Day 2

Beans in the Belfry, Brunswick, MD

Harper's Ferry

My plan to wake up really really early is foiled by waking up only really early (8:30ish).  I decide it's still far earlier than normal Lauren would ever wake up, so there's time to go have a leisurely breakfast at Beans in the Belfry in town.  I discover that my efforts to dry my newly washed clothes have proved entirely fruitless and I tie a few particularly wet items to the front rack of the bike, pack up and bike up to Brunswick to stop at the cafe inside an old church where several other cyclists are already congregated.  Aha! So this is where socializing along the trail occurs; you have to stop and eat meals in town.  Despite this realization, I fail to make any life-long friends over breakfast, but enjoy myself all the same.  I also have my first encounter of the trip with unwelcome meat products.  Although I ask for an ingredient list before ordering the "southwest quiche" (tomatoes, peppers, cheese, I am told) and then receive an affirmative response to my follow-up question "So it's vegetarian?", I am met with a mouthful of quiche that seems far too sausage-like to be anything but sausage.  What is this, Senegal?  Conveying an order for orange juice in the local Brunswick dialect also proves far more difficult than anticipated ("Ohhhh, rnjuuu" the waiter finally translates for me. It is somehow a one syllable word in Brunswickian), so I decide against further efforts to obtain an actual vegetarian item and do my best to eat around the sausage.
   I head out for the day in the light drizzle, soon passing by harper's ferry, where several sad tubers try to enjoy the miserable weather.  This was exactly our predicament a year ago, though this group doesn't seem to have a guide in a canoe yelling at them to hurry up and tube faster.

Shephersburg, WV

  Around lunch time I find myself across the river from Shepherdsburg, WV, where my new doctor is from and told me i should stop by.  Unfortunately, the elevation change to get up there looks a little too daunting, and I almost pass by, but then decide to just try and turn back if it's too much.  In fact, it's not bad at all, and as I climb the switchbacks leading up to the bridge I realize I've been here before.  I ran down these switchbacks at 4am a couple years ago as I started my final leg in the American Odyssey relay.  Small world!  I also realize that the strange Bavarian looking palace where we gathered for that leg in the middle of the night is in fact the Bavarian Inn, site of my doctor's first job, and apparently a lovely place to stay, I learn from a hiker later in the day.
   I continue into Shepherdsburg, a cute little town with a university in session and plenty of activity.  I stop in Mellow Moods cafe for lunch and am very glad I did, as they have a wealth of veggie options.  I get a tempeh reuben sandwich (delicious!), but the most exciting part is the selection of potato chips.  I have never heard of dill pickle as a flavor, but it seems a reasonable potato chip flavor (unlike some bizarre potato chip concoctions of late...I'm looking at you, Lay's cappuccino) and I do love pickles, so this seems like a match made in heaven, and it is!  

Eels!

   After lunch it's back to the trail, which has some relatively muddy sections, and before long I am caked in a nice layer of towpath.  I stop for a snack at a nice waterfall and resolve to jump in the river later to clean off, but then have second thoughts upon learning about the presence of eels.

As I google "when is eel mating season" with no success, a fisherman (eel fisherman?) passes by and waves hello and seems to want to talk, which turns out to be difficult since he is apparently from Russia and speaks no English.  We exchange smiles, acknowledging the fact that it is now pouring rain, and I am covered in mud and obviously crazy.  Eventually the rain lets up as I come to one of the most beautiful parts of the trail, which I name Great Wall of Potomac.

Great Wall of Potomac

   Around mile 90 I stop to refill my water bottle and give up on the well after about 15 pumps that produce nothing.  A hiker sees me failing and comes to help, though I tell him it's broken.  He's right, it's not, you just have to pump some of the wells a good 50 times to get water.  He tells me that he's hiking from DC to Williamsport around mile 99, so he's on his last day.  I tell him I'm probably going to stop at a hiker/biker campsite a few miles up, so he says he'll see me again in a while.

I consider going a few more miles to a campsite with a shower, but after a couple days I have come to terms with my grossness, and feel that a dip in the (hopefully eelless) river will suffice.  I get to the Cumberland Valley hiker/biker site around 4:30, a little early for quitting, but I don't feel like biking anymore and now that it's a little sunny, I'm looking forward to going for a swim and setting up camp, which I do.

A while later, Vince, the hiker I met earlier, passes by and sees me lying on the picnic bench reading and tells me I look like I have it all figured out.  Yep, I'm a total camping expert by now.  As such, I decide that I will make use of my bear bag, and after dinner I stuff the bag with a small log and throw it up over a branch, hitting my target on the first try.  This is easy!  I hoist up all my food items in their pannier to prevent any unwanted overnight critter visits.

I settle into my tent for the evening and enjoy my first night of remote camping, as no one else is anywhere to be seen.