I woke up and Paul made me a tasty breakfast, eggs, toast with jam, sausage, coffee, and juice. I was really sick and almost couldn't get it down. I was famished from yesterday's ordeal so I made sure I ate as much as I could.

Paul helped me hose down the bike to remove the now encrusted limestone slurry. I worked hard at cleaning the chain, and all the pulleys with some diluted dishwashing detergent and some rags. After drying the chain, I lubed it and the cables, derailleurs and pulleys. In about 45 minutes I had the bike working satisfactorily again, except for the rear brake and the rear wheel. Paul contacted Lynn Sanner, the farmer who owns the bike rental place, and he agreed to meet me there. So I walked the bike back to the trailhead. Lynn had a brake, a tire and tubes, but none of them instilled a whole lot of confidence in me. He did not have a rear brake cable. I had left mine at the B&B.

I needed to go back to the B&B anyway so I decided to go wait for my wife to call and decide on whether to call it quits. I filled the back tire with air and rolled back through town. Just the walk to the shop and the slow ride back to the B&B left me feeling really queasy. At the B&B I learned that the forecast for the next several days was for a cool rain all along the C&O.

My options were: 1. Repair the bike and ride over a mountain to the C&O. 2. Repair the bike and get a shuttle to the C&O, bypassing the mountain. 3. Repair the bike and ride highways to the east to bypass what was sure to be a nearly impassible canal towpath. 4. Call it a trip and ride home with my family in the van.

It would have taken me at least 4 days to get back home by option 3 (assuming no breakdowns). Options 1 and 2 could be longer. Add to this the fact that I did not have a whole lot of confidence in the replacement brake or tire, I knew nothing about Lynn's repair skills, and my physical condition was pretty pathetic. So I chose option 4.

The Hendershots let me hang out at their place until my family arrived that evening. I was home in my bed by 1 a.m. End of ride. No Regrets.