August 6, 2017
Day 3: Literally All Downhill and Figuratively A Big Bump - Cumberland Trail Connection Shuttle Fail, but the group overcomes
Sunday was the final day of our adventure and logistics were complicated. John would leave Confluence by bicycle at 0700 and get to Deal (37 miles away) by 10am. June, Carole and Rick would drop Chris and his bike off at Garrett (11 miles from Deal) and he would meet John in Deal while June/Carole/Rick would drive to Cumberland. Dan/Andy and Mike/Kathy and Larry/Sue would drive to Cumberland to meet June/Carole/Rick and the nine of them (and their bikes) would be shuttled back up to Deal by Cumberland Trail Connection, who we had used with great success for a simplified (just John/Carole/Chris/June) version of this intricate scheme.
(In case you were wondering, the Lazy Slaggard group (Jim/Jacqui/Maggie/Ken/Felicia) just lounged around the Parker House and ate all the remaining pie and brownies.)
After a final home brewed coffee and bagel breakfast at the Parker House, I set off at 0700 for the gradual 37 mile uphill (800 foot elevation gain) to Deal.
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About 10 miles in I reached the Pinkerton bridge/tunnel/bridge section just about the same time as a freight train interrupted the quiet morning. At the 30 mile mark I reached the Meyersdale rest stop where I traded in some used coffee for some new water. A few miles later I went over the Salisbury Viaduct and had a nice view of the long line of wind turbines on the ridge to the east. Overall, I saw 12 deer, 16 turkeys, 8 rabbits, 8 cats and a chipmunk - and one thing that was either a bobcat or a very large fox.
Being a professional analyst, in planning this I had calculated the reliability parameters as:
Carole arriving in Cumberland on time - .99
June/Rick - .9
Dan/Andi - .99
Mike/Kathy - .8
Larry/Sue - .75
Cumberland Trail Connection leaving on time - 1.0
Multiplying all those probabilities together told me there was a 53% of this all going off on schedule. I had told CTC we might have some stragglers and they said "This isn't our first rodeo - no group is ever on time."
Back to Mike Tyson: "Man plans, Sunday am shuttle drivers laugh" - turned out all the Camp John people hit a 1.0 reliability level, although Carole and Rick managed to get trapped in an Amish buggy Sunday AM traffic jam that almost made them late.
The big SNAFU occurred when Cumberland Trail Connection only had one of two shuttle drivers show up - I should have asked how their previous rodeos had worked out. Carole took one for the team and acted as a shuttle and then drove back down to Cumberland.
Chris and I had both reached Deal and were waiting for the shuttle when June texted Chris with the information about (in her shocking language) the Cumberland Trail Connection Cluster-f*** and Carole not doing the downhill ride, so I took off down the hill at a high rate of speed and reached Cumberland after about 80 minutes to keep Carole company.
The Downhill Biker Gang set off from Deal and soon crossed the Eastern Continental Divide.
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Next was the Mason Dixon line.
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Maggie drove in to Cumberland and soon joined us, and she and Carole walked around Cumberland while I waited at the finish line. Many Pittsburgh to Cumberland through riders were coming through, so I ended up using their phones to take pictures for them while I waited. Finally, the Camp John Downhill Biking society arrived, with Chris (wearing the yellow jersey) leading them in.
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Much of the group had a so-so meal at the Crabby Pig (Cumberland calls itself the "Queen City" because it was once the 2nd largest city in Maryland. It is not and has never been known as the Cuisine City) and we all said our goodbyes and got back in our cars for the ride home.
A footnote: When we got home and I took the bicycles off the Outback, Carole's bike had a completely flat front tire! If she had done the downhill ride, when she hit the oddly sharpened cobblestones on the Mason Dixon Line marker across the trail, she may have lost control of her bike on the steep downhill, careened off the mountain and been sliced to bits by the wind turbines which had been spun into action by the air escaping from her over-inflated tire.
But, nooooooo - the shuttle cluster-f*** ruined my carefully crafted plan/ luckily saved Carole from certain death.
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