Day 1: Pittsburgh to DC to Catonsville

Game Day

As usual, I cannot sleep before big athletic events This was no exception. The plan was to launch by 3am, so if I went to bed by 6-7, I could get 6-7 hours of sleep. After much fussing and re-fussing with my gear, I finally ended up in bed at 11:30.  Great plan. And then I couldn't fall asleep. One thing about tapering for a big event, is that if I do no physical activity that day, I have a lot of pent up energy. I guess I am using up that energy to cover for my lack of sleep.

(Thursday, 3am) Lets all wake up from our wonderful sleep-and you drive Jeff

I picked up Jeff bright and early exactly at 3am. Heading off to Paul's house, Jeff cracked a joke and asked if I was going to ride in Croc's. Oh snap! I was wearing Croc's.  I realized I had forgot to put my Five Ten riding shoes in the car. A quick back track to my house and we arrived at Paul's at 3:20. We were finally heading off to Pittsburgh @ 3:25am. Jeff offered to drive the first half and I snuck in the back to see if I could sleep. And sleep I did. The entire ride! While Jeff was looking for relief, I was passed out in the back.

On the ride over, it had started raining about an hour before Pittsburgh. Yeah! We just hoped the B&O trail wouldn't be too muddy the next day.

(Thursday, 8am) Great nap-oh we are here already?

All unpacked and ready to roll!

Arriving in Pittsburgh the rain had turned into a light mist. This was looking promising as no one wanted to start out in the rain. Returning the car was easy at the downtown parking garage which also doubled as the Avis pickup/return point. We were only 0.3 miles away from the starting place-Point Park. However, a little mis-communication and we totally shot past it. We circled back and took a few pictures to document the official start of the Great Allegheny Passage.

The start!

It was all worth circling back to get the picture.

(Thursday, 9am) Dude-where's the start?

The ride had an auspicious start. Navigating out of the city, Paul dropped a burrito. It would be one of many things he dropped on the trip. The next incident was Jeff shearing off a bolt to his front bike rack at 20 miles into the trip. It looked like the panniers should have had a third mounting point, but there were only two available. As Jeff figured out how to attach his pannier bag to his Revelate seat bag, it had started to rain. Now we were getting cold and wet, but all knew this was just the beginning of a long ride and everyone kept their cool.

Old distillery we saw.  I didn't take this picture but stole it from here:
 http://swpare.blogspot.com/2011/11/abandoned-overholt-distillery-broad.html

Paul: 'I think we go right here . . .'
Jeff: 'That's a nice warehouse . . .'

Views from the left bank of the river.

One of the many awesome bridges along the GAP

Overlook on the Youghiogheny river

Some great scenic views of the Youghiogheny river

An awesome bridge crossing before Ohiopyle

The ride out of Pittsburgh was beautiful. It seems they offered a number of bridges to cross back and forth across the river so we had good views along the left and right banks. I wish I could post more pictures of the ride, but with the gloves, rain, and the fact that I can't ride without any hands, pictures taking opportunities only happened when we stopped.

(Thursday, 1pm) I am wet cold and shivering, let's stop and eat

At about 80 miles in we stopped for lunch in Ohiopyle. This was an amazing place and I wish we could have spent more time here if it weren't for the fact that we were wet, getting cold, and had another 255 more miles ahead of us. It had started raining a bit harder now, so we definitely wanted to find some shelter to eat. At this point in the game, I made the unwise move of putting on my shoe covers. I didn't put them on earlier in the ride because I thought they would overheat and get wet from sweat. .Well, now they were wet from rain. Both Jeff and Paul had put their neoprene shoe covers on at the beginning of the ride and had completely dry feet. One of those things you try to manage but fail. It turns out that putting them on still helped and kept my foot warm the rest of the day.

Rapids at Ohiopyle

Apparently we made it that far down that GAP map..

The rain had let up a little by the time we launched. Jeff looked to refill his water bottle, but we did no see any super accessible pump. We could have gone into a store to fill up, but with all of us cold and wanting to move, we thought we could fill up at the next pump 10 miles down. Or so we thought was 10 miles down. This decision would impact the ride for the rest of the night.

(Between miles 0 and 100) Retrospective Riding notes

This section is a bit of a reflection on how we rode to this point. Both Jeff and Paul had touring bikes which was perfect for this hard packed trail. Being the Mustachian frugalist, I opted to retrofit my hardtail mountain bike with a pair of cycle cross wheels I borrowed from a friend. While my bike rolled well, it accelerated poorly with the additional weight and the heavier wheel set. Compounding to this, I was the smallest rider with the lowest wattage output, so my bike moved significantly slower. While riding, we agreed to trade leading off every mile. If you look carefully at the Strava analysis, you can see every time I took over, we took a dip in speed. And ever time I took lead, I pushed at a fairly uncomfortable pace while trying to keep the train moving. 

At the same time, Paul in retrospect said he wasn't feeling well from the beginning. Jeff and I didn't know this at the time, but he said he felt sluggish for the first 100 miles. This was good to know, because at one point Jeff and I were pushing 18 mph at a slightly uncomfortable pace. Paul told us to dial it down which was the smart thing to do.

Did I mention the occasional rain and slightly wet trails? From a traction perspective, this didn't bother us at all. What did bother us, was the rooster tail of water that the bike in front would send up to our faces. This made drafting harder as we couldn't ride directly behind the wheel without getting a mouth and eye full of mud and water. Paul blessed us with fenders on his bike, but it turns out fenders only protect the rider and doesn't minimize rooster tails. It turns our Paul's fenders saved him in other ways later in the trip.

On the ride up to Ohiopyle, the sun and rain had come out so we were constantly adding and shedding layers. A lot of things fell off both Paul's and Jeff's bikes from burritos, panniers, and jackets. Of course, my bike technical wasn't due until later that night. . . 

(Thursday, 3pm) Dude-where's that water pump?

About 10 miles from leaving Ohiopyle (90 miles into our Journey), Jeff runs out of water. As expected. However, we couldn't find an "accessible" or "convenient" water pump in Confluence, PA.  It was too out of the way. Not to worry-we will find another place 10 more miles down right? What we didn't realize is that we wouldn't find a place to fill up for the next 20 miles. 

Jeff looked pretty desperate for water, so I offer him my salted water and we finish up my supply by mile 100. We were in this exact same situation on our 200 mile ride during the summer. I wasn't too worried until I started feeling thirsty. When you feel thirsty, you know your already dehydrated.

We spotted a small town of Casselman, PA, but it was across the river and there was no way to get to it. I did pack a water filtration straw, but we weren't quite THAT desperate yet. In the next mile we saw a trail head marking and a GAP bathroom! This was another let down as there was no water pump here as well. WTF!?!?

Fortunately, the trail had crossed Rockwood, PA and we found a small convenience store a few hundred feet from the path.

(Thursday, 4:30 pm) Git your bike off my deck! Nobody needs that. Nobody needs that . . .

The next part of the trip was our second most memorable moment. At 110 miles and 10 hours in, all of us were feeling exhausted. We wanted to tick of 200 miles that day, so we knew we were only half way done, yet were pretty far behind our planned pace of 13-15 mph. Dying of thirst didn't make us feel any better. We found the Country Trail convenience store in Rockwood, PA and sought to end our drought. 

Paul led the way and pulled his bike on the deck/porch of the store where an old man was chain smoking out side. He promptly turned to Paul and said, "Git your bike off my deck! Nobody needs that. Nobody needs that . . ." The last part he kinda mumbled to himself, but you get the idea. 

I volunteered to wait with the bikes while Paul and Jeff had their own adventures inside store. While I was making small talk with Mr. Chain Smoker, Paul and Jeff were figuring out how to refill our water bottles. Apparently they couldn't use these steel sinks in the back and the attendant had to fill up the bottles from behind the counter. After dumping out all of Jeff's Infinite solution in his bottle, the attendant handed back quarter filled water bottles. I am guessing water is a scarce resource in Rockwood, because it took three more tries to have the water bottles topped off. 

When I went in to buy some food, I wanted to gather some intel on the next water stop. "Where's the next town heading to DC". Apparently I used an incorrect geographical marker as the attendant didn't know where was DC. "Okay-next town East on the GAP?" East was also an unknown orientation, so I pointed in the way we where heading. I got the town named Garrett, but no mileage information. Mr. Chain Smoker filled in that detail.

All of us gathered on the porch (where bikes aren't allowed) and noticed there was a bar connected to the convenience store. It had a big sign on it saying "Bikers Welcome". Oh-I guess we went to the wrong place! We witnessed a few store patrons drive up and leave their cars running while shopping inside. Paul joked "And you were afraid of leaving our bikes unattended?"  :-)

I wish I would have taken a picture of the place was too tired
to capture one. Here's a street view shot from Google Earth.

(Thursday, 5pm) Gimme some tunes!

While amusing as it was, leaving the store was definitely one of our lowest morale points that day. We were all tired, it was getting dark, and we were still a bit damp. And then Paul pulled out his bluetooth speaker and started playing some jams!

In a true pivotal moment, the mood shifted to a party. While I typically do not condone blaring music on the trails, there was no one we  to bother as we headed to Cumberland into the night.

The pace picked up as we all started to feel a little better. Paul actually started feeling himself as he struggled through the first 100 miles. Even the next day it took Paul 100 miles to warm up. To get himself back in the groove, he would spend his time in lead standing up pedaling for the full mile. The first time he attempted this he did a full three miles. My legs were so tired, I could barely stand up for 5 strokes before I had to sit down.

(Thursday, 6pm) Boom!

We were all feeling good and crushing down the path next to the train tracks when I heard a low popping sound from Pauls rear tire. Uh oh. It seems Paul had hit a sharp rock and blew out his tire. 

What Jeff and I witnessed next was truly amazing. In less than 5 minutes, Paul was in some bike mechanics trance as had replaced his tube and loaded up with air. Of course, the tube he replaced it with had a mis-seated core and all the air leaked out.  In the end it took a total of 15 minutes to change the tire, but we got back up and started rolling. We were currently in the middle of the climb up to Cumberland. It was a mild 1% grade, but it was a climb nonetheless when you you were carrying an additional 35 pounds of gear. We wanted to get to the top and without stopping crush downhill so we wouldn't be too cold. That would have been a great game plan except I had underestimated my salt intake.

(Thursday, 6:30pm) Where are my legs?

With that tire tube change, my legs had seized up and started cramping. As Paul and Jeff disappeared into the night, I could barely get back onto my seat. All my long endurance rides were in some relative heat, so I was diligently to take two Salt Lick pills every hour. Since I figured I was sweating less (or so I thought) in this cool weather, I reduced my intake to one pill every hour.  In addition to our water running dry, I had depleted my salt reserves. 

Paul and Jeff eventually stopped for me to catch up to them, but now I was in serious trouble. Cramps at this stage would totally slow us down and I've never experienced them knowing I still had 50 more miles to go tonight.  Over the next 5 hours, I managed to recover by doubling my Salt Lick intake but I dreaded taking lead every time as I was on the verge of seizing up. 

(Thursday, 7:28pm-mile 132) Let's climb some more hills!

Top of climb. About to cross the Eastern Continental Divide. 

We came up on right and about to bomb down on the left.

We made it to the top. While I love climbing hills, I was done and ready to descend. The climb wasn't really that steep since they compressed the 130 mile distance in the above image.  Unfortunately, my cramped legs wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the downhill bomb that was coming up.

And so we crushed downhill with mud flying in our faces and wind screaming in our ears. It was awesome! We were averaging 20 mph on some sections as gravity paid us back what we earned. We strolled through downtown Cumberland knowing we completed the GAP!

Jeff feeling good and Paul checking to see how much more we need to ride.

We are heading right.

(Thursday, 9:17 pm-mile 154) Don't splash me!

The C&O was not as well maintained as the GAP. As soon as we left Cumberland, we encountered 2-4 inch deep pot holes filled with water. Normally this wouldn't be anything too traumatic as they were dirt pot holes and posed little risk for tire punctures, but Jeff was concerned his other pannier would get knocked off.

The trail was double track with the middle section containing some nice fully grass. I normally like riding on grass, but not wet grass. Our tires seemed to do a great job of extracting water out of the grass and sending up behind us. All this meant that we couldn't bunch in our normal pace line as we slogged side to side dodging pot holes. This perhaps was one the worst riding aspects of the trip, as it was difficult to maintain momentum dodging wet pot holes and soggy grass for the next 20 mile.

(Thursday, 9:40 pm-mile 165 ish) Now it's my turn to break down!

Along this time, it was my turn to have my bike technical. I heard something snap and then some resistance in my drive train. I stopped immediately fearing it was my derailleur. It would have been great to show you a picture of what was going on, but I had only enough mental powers to figure out what had happened to my bike.

The big fat bungee cords that I used to strap down my sleeping pad had slipped off the PVC bar stabilizer and wound its way around my cassette. The point of failure that I thought could happen did happen. Since there were no caps on the PVC pipe, the bungees were free to slip off. I thought there was enough tension and normal forces to prevent it the cord from slipping off the end-however I was just proven wrong in a potentially catastrophic way.

There was a certain beauty in seeing how bungee could intertwine itself into the cassette, around the derailleur, and between the cassette and the wheel hub. I wish I had more wherewithal to take a picture, because it looked like my bike was done. But after spending the better part of 15 minutes hacking, pulling, and untwisting the bungee, my bike was free. And everything seemed to work. I tied everything back in place and we were off again.

(Thursday, 10 pm-mile 170 miles) Zombie ride--need sleep!

Starting back off again, Paul mentioned he was feeling dizzy. Not a good sign. It was late and we were well under our 200 mile goal for the day. We had passed few hiker/biker camp sites and planned on stopping at the next one.

It's funny how 5 miles feels like an eternity. Sloshing back and forth on the wet pot hole strewn trail made the next campground feel like 20 miles in the snow. But we arrived near Tom Creek.

That day we spent 15 hours and 42 minutes moving and traveled 177.2 miles. The rain, poor legs, and numerous technicals had slowed us down. But the best part is that we were still in good spirits.

It was windy but not rainy. Temps were definitely dropping, so we were quick to dry ourselves off and setup camp. There were some great trees along the campsite, and we settled in.

(Thursday 10:30pm-177.2 miles) Camping notes

Jeff had never hammock camped before. But Jeff is Captain America and he had his site set up first and was in bed before I knew it. I guess he was tired, or probably because I made him drive to Pittsburgh the entire time earlier that day.

I was still feeling the lingering effects of my cramps, so I wanted to make sure I hydrated before going to bed and stretched out. I was thankful my wife made me pack some lemonade mixes, because I really craved the sugar. I downed two bottles of those mixes combined with sweet iodine C&O water. 

Across the river the train was running so I was super glad I packed a set of ear plugs. I am sure Paul was super glad too as I lent him an extra set. We were feeling tired but good that day. Tomorrow would be longer.

Next day picture of our camp site. I guess I didn't run my
tarp that tight. I did keep the sides down low for wind
protection and since it wasn't raining anymore, this worked.

Jeff stuffing up his sleeping bag. 

You can check out Pauls fully enclosed tarp. It was like a tent.