Friday, June 28, 1996
Day 48
New Germany State Park, Maryland to Paw Paw, West Virginia
Today's Miles: 60
Cumulative Miles for the Tour: 3153
Degree of Difficulty: Difficult to Easy
Terrain: Steep, Rolling Hills to Flat, Railroad Beds
Find of the Day: Downhill into Frostburg
and the lightning busg at Paw Paw
Coming through the Rocky Mountains, everyone expected to hit their highest speeds of the tour. Today, three days from the finish in Washington DC, we finally found them...in the Appalachians.
We had a good morning, taking our time touching up the bikes, preparing for a relatively easy day. It was good to see Ken back in camp with his fingers greased and dirty from helping with the bikes. You can tell he missed being here.Route 40 Alternate was the choice of roads to start the day. It follows the interstate but kept us away from all the traffic...except for Adam, that is. I'll let him tell his part of the story and then I'll come back in...From the journals of Adam Iobst
Hi everyone!
Adam here with yet another little adventure! Mark wanted me to write everyone out there reading the site and explain what took place today. OK......I made a mistake, that's all. One wrong turn and half the world is out looking for me.Instead of taking 40 ALT east, I took 40 east. Once I realized my mistake I got off the highway and asked directions to 40 ALT, which I then got on and continued to Cumberland. No problem, right? Wrong! After finding just the right place to eat my huge sub (accompanied by my refreshing soda), Mark comes flying down the street- invading my lovely little lunch."Man, everyone is worried about you."Turns out everyone thought I was lost (again). But everything is just fine now. Don't believe their stories, I was never really lost.From the official journal keeper:
At this point, I'm going to butt in and make a small clarification. If five people are out looking for someone, that person is considered LOST, Adam. Even your Dad stayed around a couple hours looking for you. Now, I'll send you back to Adam...
From the journals of Adam Iobst, continued
Not until later that night, anyway. We camped out right next to the C&O canal, near Paw Paw, and as most canal travelers know, there is a tunnel in the area. Lee, Mark, and I first saw the tunnel in the daylight and fearfully peddled about 500 feet into its depths. Soon we realized that the end of the tunnel was much further than we first thought. Fearing for our safety, we retreated back to the beginning of the tunnel. Although the fear for our well-being ran deep, our thirst for adventure pushed right back into the dark monster. Yeah, that's right, we went BACK in! All the way through! IT was awesome, really!
Picture this.....its dark, really freakin' dark. All you can see is two holes of light, one in front of you and one behind (each one being the size of a quarter). There is a wall to your left, but you can't see it--this part was particularly scarey on a bike. The only thing that saved us was the guard rail. That was scarey.Bet you thought the story was over. Nope, it only gets better! Later that night Mark, Sarah, Donna, and I walked through it at NIGHT! All the same things were there, the darkness, the invisible wall, and the trusty hand rail. But this time it was twice as dark and it took us twice as long. What a rush.Anyway, for those of you that thought we were crazy for crossing the country on our bikes, you were right.That's the story!
sleep well tonight,
Adam*
And now...back to our regular programming...
Despite the route that Adam took this morning, MOST of us stayed on 40 ALT and got the highest speed of the tour. I hit 49mph hour coming into Frostburg where we were stopping for breakfast. I went running into the cafe with my cyclometer only to be told that Lee had hit 50 on the nose and Dave Wallace did 53mph. Damn, if I'd only had one more piece of pie yesterday, my downward mass would have been worth at least one more mile per hour.Coming out of Frostburg, we were all worried about Adam. Ken stayed to look for him along ALT Route 40 instead of driving back to DC right away, as Dave Blair scoured the freeway...all to no avail. Lee, Dave Wallace and I took off towards Cumberland, hoping for the best.The approach to Cumberland was a nightmare. I've been used to the back country roads for the past 3000 miles and it was disturbing to be riding in this kind of traffic again. I pedaled into Cumberland, planning to get to the other side as quickly as possible, but what did I see? Little Adam sitting on a bench in front of a deli, polishing off a huge sub and a Mountain Dew. It could have been a TV commercial.We called Dave Blair's answering machine and left a message that Adam was alright. The Seno Canal Towroad starts on the southeast side of Cumberland. At breakfast in Frostburg, we had agreed to meet at Lock #75 on the canal to see if anyone had heard from Adam. There was a look of relief on everyone's face as they saw Adam at the lock. We thought we'd lost him...again. (See the Cody to Byron, Wyoming journal for the other time that Adam "didn't" get lost.)
Donna, crossing the border at Paw Paw
In the 1800's, a 184 mile canal was dug from Cumberland to Washington DC. To move the barges up and down the canal, there was a trail that was made next to it so that mules could tow the barges along the trench, thus the name "towroad". The Seno Canal Towroad is now used exclusively for hikers and bicyclists. It was a relief to get off the main roads and on to the towroad where there were no cars, or irate drivers who don't understand the concept of sharing the road with a bicycle.
The 20 mile trip along the towroad took us through small, rural villages. We crossed over a wooden bridge into West Virginia at Oldtown, Maryland, just to say we'd made our first entrance into West Virginia. As we were coming back over the bridge, Dave Wallace came riding up saying he had just been offered lemonade and spaghetti at someone's house a quarter mile back. Lee, Adam and I convinced Dave to take us back and introduce us. That's how we met Cathy and Nita.Cathy has lived in Oldtown for 33 years. Since it's right on the Seno Canal, she's housed bikers anytime someone on the trail needed some help. She and her friend, Nita, kept the conversation going for 45 minutes as they plied us with spaghetti, fresh lemonade, bagels and black cherry ice cream. It was a great way to stocked up for the final 11 miles of the day.Adam's already told you about the tunnel. There's a little bit of history there that's kind of interesting. The tunnel was built in the mid 1800's. The estimate was for it to be completed in two years...it took 14. The estimated cost was $33,000...it took over $600,000. There were so many problems, the drilling was moving at the rate of 10 to 12 feet PER WEEK! There is quite a story to it if you every get a chance to go see it in Paw Paw.We camped in the park at the edge of the canal. I think the highlight of the night were the fireflies that took over the trees surrounding the park after sunset. There were so many and they were so bright, everyone made the same comment..."It looks like Christmas lights!".Tomorrow will be the next to the last day of the tour. What's left to say...2 days and 120 miles to go.
Bike America Tours
dblair@wtp.net
1-800-738-7271