For just the 3rd time in our 10+ year history, we have a guest blogger here at Fatmarc.com. Jay Cimini has been one of the guys that I have admired, and measured myself against for the 20+ years I have been riding and racing bikes. Generally speaking, it's been a goal that has eluded me! Jay is one of the best all around riders I know. While I have never really been in his league, I have always loved the opportunity to chase the guy around. Outside of cycling he's just a great guy- smart, humble and really funny. Now I will admit, his cycling fashion sense sometimes leaves something to be desired, but when you are as fast as Jay- you always look good!
Jay recently completed the C&O Canal path from Cumberland to DC with two other equally strong and good guys: Matt Neugebauer and Chuck Arensberg. I asked Jay to write up a blog about the adventure. He did a great job. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...
Have you ever thought about putting together an all-day ride? It’s something
I've thought about for years after hearing about the legendary Team Delaware
June 20th solstice rides. I always wondered how to make this happen. Should
it be Mountain or road ride. Who would go? What's the route? It finally
happened for me when Chuck asked if I wanted to ride the C&O canal tow path
with him. I said yes-ish at the time since I had not heard a lot about it. One
search on google maps and I was hooked. Next on board was Matt so we had a
trio. If you google directions from Cumberland Maryland to Georgetown
Virginia and then click on the bike route option the route magically appears.
It still blows my mind that this gravel tow path that was made for mules over
a 100 years ago still exist. In my mind it had to be ridden. 183.5 miles of
twisting but continuous tow path (except one 2 mile detour from erosion).
Even more amazing is that if you go the other direction from Cumberland you
end up in Pittsburgh. We kept joking that we would end up in Pittsburgh on
accident. Luckily we didn’t. I enjoyed the days leading up to the trip. It
was fun telling people with a straight face we were going to attempt it all
in one day. I could see the restraint on everyone’s face as I waited for a
reaction. The looks were priceless but I knew we probably had a 50/50 shot.
Cumberland Maryland seemed to be completely oriented around the cyclist on
the path. The hotels all cater to bikers. There’s a bike shop along the
trail. Since the C&O as well as the GAP canals meet there it is a big focus
of the town.
There are a decent number of people along the trail even during the week.
Every 10-20 miles there was a park or a town with local walkers or bikers.
There were fewer long distance travelers that I thought but there were a few.
This is the easiest trip in the world for anyone of any skillset. Our
planning amounted to picking a day, a hotel (the wrong one 100 feet from a
train yard), the right tires and getting a ride to Cumberland. Along the
path there are towns with hotels, campgrounds and hand pump wells treated
with iodine to make your trip safe and comfy. You can make it as hard or as
easy as you want with minimal research. If you can’t find someone to drive
you and you don’t want to do an out and back or a car drop off you can use a
bus or Uhaul for transport. There are so many beautiful places to stop and
look. Many historic spots as well. One of the coolest places was the 3000
foot long tunnel. It was amazing. Only Matt had a light on his bike so
Chuck and I followed. I could see where to go but not anything around me.
Pretty surreal. Anyway there are many ways to enjoy it and many options for
distance. So if you are interested then check out a portion of the canal and
you’ll be hooked. Fall must be amazing there. A mountain bike would be
great but a cross bike with 32c tires was more than adequate. This is one of
the many websites to help you plan www.bikecando.com There is also a C&O
canal app.
The C&O canal is an amazing feet of engineering itself. Much of the canal
and the 75 locks still exist. The unfortunate part about the canal still
being mostly intact is that there is basically 183.5 miles of stagnant water.
Sometimes smelly but mostly green. There were quite a few people fishing in
it (while smoking for some reason) but it’s hard to imagine any fish in
there. Not sure I would eat anything that lived in it as it took on the
appearance of the Bayou and I was totally expecting to see a gator come out
at some point. There was tons of beautiful wildlife along the way. Turtles,
squirrels, deer, blue heron, rabbits, ground hogs, etc. They caused more
than a couple high pitched screams as they darted out in front of us as we
rode. The canal was quite a contrast since you had a 10 foot wide stationary
green water on one side and on the other side was the raging Potomac river.
The river was brown like coffee with cream and as wide as a lake in many
places due to the large amount of rain that week. Quite often the river was
up to the side of the tow path. Looking across you could see many full size
trees that resided on temporarily invisible (flooded) islands.
We could not have asked for a better day. It was about 70-75 degrees the
whole day. There was also an ever present canopy of trees shading us. The
straight trail disappeared into the canopy giving it the appearance of a
slight incline even though it was pan flat.
At the start of the day a few people asked us where we were going. Chuck was
all too proud to say “Georgetown Virginia”. The most common response to his
answer was “But how far are you going today?” And Chuck took even more
delight in responding “Georgetown Virginia”.
The ride was a bit more stressful than I thought it would be but it was our
own fault. There were thousands of puddles, sticks, logs, people and animals
to dodge the whole day. This was extra stressful when trying to attempt a
pace line. We started off much too fast but thanks to my crank bolt coming
loose every 5 or 10 miles in the beginning we calmed the pace down. We
stopped at mile 60 and I got a better Allen key at a hardware store. That
got us 20 miles before a tighten up. The last 60 miles it did not come
loose.
 |
| Allen key not included... |
Matt and Chuck never complained once when we had to stop because of the bolt.
I was doing everything I could to prevent it from coming loose. I was
minimizing accelerations, trying to apply even pressure, high cadence and
mostly I was just pedaling with my right leg. I was really worried the first
20 miles that this would not be sustainable. I did a lot of checking to
ensure the bolt didn’t fall off as it would have been the end of the day if I
lost it. As I mentioned we were trying to draft as much as possible and
combined with all the obstacles we ended up with two minor crashes.
The most vivid memory of the trip I have is Matt climbing up the almost vertical
embankment holding onto trees on his way up. He was only a couple feet from
entering the raging Potomac after he rolled off the trail during a crash. It
was like a scene out of the Tour de France except there was a river close by
not a rocky mountain slope. I scrapped my knee during one crash. For the
next hour all I could think about was the sensationalized media talk about
deadly bacteria in mud.
The ride started off at 6:30 with a lot of talking but you could only hear
about half of what someone said with all the wind noise. Still talk of
“session-ing” puddles and goals for the day was fun and it passed the time.
We slowly switch to singing, which was easier. I was enjoying belting some
Bon Jovi… Living on a Prayer….We’re half way there…. We got some laughs from
people we passed. By mile 100 we switch to one word communication and
pointing. Things like TURTLE!!!, STICK!!! Flowers!!! STOP!!!! I tried to
keep some level of conversation just to keep us connected and an attempt to
determine everyone’s spirit animal was unsuccessful. We also shared a lot of
our food to try and mix it up and keep each other from bonking. Straight
honey was the ride favorite. Matt was drinking it straight from the bear
shaped plastic bottle. So pro. I guess his spirit animal could have been
the honey bear. Everyone took their turn feeling good and pulling on the
front. We were drafting less and less as the day went by but we always
stayed together. Each of us were silent for long periods of time as the
miles seemed to take longer and longer. I was glad not to have a computer of
any sort on my bike.
By the time we stopped for lunch in Harpers Ferry at
mile 125 it was after 3:00. It seemed we were so close with only 60 miles to
go but I did the math: 4 more hours of riding. Daylight was now going
to be an issue.
Riding into Harpers Ferry was pretty funny.
Everyone was on vacation dressed up nice and going for a little walk or hike.
We rolled up covered in mud and blood on our cyclocross bikes. We rode
around for a little while until we settled in on a small tavern for lunch.
The conversation with the waitress/hostess quickly went sideways. I was
trying to figure out if they had food to go. For some reason she kept
repeating the beers they had on tap. I’m sure I was mostly to blame since I
hadn’t calmed down from riding. The waitress was super nice but gave you
that look like she was completely high when you were talking to her. She was
a trip. While we waited for food I rode around the small historic town
looking for food to take with us. The biggest disappointment of the day came
when I saw a bakery up ahead only to find out it was a historic museum and
the bread was plastic. Damn you plastic bread!
Back at the tavern we sat down to eat, checked our equipment, unloaded all our food wrappers, updated love ones on our progress and then headed back to the trail. We were focused
on getting back before dark.
In the last 15 miles we were tempted by paved section next to the tow path
but we decided it was an all gravel day and skipped it. We rolled into the
parking lot at 8:45. Perfect timing for an all-day ride. Minus the crashes
it was a great day to be on the bike. We all supported each other as much as
we could with food and encouragement. There was no tension even after the
crashes. At no point did I say to myself “I wish I was at work”. I love my
job but this was way better.
The best feeling was the next day when I thought back to everything that went
right and wrong all that mattered was that we finished. There was no regret
from a high entry fee or second guessing a decision that could have gotten me
one or two more places higher. Just the satisfaction that we made it from
Cumberland Maryland to Georgetown Virginia on our bikes.
I want to thank Joanna for driving us to Cumberland and then enduring our
massive BO on the drive home from Georgetown. And Matt for the ride name
#3idiots1canal. Also Chuck for making the idea a reality.
Special Thank to Jay for putting this together, and as always, thanks for reading.
respect
fatmarc
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