Day 1, Monday, April 21


Reagan National Economy Parking to Huckleberry Hill campsite, C&O Canal Towpath

It took us a while to get going, but we finally departed around 10:15. It was sad to be leaving Lynn for what could be three months. I'm so happy she's been supportive of this. I have a fantastic wife.

Getting out of DC was a bit of a nightmare. We took the Mount Vernon Trail to the Lincoln Memorial, then the Rock Creek Trail to Georgetown. There we got a little turned around by bad signage on multiple detours around construction, but eventually we made it to the tranquility of the C&O Canal Towpath.


I suppose we let our exuberance get the better of us: we pedalled over 70 miles on our first day. The towpath rises, of course, but gradually. We climbed only 955 feet the entire da. Much of that was climbing up and down the hills of Georgetown trying to find the trail.


There is definitely something of a green tunnel effect, but the trail has it's moments. The canal (now derelict, of course) is on the right, the Potomac River on the left. Occasionally you will get dramatic views of the river. John doesn't seem to notice, but I have to stop for pictures.


Because of our late start and the aforementioned exuberance, we did not take very many breaks. I had unfortunately left noodles for the evening meal in the van, so we did take one small detour into Brunswick, Maryland, to get something to cook. But because we planned poorly, we were quite short on water when we rolled into camp, and it started raining as we were setting up for the night. We ended up dining on protein bars in our tents.



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