Cycling in the Green ridge state forest

2023-09-23

Day 0

By coincidence, the Marc train was free to ride that day.

Must Get on between cars 3 and 4

Day 1

Poured last night.

Poured for first 15 miles

Poured for last 15 miles

Got to c&o bunkhouse around 6. I'm the only one here. Nice hot shower. Watch YouTube. Rain is so loud on roof

75 miles

Day 2

I gave up :(

Western Maryland rail trail

Rural road

Intense rugged trail

Wiped me out. 6 miles took 3 hours?

River crossing - was high

Water above knees

Bike was floating?

Bottles floated out of stream.

Was soaked, was raining. Had flat tire

Tube was wet, patch didn't take

Took high water detour back to Hancock

Now I'm at hostel

Kinda wishing I didn't give up

Also lost 1 flipflop somewhere

Lesson: if you feel like giving up, camp early, asap. And give it a thought next day?

Did 27+16 miles. 43

Day 3

I didn't give up! I went back through the high water detour and got to campsite 11 at mile 45, the original goal for day 2. So it's like I just took an extra day. But all my clothes are wet and I used some gas + oatmeal.

Should've kept going 2 miles yesterday to campsite rather than take high water back to town. Oh well now I know: when I feel bad, just stop for the day.

Also the knee compress is awesome. Knee hurts? Put compress on it, and you can keep pedaling

Day was tough even though I only did 36ish miles. Got to camp at 3ish

Day 4

Morning rain. Didn't pack up until 9

Hard. Got to school house kitchen at 1:40

Listened to podcasts while towpath riding. Skipped route in forest and kept to towpath from town creek to purslane run, then paw paw tunnel

It was open this time! At sorrel run, full of people, backpackers? I yoloed and went up big climb. Very foggy. Started downhill and got to camp 53 at 6:30ish

Did 94-45-10+5 = 44

Day 5

Made oatmeal. Wasn't raining this morning!

Had nice long chat with dude at camp 51. He knew the forest pretty well. Used to bike a lot so we talked biking in DMV

Saw old juvie camp. First day of forest roads with sunlight! Atmosphere rocked

Hard 30 miles of forest road. Only had 1 cliff bar and tortillas left for snacks. Rejoined c&o, passed through little Orleans. Bills place was closed on Wednesdays

Finally made it to Hancock at like 3:30.

Got to camp at licking creek c&o 116

60ish miles?

Day 6

Late start this morning

16 miles to Williams port

15 connector on roads with light traffic to get to Antietam/Sharpsburg. Instead of 30miles on c&o

21 c&o to point of rocks

Had nice chat with couple from Harrisonburg doing a day ride

15 hard miles to Leesburg

Downtown is not bad

6 miles on w&od

3 miles to ashburn metro this part was hellish. the sun started to set and ashburn is not made for biking. and the metro is not made to be easy to get to by anything other than cars

Got to metro at 7:42pm

73 miles?