1997

C&O Canal Bike Ride

At the end of the Canal in Cumberland, Maryland
I am on the left

In September I biked the entire 184 miles of the C&O Canal over three days. I had been on several bike rides on the canal of ten or so miles between DC and Great Falls but had not considered biking the entire canal until one day I bumped into Dennis. I had known Dennis for several years as he was the Scout Master of the Boy Scout troop that I helped with, but I had not seen him in over a year until I ran into him at Starbucks when I was getting a coffee for Julie (I don’t drink coffee). Dennis and his wife were sitting at a table, so I stopped to talk to him. Dennis knew that I was an active cyclist from the time when we took the Boy Scouts on two-day bike ride so he mentioned he and his friends were planning the C&O ride and he invited me to go along and I quickly said yes.  

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal, runs along the north side of The Potomac River starting at George Town in Washington, DC and terminating at Cumberland, Maryland. I had biked several portions of the canal, from DC to Great Falls and always enjoyed the beauty of it as it runs alongside the river. The canal averages about 60 feet wide and six feet deep and was used to transport barges of goods pulled by mules walking on the tow path that runs along the canal. The canal has an elevation change of 605 feet from end to end which required 74 canal locks, 11 aqueducts to cross major streams, and passing though the 3,118 foot Paw Paw Tunnel. The single biggest drop of 47 feet is at Great Falls which has six locks. The C&O Canal shut down in 1924, being replaced by the much more efficient and faster railroad and was neglected and ran dry. In 1961 it became a National Monument and in the years since, much of the tow path has been restored into a bike path and portions refilled with water. In the Great Falls area several locks have been restored to working order and you can ride a barge on the canal pulled by mules.

The first day of the ride we met in Georgetown in the parking lot under the Key Bridge at the Capital Crescent Trailhead.  Officially the C&O Canal towpath trailhead starts about a half-mile before the Cresent trailhead in downtown Georgetown, but parking there is a problem, so we started at Key Bridge where there is ample parking under the bridge. For the first couple of miles we rode on the Cresent trail which is paved making easier biking since the C&O Canal trail is hard packed dirt. The Cresent Trail runs parallel to the C&O Canal trail often a few feet apart until Arizona Avene where the Cresent Trail crosses over the canal and heads north into Maryland. At this point we switched to ride on the C&O Canal Trail.

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The Passing of Tute