The Ride Story (part 1 of ?) - Day 1
Well, we made it! People have been asking for updates and pics, so let's get this party started. I'm going to break this up over several parts (at least 4 for the trip itself, another for my thoughts on it all, and then I'll need an entire post just for thanking all the that helped me). Let's dive in...
The day before
By Wednesday, I was fully packed. That way I had the day to button up loose ends and edit my packing. The goal was to make it a largely stress free day. However, the email I got from Kirk early in the morning gave me a bit of a scare, as the subject was "Trip." I thought for sure he was going to have to bail, but it wasn't quite so bad; his work travel the coming Sunday and his newborn at home were forcing him to only do the first day. Which was OK, because he'd still be able ride with me to Harper's Ferry, where Robbe was joining. Crisis averted.
Cut to 11:15pm, when he and I were texting about the meetup the next morning. Earlier at dinner, Brittany had asked "now you're sure bikes are allowed on the MARC train to D.C., right?" I took a bit of offense to her asking, because of course I'd double checked a detail as important as that! But then when Kirk, who commuted on that train for years, asked the same question, I started to panic. And of course, no, bikes are not allowed on the train.
Brittany helped me overcome the stress, and we decided I'd drive us to New Carrollton station and take the metro to Foggy Bottom. She'd go and get my car over the weekend.
Day 1
Getting started
The new plan worked, we had subway sandwiches for lunch, and rode the few short blocks to the trail head in Georgetown. It was an easy morning and at 12 noon on the dot, we took off.
Great Falls
Our first goal was Great Falls, which I think we made it to without stopping for any length of time. We had a snack there and did the walk out to the falls. It was pretty sweet.
Riding and breaks
Next we just started cruising again until we'd stop and stretch or snack. I rode a little faster than Kirk during some of this, not because I'm a jerk, but because of the gearing on my bike: a single rotation of the crank on mine moves it further than a single rotation on his. We were pleasantly surprised how the weight of the gear actually propelled the bike a little faster, once you had momentum, instead of feeling like a tow. At some point I stopped at a campsite (Horsepen Branch or Chisel Branch) to regroup with him. While I was waiting I face timed Brittany, and showed her the random dog that was there, with a collar and tags on, running around in the middle of nowhere. Luckily a family, who are presumably more dog people than I, held on to him and were actively working to get him help. When we left, they still had him, and it appeared they had plans to get him to his owner (there was a phone number, but no immediate answer). Nice enough dog though; he had this funny, permanent smile.
By this point I had noticed a flaw in my bike setup that would greatly impact the rest of the ride. I have a fixed-gear road bike, built to accommodate very thin tires, and not much more. For this trail, we but on slightly bigger tires that just barely fit, leaving only about 1/8" between the tire and the fork. This was causing a huge amount of mud to get stuck there, effectively acting as a constant brake. I'd have to stop every few miles and clean it out with a stick. Occasionally I'd take the whole wheel off to give it a better cleaning. It was quite annoying.
Wildlife
On day one I saw: 3 herons, 2 snakes (a black one and a small brown one with a yellow stripe), 4-5 deer, a groundhog, tons of turtles, and my favorite, an owl! (I can't recall having ever seen one in the wild).
White's Ferry
We took off again, this time Kirk had said "go ahead, I'll catch up." I rode to White's Ferry, the site of the previous trip's end. It was gratifying to have done in one day the entire previous trip, even if I had been hiking the first time. I texted Kirk so he wouldn't ride past me, took some photos, and attempted to get a soda, but the store was closed and neither vending machine was taking dollars.
Jack
Here I met Jack for the first of many times throughout the trip. Jack was much older, and MUCH rounder, than me, but I could tell that he could ride hard nonetheless. He wore black bib shorts over a neon yellow under armour rash guard, and seemed to give zero shits that he did NOT look like this guy at all. We chatted a bit, and I'd asked him if he'd passed Kirk. He said "yeah I think so... he said 'these padded shorts only work for so long.'" I knew that was Kirk, haha.
Little side story, at the vending machines I'd asked Jack if he could change a 5. He couldn't but someone in a car right behind me (waiting for the ferry to Leesburg) said "I got you" and handed me 5 ones. He had a nice car white car with a tan leather interior, like the kind you'd think a real jerk would drive. But he was very nice, and I remember being impressed. I just want to be a nice person too, but city living can take its toll. This wouldn't be the last time on the trip we encountered genuine kindness.
Moving On
I walked back to the trail to see if I could see Kirk approaching, and just a minute later he came riding up. Unfortunately the first thing he said was "I'm done dude," haha. We chuckled and I told him we had to get a little further, but that we could call it a little sooner than planned. He agreed, while checking his phone, and said "dude you texted me a half hour ago!? You've been here for a half an hour!?"
Camp
Kirk was a bulldog, and we toughed out another 7 miles. It had started raining a bit in White's Ferry, and I was tired too, so it made sense to pitch camp at mile 42.4, Indian Flats campsite (only about 5 miles south of my loose plan). We set up camp, cleaned up, ate, and sat on a log down by the river sipping whiskey while the sun set. It was drizzling, but we had tree cover and it was peaceful. We talked about how the view probably hadn't changed in years, save for the site of the hulking Dickerson Power Plant. We were quickly running out of light and the rain was picking up, so we headed back to the tents. As I was trying to remove the stubborn foil on my toothpaste, the rain really started coming down. We scrambled into our tents just in time, leaving our stuff orderly, if not lock-tight.
The rain quickly become a downpour. I chatted with Brittany briefly, but got off the phone as my small backpacking tent required me to be very still in a single position in order to not get wet. I'd borrowed Robbe's sleeping pad, but because I'd never used one before, didn't have it properly inflated. Oops.
After the rain had stopped in the middle of the night, I heard some commotion. I was close to the picnic table, and my tent looked directly on it. I saw the shadow of something and the outline of the bag of trash on the picnic table just disappear. I tried to shine my light on it, but the net door was still up, and I couldn't see a thing through it. By the time I'd gotten it unzipped, he was gone.
A few hours later, I heard some more noises, and this time Kirk was woken up by it. He opened his tent to a direct line of sight of my bike (and saddle bags) and got eyes on a racoon! He shoo'd him away, and I didn't think much of it, since there was little if any food there. What's the worst that he could've done? It'd be an entire day and night before I'd find out.
