Biking from DC to Harpers Ferry

2020-12-06

On 10/22/20 I biked from DC to Harpers Ferry, WV. Well actually I started at my apartment in Arlington, VA. I took thursday and friday off from work. On thursday morning I got packed up and left around 10am.

I chose Harpers Ferry because it wasn't too far away. This was my first multiday bike trip so I didn't want it to be too difficult. I bike from Arlington down the Custis Trail into Rosslyn pretty much all down hill on my loaded up bike. Then I crossed the Potomac into D.C.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath (C&O) is a trail from DC to Cumberland, Maryland. (and then it turns into the GAP continues to Pittsburgh, PA). The C&O trail runs along an old canal. I guess there is a flat path next to the canal for animals to pull the boats along the canal. This flat part was turned into a path for bikers, hikers, runners and horse riders (on parts of it). This is the path I would take for ~60 miles to Harpers Ferry.

The part of the C&O near DC is pretty busy usually, but there weren't too many people on it during a Thursday morning. I stopped at mile 16 at the Swains Locke campsite for a snack. There were a group of older people at what looked like a painting class. I had biked past this campsite before on a Friday night and it was super busy and loud. Theres road access to it so I guess people come here to drink. After a brief chat with a guy and pee in the portajohn I continued on my journey.

One thing to note about the C&O trail is that there campsites along the way and they have water pumps. The park staff will go around and test the water quality and if its bad they'll take the handle off the pump, so you can't use it. So this means that you can't know ahead of time which campsites will have working pumps. So I was biking for a quite awhile before I found a campsite that had a working pump to stop for lunch at.

I made it to the Calico Rocks campsite at mile 47.6 around 5pm and stopped their for the night. I setup my tent next to the potomac river.

The next morning it was pretty cold when I eventually made it out of my tent. Not sure what time it was since I didn't check. But I biked the ~ 13 miles to Harpers Ferry. They were some weird miles though going past a waste treatment plant (I think?) and a trailer park. I locked my bike up at a rack and climbed up some stairs and over a bridge. It was still really foggy so the view wasn't great. I wandered around the town and it was very touristy, which makes sense. It was all about the history of the town and some John Brown uprising stuff. I bought a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich and a blue gatorade and made my way out.

On the way out, the fog had cleared up and I had a nice view of the Ohio and Potomac rivers meeting.

Then I biked another 10 miles or so back towards DC before stopping to eat my sandwich. Had some pleasant conversations with other bikers. At one point I stopped for a couple minutes on an aqueduct and talked to do other bikers. They were out for the day going to Whites Ferry and back (idk where). We talked about how the aqueducts were built over the river since the canal had to be flat for the boats to get pulled. One of the bikers knew more about the history of the C&O and she said that it was a financial failure. Apparently it took like 10 years to finish and then trains were widespread and completely outclassed it for shipping things.

The next stretch from about mile 40 to mile 30 back to DC was beautiful. It was fall, the leaves were all colorful, and I had the trail almost to myself. I played some music on my phone and just enjoyed the ride in the amazing weather. I had originally planned to spend 2 nights camping on this trip, but when I was on my way back I just thought ehh I could get another rough night of sleep and get back tomorrow morning or I could finish it off tonight. Sleeping was not great the night before because my setup is not the comfortable. I have this 3/4 length sleeping pad that is not too nice to sleep on. maybe I just need to get used to it.

But I decided to keep going. I stopped at 4pm for a can of salmon and then made my home. I didn't plan that much. I didn't have any light on my bike so I biked like the last 15 miles in complete darkness which was probably not that smart. By the time I saw the Georgetown buildings in DC I was super exhausted. And then I had to bike that big uphill from Rosslyn to Courthouse. Yikes. It was a good trip though. In the future, I want to go on a longer trip and go on a less traveled path. Because the C&O Trail is super busy in parts and full of hikers/horse riders/and walkers. I really enjoyed that stretch where there weren't many people and want more of that for a future trip.