What a Day!

Where to begin?  It was all good, so feel free to skip the words.....  It was just a busy day with lots of variety and a few route challenges.

The first 30 miles was on bike path.  Sounds idyllic, no?  It was great for a while - riding from Alexandria to Washington DC with all the bike commuters whizzing by us on their way to their jobs running the country.  We went right by the end of the runway of Ronald Regan National Airport.

Along the Potomac River with the Capitol dome and the Washington Monument in view.  

Over the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial

Then the route challenges escalated a bit as we took first the Capital Crescent Trail 

into Maryland 

then onto an unpaved section - the Georgetown Branch Trail - that led to our first SAG stop.  It seems that many people missed this stop entirely, but somehow found their way onto future trails in any case (smartphones earned their keep today!)

We then got onto the Rock Creek Trail

and followed that for another twelve miles or so.  Saw the Mormon Temple where my good friends Sheila and Mark were wed. 

The trail was a challenge.  In addition to being hard to navigate in places, it was rough (tree roots growing through), windy and hilly, as well as wet and muddy in places.  You really had to keep your head down to watch where you were going.  Not much chance to look around or even check the cue sheet or GPS.  It was pretty much all heavily treed - lots of greenery!  I felt like I was doing a cross-country mountain bike route or perhaps cyclo-cross.  In addition, the mileage was off by several miles since early in the route, so we were never sure exactly where we were.  This is WT's inaugural running of this trip, so hopefully there will be some revamping of cue sheets before next year.  

We found both the van & trailer and the SAG at about 30 miles.  That's the last I saw either of them for the rest of the day. I think some people got quite far behind negotiating the bike path section, so the SAG was waiting for them to come through.  

We headed onto some quiet roads at this point and some big hills.  Really pretty and quiet roads.  Through Needwook Lake Park

Past an old log cabin built by freed slaves in the 1800s.  

This trip has really brought into perspective for me the history of slavery, the fight for freedom and the subsequent struggles for acceptance and equality.  It has also become obvious that for the majority of African Americans, at least in the south, that struggle is far from over.  

I don't think we were very far from civilization for much of our ride today.  There were a number of horse farms and lots of big houses set among the rolling hills.

Past the Brighton Dam

And then I apparently put my camera away for the last 35 miles.  Too busy climbing hills apparently.  

Spent the last couple of miles coming through a residential subdivision.  Reminded me of our Kingston house built in the mid-60's.  Every other house was the same style.  

Lovely hotel tonight - Hampton Inn.  Pizza and margaritas for dinner as well as carrot cake and cheesecake flown in from Chicago  (thanks Kirby!).  We also swapped out guides tonight.  Patty is returning home to Moab and Michelle is joining us from Boulder CO.  I have really enjoyed Patty's leadership style.  She's done a great job with all the hiccups along the way.

Stats for the day:

127 km from Alexandria VA to Owings Mills MD.  5275 feet of climbing.  Great temps - 12C to 27C.  Lots of cue sheet challenges.