The second day was 37 miles from Point of Rocks to Dam Number 4 Road. Our ending point was at the Big Slackwater detour. The guide book described it as narrow roads and steep climbs with a big "caution" printed in red Our SAG vehicles picked us up and drove us back to our hotel.

As usual we passed many hiker/biker camp areas and lock houses. The problem began when we hit the area where they were doing some surface repairs. Suddenly we were riding in 6" of a sand/gravel mixture. I was second in line and when the leader yelled stop I was able to unclip but the rider behind me hit my back wheel and my bike fell to the side I still had clipped. I ended up with a well scratched knee and large bruise on my thigh. The scene of the accident.


Our lunch stop was at Harpers Ferry. I loved everything about this town except the bridge to cross the river. I'm don't do well with heights and the open spiral staircase presented a challenge. Once I reached the bridge it had solid wood flooring and it became much easier.


A view from the bridge of the Potomac River:


There were plenty of hills in Harpers Ferry to walk.


One of the aqueducts undergoing maintenance:


We even had some time in the afternoon to do a little cave exploration.




Harpers Ferry was fascinating. I think it would be worth a road trip back to see more of the town and surrounding area.

It sounds and looks like you had a fascinating trip!!

Beverly - I saw in your Day 1 post that you are running 26x1.75 Conti Travel Contacts. I leave Friday for a week long C&O/GAP tour and plan on taking my touring bike with 700c x 37 Travel Contacts. How did those tires work for you?

They worked great on both trails. I had no problems with the wet conditions on the C&O and they rolled easily on the smoother GAP trails. One of the other riders in our group had them and he too was satisfied with them.

You'll love the ride. The leaves should be in full color for you.

Wow, Bev! That looks like a great trip! Those are great photos. I would have done okay on the spiral stairs, but you couldn't get me into those caves! Sorry about your boo-boos!

There is just so much history all along the canal. Are you stopping and reading the plaques? I enjoyed looking over the landscape and putting an actual place to all the Civil War history I've read about.

It looks like the weather has turned good for you.

I'm stopping to read all the plaques. I also take a picture of them so I can remember where the other pictures were taken.

I'm sure if I did multiple trips on the C&O there would always be something to see I missed on a previous trip.

When you snapped those photos inside the cave...weren't you afraid of those two mean looking cave men lurking there?

She probably wasn't. Those are the kind of guys she locks up in her car!

Yes, one of them was the guy I locked in the van.

I've locked another person in my car We took my van on the trip and John's wife was a little slow getting out at a restaurant and I locked her in....at least I realized what I had done and immediately unlocked it.

I was just in Harpers Ferry a week ago. I've always liked the place and the confluence of the two rivers there is really beautiful. Nice pictures.

Great pictures and report. We had originally planned to do the C&O this year, but it got pushed off the schedule in favor of another destination. Still gonna do it some day.

Can you run the trail with 700X23 tires?

We saw some road bikes but they were doing the entire trail (184.5 miles) in two days for a charity event. It appeared they had 28's or larger. We stopped in a bike shop along the trail and he indicated he had done some repair work for a couple of the riders with the smaller tires. Of course they were riding faster than most people on the trail.

There are tree roots and rocks in the trail. Some areas have rather course gravel and if it rains it can become muddy in spots. Now that the leaves are beginning to fall it's hard to see some of the rocks and roots on the trail.

I remember that day only to vividly. Beverly is really getting the hang of locking people in her car. Not sure why though.