Well, I left from Boston last Sunday (the 20th), and arrived in DC on Thursday evening the 24th. I had problems, but all in all it was a good trip.

I went with my brother, who had his gear in panniers on an old Schwinn mountain bike, and I put all of my stuff in a Bob Yak 28 Plus. We went to Confluence the first day, which was well over 80 degrees - the trail was crowded near Ohiopyle. I had trouble keeping up because of a bike problem that wouldn't be identified/corrected for a couple days. We camped at the Outflow campground, and ate at the Lucky Dog Cafe that is basically within walking distance.

The second day we had rain all the way to Cumberland- that was probably a good thing, considering the heat. I apparently twisted my right knee dismounting at the Salisbury Viaduct, which continues to hurt. I had to work hard to pedal downhill from the Divide, which I thought was because of my left pedal, which was visibly falling apart, as well as my knee pain. We camped at the Riverside Y. My wife met us and took us by car to a restaurant called Puccini on the oustskirts of town, that was quite good.

The next day we headed for Hancock, but we decided early on that I wouldn't make it the way things were going. We had my wife meet me at Paw Paw, WV, to take me on to Hancock where I would meet my brother. The plan was to get rid of the camping gear to lighten my load, and that we would continue the trip using B&B's. When I got to Hancock I tried riding without my gear, and ralized it was still very difficult. At that point I examined my bike and realized that the rear wheel wasn't spinning freely. I took it to the C&O Cyclery right where the C&O and WMRT trails enter the west side of town, where they quickly determined that my rear wheel needed to be trued. $10 later it was fine, and I was able to ride somewhat ok, despite my bad knee. I really should have realized I had a blike problem at the end of the first day.

The fourth day we got off to a late start, and took the asphalt WMRT for the first 10 miles or so. We then rejoined the C&O. With a properly working bike, I made it to Harpers Ferry just fine, even with occasional sharp pains in my knee. My wife met us on the trail side of the railroad bridge there, and we walked across to the car, and she shuttled us to the Quality Conference Center about 5 miles above town. In the morning it was an easy ride downhill back to the town.

The next day we went the rest of the way. The Towpath was muddy because of rain the night before, and we had a very slow time getting into DC. We hit the Towpath around 8:15 or so, and didn't get to Georgetown until about 6:30. I am having more trouble recovering from the muddy conditions of the last day, than I am from the bike and knee problems of the first four.

The next time I will allow more time to deal with problems, and spend more time exploring some of the towns along the way.