37-mile Bike Ride in Western Maryland, Got 18 miles per Oops

We enjoyed two weeks at Deep Creek Lake. We enjoyed cooler weather. We enjoyed seeing our many friends at Deep Creek Lake. We completed the electrical project - installing a new, larger winch to the race committee pontoon boat. When the new winch was purchased, we volunteered to install it, and to upgrade the electrical system (wiring, circuit breaker, solenoid) for the new winch.

We rode our bikes on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Rails-to-Trails trail and around Thousand Acres where our condo is located. We completed three more new (to us) segments of the GAP trip: Rockwood, PA to Confluence, PA; Cumberland, MD to the Big Savage Tunnel; and Connellsville, PA to Whitsett, PA with Tom and Heidi. We have now completed a little over 104 miles of the 145 mile trail.

Screenshot of map from Cumberland, MD to Connellsville, PA:

We played golf several times with Melanie. Kris took honors for the first few times as Darrell got used to the altitude (2,500 get elevation) - at least that is his story and he is sticking to it. Darrell got his groove back on the final outing to shoot a one-under-par for 9 holes.

Over Labor Day weekend, Melanie loaned us her motorboat to watch the sailboat races. Right after the start of the first race, a boat had their mast come down. Fortunately, no one was hurt. We responded to assist as we were closest, and towed the disabled boat back to their yacht club. In the second race, that same boat capsized and turned turtle. Along with several others, we assisted in the righting of the boat and towing it to empty out the water. And taking it back to the dock. Fortunately the rest of the weekend's races were uneventful.

We also worked on some smaller projects. We especially enjoyed seeing our many Deep Creek sailing friends. While we would have liked to have raced our Flying Scot, it seemed to be too much effort to break it out of storage and then put it away only a few days later. Next year.

Saturday, 12 September

While we originally planned to stay at Deep Creek Lake until next week, we decided to start south as we had finished our projects and many of our friends were not going to be at the lake for the weekend.

Sprinty was able to score a campsite at Shenandoah River State Park on a Saturday night on fairly short notice. With many more people figuring out that RVing is possible under COVID conditions, campgrounds around the country are more crowded than usual. In many places, reservations are impossible to get. Sprinty was delighted to get a spot in a highly rated state park, his usual first-choice for camping.

Today's activity was to ride a portion of the Western Maryland Rail Trail. The trail is 26.8 miles long and paved for almost the entire way. https://www.traillink.com/trail/western-maryland-rail-trail/

https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Documents/WMRTmap.pdf

As suggested in the reviews, we decided to start at the trailhead in Hancock, MD, which is near the 10 mile marker, and ride west towards Cumberland. The trail parallels the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath, a trail that runs from Washington, DC to Cumberland, MD. The combination of the C&O Canal and GAP provides a way to cycle from Washington, DC to Pittsburgh, PA, a very popular route. As we rode today, and on other days on the GAP, we see through-bikers loaded down as they tackle these trails.

We arrived to a nearly full parking lot and Sprinty was able to back-in to one of the only parking spots he could fit. There were a bunch of other bike riders gathering. We learned they were a ski club going for a bike ride. They recommended riding west (as we planned) as going east also paralleled I-70. They also told us that the Indigo Tunnel between Mile Markers 24 & 25 was closed. The tunnel section was not improved for the Trail to protect the bats that had made it their home. The trail bypasses the tunnel by connecting to the C&O Canal Trail for about two miles. We were a little concerned about riding on the C&O Canal Trail as we remember some muddy riding on it near Washington some 25+ years ago. We took some comfort that there had not been much rain for a week.

Another reason we planned to ride west from Hancock, MD was that it was upstream along the Potomac River. Darrell harbored the hope that we might get a two-fer with the ride today by doing a portion of the Western Maryland Rail Trail on the way out and a portion of the C&O Canal on the way back. Kris muttered at the idea, but played along.

The ride west was very nice - it was like the GAP trail only paved. And the slight uphill (as we were going upstream) was unnoticeable. Unnoticeable enough we rode most of the way without any electric assist at all.

Just before the tunnel, there was a bridge to cross over the abandoned canal to the C&O Canal Trail. We found the C&O Canal Trail was in good shape, and only a couple of small, nearly dry, mud puddles. We rode to the end of the Western Maryland Rail Trail, which came up at 17.2 miles on Darrell's trip odometer. The trail was completely blocked off. Looking past the barricade, the original railroad crossed the Potomac River on a bride - and the bridge had not been developed for cyclists.

As we slowed down approaching the barrier, we got the first OOPS of the ride. As Darrell applied the brakes (he had ready stopped peddling and was slowing down), the front wheel of his Rad ebike came loose from the front fork and the front fork of the bike crashed to the pavement. The bike came to an immediate stop. Darrell landed on his feet in a state of shock, while Kris saw it from behind. Apparently the front quick-release skewer that holds the front wheel on had come loose. Applying the front brake caused some leverage on the wheel that yanked the front wheel axle out of the fork holder.

The front wheel bent up the front fender (fortunately made of plastic) and the front disk brake was very slightly bent. Both of us were pretty shook up. In all the years of riding, thousands of miles on many different bikes, we had never, ever experienced a quick release coming loose. In fact, front forks have a feature so that if the front quick release comes loose, the wheel won't fall out of the fork. Maybe the feature does not work as well with disk brakes.

• Major Lesson Learned #1: check the quick release skewers regularly to make sure they have not worked themselves loose. While rare (see note about first time), the consequences can be significant.

After assessing the damage and straightening the brake disk by hand, we got the front wheel reinstalled and securely fastened. The brake disc only rubbed slightly, and was deemed rideable.

After a break at the turnaround, which included recovering from the shock of the event and thoughts about what might have been, we cut over to the C&O Canal Trail to ride it back to Hancock.

The C&O Trail was in pretty good shape. Not quite GAP quality, but very rideable with our fat tires. Occasionally, we came across mud puddles and would shift from one side of the trail to the other to avoid if possible. Along the ride, we saw the remnants of the C&O Canal and the locks that made it work.

The first 13 miles back, the trail was in pretty good shape. Then there was a five mile section where we encountered many soft spots, and found ourselves occasionally sliding a bit even with our fat tires. Narrower tires would have been more challenging.

Along the way back, we passed the remains of the Round Top Cement Mill. The abundance of high calcium lime stone drew cement manufacturers to this area in 1838.

Interestingly the distance ridden along the C&O Canal was longer than the Western Maryland Rail Trail - meaning the ride back was longer than the ride out. After almost 20 miles of riding back (recall, we turned round at 17.2 miles), Darrell decided to check and make sure we had not inadvertently passed our parking lot in Hancock. Riding with one hand, he used Siri (and the cell service that had been absent for most of the ride) to open Google Maps. We were just far enough away from Hancock that Maps did not show us much information.

Choosing (unwisely) not to stop, Darrell went hands-free to zoom the map scale. Fortunately, he was only going about 11 mph. But the front wheel turned, and skidded, and Darrell did a major face plant into the gravel and grass trail. Fortunately, the trail was not paved. Fortunately, he got his hands up and, along with his helmet, was able to slow the face plant enough that all he got was a bloody nose. Mostly from his glasses being shoved into the bridge of his nose. And a very minor scratch on his glasses. The phone came through without a scratch, and the bike was fine except the handlebars were just a tad crooked (easy fix).

Needless to say, we were both pretty shook up. He took his time getting up, even lying on his back on the ground for a few minutes. Kris provided the paper towels to dab up the blood.

Once some of the shock was over, Darrell decided to complete the task that resulted in the crash - checking the map. We were only 0.9 miles from the end of the ride.

• Major Lesson Learned #2: don't try and use your phone while riding (or driving). Perhaps with 1,200 miles of riding his ebike, Darrell had become a bit complacent. Riding with no hands on a short wheelbase bike with 20" wheels is a bad idea. Especially on unpaved surfaces. Always keep one hand on the handlebar, preferably two.

• Major Lesson Learned #3: ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS wear a bike helmet. Also good to wear bike gloves. Both OOPS instances today happened unexpectedly and in an instant. While Darrell landed on his feet in the first instance (he was going slowly and slowing), a front wheel coming off at speed would likely have had a very different result. In the second instance, the helmet reduced the injuries as it held Darrell's head up just enough that the helmet skidded on the gravel instead of his forehead. It likely took enough of the fall that he only got a bloody nose. The gloves protected his hands as he landed and skidded across the ground such he got no scrapes or cuts on his hands.

With enough excitement for the entire summer out of the way, we pedaled slowly back to Sprinty. After getting the eBikes packed away, we used Sprinty's running water to clean Darrell's bloody face.

With more surprises than usual for the day, Kris took over the task of piloting Sprinty to Shenandoah River State Park in Bentonville, VA, about an hour-and-a-half away.

Our reservation was for a non-site specific campsite. Virginia (and some other states) designate some sites as reservable sites and some as non-site specific sites. Meaning, you have a reservation, but your specific site gets assigned when you arrive. As it was the last site available for Saturday night, we reserved the non-site specific campsite. Procrastinators can't be choosy.

When we arrived, they gave us the check-in packet and said we could select from any of site 1 through 18 that were not occupied. As we drove through, there were only 3 unoccupied sites - we picked one, which was also a pull-through site.

While Shenandoah River State Park has lots of hiking/biking trails beckoning for us to do some more riding or hiking, Darrell was still bleeding a bit so we spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from the earlier OOPS moments.