Who would of thunk you could go that fast on a bike.  At one point we stopped and sat in the shade poured water on our heads from the water bottle we had and then rode some more.  Rought stuff it was. When we got back on the trail we realized there was no store or we missed it again, and the plans to go swimming were now crushed once again because there was no way were going to climb all those mountains to go back.  We looked at that map and chucked on to the next town.  9 more miles to Williamsport.  This day seemed to have went from a relaxation day, to a day of roasting.  We finally made it to Williamsport, maryann met us at Tony's Pizza, we ordered some food, and for me a glass of wine and Ashley a brewsky. We sat by some electric outlets to charge our phones while we ate.

After we ate and refilled our water bottles with ice and water, we grabbed our belongings out of Maryann's car and then headed towards Sheetz to get some ice, of course they only carried 7lbs of ice and we had no place to put it on our bike so Ash decided she would carry it in her hands. We had 2 miles to get to the campsited and my oh my is  all i can say, the ice bag was ripping and melting faster then we could pedal it was just crazy. Ashley rode in front of me and it was hilarious because she was leaving a little ice trail to our campsite.  I wanted to stop and get pictures of it but I couldn't because it was just to dang hot.. Not that we were going to be in air conditioning or anything. But after a day like today you just wanted to not work out, just find some shade and try and find a way to keep cool by all means.

When we arrived we unloaded our bags, and set up camp, took us a cold solar shower, yeah we didn't wait for the bag to heat up, a cold shower was a perfect way to shower when it's over 100.  blah.   We tried to start a fire but that didnt work out to well.  But we did get a chance to talk to some other bikers who were headed to dc for a bit, they told us that last 30 miles of the C&O were nothing but mud..  Nice!  then it was just us until this guy came he must of been carrying 200lbs of stuff. Scared the crap out of me, he was talking to himself and kept looking at us it just freaked me out.  So none the least  we kept our eyes open and slept with knices and flashilights in hand, well should I say we attempted to sleep we were so scared and let me tell you nature is down right loud at night. Owls crickets and who knows what else.  Then 1 am rolled around and people are being loud on the river, it was so hot in the tents, I was pouring sweat,  when I did fall asleep, I would wake up with cramps in my legs. even using the cooling towels didn't helps.  None the least it was just scary, I just kept laying there replaying in my mind self defense moves I had learned from freestyle and the possible scenarios and how I would handle them if he did try something.


we have tons of pictures, I will probably post them on face book it's much easier. 

And a big thank you goes to Maryann for letting us stay the night our first night, the food, letting us have a day of rest from our luggage, then driving almost an hour to us to bring it and getting our lunch.  You have no idea how much you did for us, I will be forever grateful.  Thanks  a million!