+24H Overnight - Harper's Ferry on the Tandem

[Tony DeFilippo]

http://dr2dc.blogspot.com/2015/07/harpers-ferry-by-tandem.html

My wife and I followed up on our successful Great Falls ride a couple weeks ago by significantly upping the ante and riding out to Harper's Ferry and back this past Tues-Weds.  The trip was fantastic, we're still speaking to eachother even!  In fact there has been plenty of discussion about future tandem trips and/or re-doing this trip with some variations and additional company added in.  I know there are some of you looking at C&O trips in the next couple months so I included alot about the trail conditions and what we found along the way in my blog post.  Bottom line is that the extremely wet weather  has predictably made portions of the towpath pretty muddy.  In general though it is easily accomplished on a riv-ish equipped bike.  I'll definitely do this trip again, and other than some minor tweaks I wouldn't want to change much from this experience.  

Erl met up with us on our way out at Fletcher's boat house and got a great shot of us at the start of our trip shown below;

[WETH]

Tony,
Well done! I am pleased to read how well the trip went, other than the two flats. I am also glad you tamed the stairway at Harpers Ferry! I'll never forget experiencing that at the end of a 75 mile day.
Thanks for letting me tag along for a while. I enjoyed riding with you two.
-Erl

[Tony DeFilippo]

I'm so glad you warned me about the stairs... it was a daunting last challenge for sure.  :)

Absolutely on the ride along, hopefully it works out on the VA side coming up here soon!  

Tony

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[cyclotourist]

Any tandem ride ending with your still talking civilly is a good one!

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Cheers,
David

Member, Supreme Council of Cyberspace

"it isn't a contest. Just enjoy the ride." - Seth Vidal

[Jeff Lesperance]

Congrats on the ride! I met up with your Burley's brother or sister on the C&O on this past Friday. I rode out from my house in Silver Spring on Friday morning, down the Capital Crescent trail to the C&O intersection at Fletcher's and biked up to Brunswick to meet and camp with family at the campground there, about 65 miles door to tent. I played leapfrog a few times with a couple on a Burley tandem who were on their way to Harper's Ferry for the weekend - great looking bike. They wisely had fenders. I was riding my XOXO equipped with semi-knobby tires, with just a vestigial stubby fender that barely kept any of the mud off of my Carradice, back, head, etc... The mud baths were particularly devious on Friday between White's Ferry and Brunswick. There were points south of White's Ferry where, for the most part, the mud and/or puddles could be driven around or gingerly plodded through, but past White's Ferry I passed through moments of mud denial then acceptance as there was no avoiding the major mire. Can't wait to do it again, and perhaps next time I'll see your Burley out there.

-Jeff

Silver Spring, MD

[Minh]

Tony,

You/We should start saving these trips/routes to some kind of repository.  I've been trying to plan an abbreviated version of this (basically the portion to Whites Ferry, Camp, and back on the WOD the next day).   I also think these ride reports from you and Jeff are the most valuable, i'm a go with the flow kind of rider but it's always useful to know what the conditions are like on the trail ahead of time.  

Maybe a central thread to organize group rides at the last minute?

[Bob E]

Looks like a great trip, Tony; thanks for the write-up and photos. For someone who has the full Pittsburgh to DC trip on his bucket list, the overnight from DC to Harper's Ferry could be a good shakedown/intro ride.

Bob E

[Tony DeFilippo]

Jeff - That's awesome glad to hear another list member was out on the trail last week as well. Your XOXO must make for a great C&O bike!  It's cool to know there is another towpath Burley as well.... fenders are going to be a very near term priority!  I also like your 'mud denial' vs 'mud acceptance' definition which closely mirrored our experience.  The post Whites Ferry section was definitely in the acceptance camp.

Minh that's a good idea, I don't know a great way to do it w/in Google Groups but I suppose you just have to trust to the goodness of google search.

Bob E - I highly recommend it!  Depending on where you are close to I'd also highly recommend any short trip that included the Ohiopyle section of the GAP, it is gorgeous and the trail is in very good condition.  My Dad and I did Frostburg to Pittsburgh last May and that was our favorite section.