Phoenix Bikes 2009 Camping Trip
- GREAT SUCCESS!
The trip started (for me) with a call to Mike G, asking what time he will be leaving his house. I went down to McDonald's to get some breakfast. I had no time to eat it, because I had to rush home, and attach my trailer and rush to Mike's place. I got there (a little late) and waited for mike to finish his orange juice. Just after we started pedaling, he said one thing that kept playing over and over in my head: "Well, here it goes!" to which I replied "Oh fraz.".
We rode down the shop, and meet up with all the people. I was shocked to see how many people were going. Then I realized all the stuff that has to be carried, and considering I was planning on hauling the trailer, I was nervous. After we packed the cars, we drove off into the sunrise, out into the MOUNTAINS OF WEST VIRGINIA.
When we got to Paw Paw, WV I gave myself an urgent mission. Get to the bathrooms. After Xavier had finished giving birth, I got in, got out, and we all headed out on our expedition. We arrived and immediately emptied the cars, packed peoples backpacks, and got the trailers ready.
We rode down to the Paw Paw tunnel entrance, had a quick meeting, and moved through the tunnel. I was moving slowly, one to avoid hitting the walls and railing, and second to freak out people behind me. I enjoyed being in the tunnel, it was nice and cool, dark, and knowing there is a sturdy railing preventing you from falling all the way down into the canal prism was nice. After going through the tunnel, I got some pictures of the beautiful scenery around the other end, and we got moving.
About 1 mile before the lunch stop, I came to the sudden realization (or , as others may say, had a temper tantrum) of the weight of the trailer. Not as easy as it looks. So, I decided to pass it off to Sami. Sami hauled it for a while, then switching to Jesse and his Wife.
We pedaled and pedaled till we reached camp. We went swimming in the potomac river ( which, out there, dosent have diseases floating about) and enjoyed it A LOT. We had a nice spaghetti dinner, some fresh corn, and went on a night hike (were I almost passed out, either from exhaustion or dehydration, probably both). We went to bed, were I was luck enough to have a tent all to myself, since Shawn was with Theo and Sami.
We all woke up, got ourselves ready, and has some great oatmeal. Or, had oatmeal whether we liked it or not. I liked it. We rode through the day, stopped for lunch, and rode. That's all I can remember, since I was in CycleMania mode.
We finally reached camp, and meet this nice guy named Brian. He was riding from Pittsburgh to D.C via the Great Allegheny Trail and C&O canal. He put up with our shenanigans, which we all appreciated. We had pizza, and I went straight to bed cause I was tired. I woke up briefly for smores, and went back to bed. Xavier, Robel, Mauricio, Sami and I shared a tent. For a lot of the night, we were trying to solve the mystery of who was stinking up the tent. To this day, this remains a mystery. I ingnored the aromas and focused on sleeping.
In the morning, I had more AWESOME OATMEAL to start the day. We rode, tired and ready to go home, all day. After the Big Slackwater detour, we decided not to go all the way to Harper's Ferry, instead stopping in Sheperhdstown, MD. I think we probably could have made it, but it was nice to sit in a car with AC. After driving fro two hours, Bobby was nice enough to treat us to DQ. As weird as it sounds, we ended up buying burgers rather than Ice Cream. I got My trailer in Bobby's car and got a ride home as quick as was possible, because all I wanted was to go home and lay in my bed.
This trip taught me about long distance riding and trip planning. There we a lot of things we could have done better, but no matter what way you go about it, the C&O canal is always a nice trip.
Some photos of the trip can be found at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/johnmichaellillisjr/PhoenixBikes2009CampingT...
