Calico Rocks to Cumberland Valley

May 5, 2014

I CAN'T say that I thrill to riding the C and O canal. It's pretty enough - although the Leggy Lovelies have been replaced by earnest men in corduroys and bright blue waterproofs hiking with bags - but it's bumpy, it's hard going and there's no sense of progress. The world could have turned you back the other way and, if you were too shattered to notice the water was on the other side, you could ride back the way you came without noticing.

Still, I keep telling myself that riding through the Appalachians would be worse, and that is consolation enough.

Another hiker-biker site to ourselves tonight. We take the few places not swamped by water. Keith instructs me in the ways of poison ivy, which I fully expect to leap at me in the night, and we fall asleep before sundown.

Humble campgrounds lie every half an hour along the canal, especially for cyclists and hikers

Antietam battlefield: the bloodiest battle of the American civil war. Keith was my knowledgeable guide throughout

A Ranger told me he had once been asked why civil war battles were always held in state parks

Shepherdstown's little house, just two metres to the eaves. It's part of a university project on childhood development. The inside is complete with scale furniture

Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 190 km (118 miles)

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