Point of Rocks MD.

I woke up around 5:30. I couldn’t tell if it was still raining or just dripping off the trees. Either way, I was in no hurry to leave my hammock. So I read my book for a while. It was barely daylight when the sound of singing caught my attention. At first I thought it was a radio but soon it became apparent it was a man with a very loud voice. Also it was the song from the sound of music about the hills being alive. As he got close to my campsite he explained ” Oh my word somebody is camping in this weather”! Then he said just as loudly “I hope my singing didn’t wake you”. I told him I was awake just reading, and that I was reluctant to get out of my hammock on such a morning. There was no reply so I thought he had rode off. A minute later he asked “do you want company”? No I did not, I hadn’t even had coffee and I was still in bed. Of course I’m too polite to say that so instead I said, sure! with as much exuberance as I could muster. Since I was uncertain if he meant company at my campsite or company in my hammock, I hurriedly got out of my warm cocoon to greet the day and my guest. He was an eccentric fellow. Rick had started in Pittsburgh 14 days ago and was going to DC. He had a nice Trek e bike with very little gear. I wondered where he had stayed last night but never got a chance to ask him. I don’t think he was camping. He asked me how far Harper’s Ferry was. It was two miles from camp. He said that’s all the farther he was going today. He probably got there by 7 am. He was a talkative man and nodding my head was all I had to do to hold up my side of the conversation. That was fine because it allowed me to go about making coffee. He abruptly said he had to go but he had something for me. He dug around in his pack and tossed me a snickers. I thanked him and offered a big chunk of the lions mane mushroom that I found yesterday. He looked aghast and said you couldn’t pay me to eat that! With that he was gone.

I packed up and got on the trail around 9. I also wanted to go into Harper’s Ferry. Making coffee this morning I ran out of fuel on my stove. I try to always have two canisters. When one is empty I start looking for a place to buy another. They last me about 2 weeks so there’s no rush on finding one. I know the Harper’s Ferry General store carries them and I was so close it made sense to get one today. Also there’s an excellent coffee shop there Battle Grounds Coffee. I haven’t had a latte since Tuesday! To get into the town from the canal you have to go up a pretty long flight of stairs to a bridge and it’s probably close to a half mile walk to the shops. I have carried my loaded bike up those stairs a few times and it’s not much fun. Today I locked it up and just took my handlebar bag with my camera and bike computer speedometer. Harpers Ferry is always busy. The whole town is a historical park. At the coffee shop there was a line that reached the whole way out the door. I guess because of the weather people were not walking around the town and instead decided to drink coffee. I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t going to wait that long though so I got my fuel canister and walked to another coffee place. Lots of people had the same idea and there was a line there as well. Sadly I left without getting a latte.

I was headed to Brunswick to resupply and I figured I would get a latte there. The Beans In The Belfrey coffee shop is an old church that that has been turned into a little Cafe. It is pretty neat inside. The windows are still the stained glass and some of the seating is the church pews.

The sun was trying to come out and I sat at a sidewalk table and people watched while I drank it. The Dollar General was about 5 minutes away and that’s where I was going to resupply. It’s a small store and today it didn’t have a lot to offer. Standing in the isle that has noodles I commented to another shopper that they seemed to be out of a lot of stuff. She said well it’s Halloween honey. I laughed to myself and wondered if in Brunswick kids are given pasta sides and Ramen noodles when they go trick or treating. But I did get coffee, eggs and cheese. I could survive on that I think. Haha

For dinner I made an omlet thing with a tortilla. My fork, spoon and spatula were missing and I was too hungry to spend time looking. So before I flipped the omlet I pressed a tortilla into it. That way I was able to turn the pan over and dump the omlet into my hand and finish cooking tortilla side down. It was good.

When I was home those few days, a friend of mine, Jerry asked if I could put maps on my blog. My Garmin bike computer makes a map of every ride. Here is yesterdays. Usually I don’t think to upload the days ride until the following morning when I turn it on. I will try to always say what day the map is for.

And in case any one was wondering, I found my eating utensils. They somehow got put in with my clothing.