C&O Day 3 - Williamsport to Marble Quarry Hiker Biker

It's two days left in our bike touring adventure on the GAP and C&O, and Max takes charge. Doing this Dad Style would be hanging out at the hostel across the river from Harpers Ferry, eating tasty fried chicken at the restaurant up the road, having a good hostel pancake breakfast the next day, and splitting the final day into two parts if we go slow and feel like it.

Max isn't going for that. "We can ride after dinner until dark, and make tomorrow a shorter day. Then we will be sure to catch the train." Max has no problem at all with primitive camping at hiker biker sites. He also has a week's worth of Minecraft stuff to get caught up on.

OK. Fine. No hostel.

Breakfast was at the Waffle House in the parking lot of our motel. Max learned that pecan waffles with lots of syrup are good for many many miles.

The guys in the booth behind Max are all wearing the same T-shirt, which pretty much perfectly sets the scene for a Waffle House in Williamsport, MD. It an excavating company with the slogan "Living the Dream, One Septic at a Time."

Here's a scenic view of Big Slackwater. I still am not used to this being rideable, I expect to take the old detour.

Lava cake with ice cream makes a happy bike tourist. This is at the very awesome Blue Moon Cafe in Shepherdstown, WV. It's well worth the climb.

It's hard to get moving when the after-lunch sleepy attack strikes.

Here are the bridges at Harper's Ferry. This is a nice place to sit and take a break.

There are lots of people taking walks on the towpath here.

Some guy: "How far does this path go?"
Me: "Pittsburgh."
Some guy: "Wow! You'd think people would take advantage of that."
Me, gesturing at my pannier-laden touring bike: "Works for me."

He was really amazed when I explained how Max had ridden from Pittsburgh too.

Here is our dinner spot, the Deli on the Rocks at Point of Rocks. This is at mile 47, and is the farthest restaurant we can reach today. It's mostly takeout/delivery, they are very busy, and there is no service to speak of for eating in. Or bathrooms. "Can we have some napkins?"

On the other hand, the fried chicken and pizza was very very tasty and delicious, and that makes it a big winner.

Here we are, ten miles later at the Marble Quarry Hiker Biker site, mile 38.

Max did his second metric century of the trip, all on the muddy and rough towpath. We did 65 miles, which is his longest ride ever. He's proud of himself, as he should be.

We got all settled down for the night right at nightfall. There is an owl out there somewhere.

Here is the Strava page.