C&O Day 6

So the last real day of the trip was upon us. We had another relatively big mileage day ahead of us, but with the previous day being a little shorter, we felt good. By this point Jon was hardly carrying anything, just his clothes I think. I was still loaded up pretty well in an effort to help Jon-boy make it through the trip without issues. Not sure I really needed to be so nice, as he seemed to be doing well and was seeming to get a little stronger the longer we were riding.

We started the day with the ride from our campsite downhill for 1.5 miles loaded with gear, which was super fun and fast, but carrying the bikes down the staircase on the north side of the Potomac River was a PITA. The day started easy enough but soon we hit the dreaded mud again. The trail turned into an absolute quagmire after Whites Ferry. Apparently the river got so high this past spring that the convenience store was closed for flood repairs as the water had reached the height of the counter at its peak. That sucked as it was a relatively hot day and we were jonesin' for an ice cold Coke. Just prior to that I had the one and only mechanical of the entire trip, a flat front tire. While I swapped tubes Jon soldiered on to find out the bad news about the convenience store and talk to some Coppers we met at the ferry site (some on bike, some in there full police vehicle regalia). They warned us of the pending swamplands on our eastward journey, where they had just come from, but did we heed there warning, NOOOO. Of course, we were not as fortunate as them to have a handy police cruiser around to shuttle us around the slop.

Monacacy Aqueduct

Builders block on Moncacy Aqueduct - shows names of folks involved with the building of this aqueduct.

Whites Ferry to cross the Potomac. I believe this is the only active ferry across the Potomac anymore. It is a shortcut to Leesburg. The "drowned" convenience store can be seen on the right.

The towpath finally dries out!

One of the many heron along the towpath.

We saw multiple aqueducts and probably had one of the more scenic days on the C&O towpath. The Great Falls area was pretty cool and may warrant a day trip sometime in the future. They had full on reenactments/demonstration of the locks with a boat and mule team, with the participants wearing time period specific garb. Better them than me on a 90+ degree day. There were many side trails we neglected to hike in our haste (ie fatigue) but the falls themselves were pretty cool. After that we had what ended up being a relatively downhill ride to our residence for the night, the lockhouse for Lock 6, due there being a lot locks crammed into the ~9 miles between the 2 areas. Jon was quite pleased with how that worked out! Total mileage: 58.1 miles.

Re-enactors at Great Falls.

Great Falls Tavern.

First taste of the Falls.

Getting closer to the real deal...

Closer...

The "Real Deal" at Great Falls. Jon and I both were a little surprised at how crazy the falls were.

Some kayakers below the falls.

Suddenly I was reminded of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. As you can see, the Canal widened up significantly below the falls. We passed multiple trailheads to our right through this area of the park, all of which said us caution and expect to basically craw along cliffs at some point during the trail to overlook the Great Falls of the Potomac.