July 5, 2016
Day 35 Sharpsburg to Hancock
Messy, but fun.
We started the day with a visit to the Antietam Battlefield. The Civil War battle at Antietam on September 17,1862 was the single bloodiest day in American history with 23,000 American soldiers, Federal and Confederate, killed, wounded or missing. The battlefield and surrounding area has been very carefully protected and preserved. The NPS has done an outstanding job of providing a visitor's experience that recreates the events leading up to the battle as well as the battle and it's aftermath. The park ranger who told the story of the battle to our group was one of the best speakers I have ever heard. I'm sorry that we didn't get his name or photograph.
After that serious and sober start to the day, we headed off to rejoin the C&O Canal. We took a detour on local roads to miss a few miles of the canal trail because of the rain the day before. We ended riding about 20 miles on the C&O.
It was cool, shady, peaceful, quiet and muddy. Our fenders kept most of the mud off of us, but the bike needed a thorough hosing down when we got to the hotel.
Along this part of the C&O we came to a place where there had been a bridge across the lock.
We came to a place with wild strawberries
And, we stopped at Dam 5. The original dam was built on this site in 1835. General Stonewall Jackson tried, unsuccessfully, in 1861 to destroy the dam so that coal could not be carried down to Washington, DC on the canal.
The last 10 miles of today's ride were on the clean, smooth, paved Western Maryland Rail Trail.
Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 1,756 miles (2,826 km)
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