Day 4

We are camped at Swains Lock campsite tonight. We got in and set up by 2:30. It had started raining when we were packing up this morning and rained steadily all day. We were completely soaked and muddy by the time we got here. After hanging up our hammocks and drying off, I read for a couple hours. I’m glad it was only a 22 mile day. We have adjusted to the considerable load on our bikes pretty well. The morning we left I weighed each bag and pannier we put on. I wrote the figures down in my little note book I always keep handy. I added them up today and was dismayed horrified and apalled that Rose’s bike had 109 pounds on it. My bike had 86 pounds. That includes everything, including full water bottles, but not the weight of the bike itself. We have used a lot of the heavier food wich helped alot, but still its too much. When I backpack, even for a week long trip my pack only weighs 35 pounds. I think on our way back up the canal we will be calling Mom and Dad to come pick up any gear we haven’t used in the first week. As an experienced ultralight backpacker it’s embarrassing. Haha. It’s so easy to over pack on a bike though. I didn’t even cut the handle off my tooth brush!

Thursday morning I was up by 4 am for some reason. I’m not much of a morning person but I always enjoy watching the sun rise if I’m awake. I sat at the picnic table drinking coffee and watching the woods slowly get light. Rose made blueberry pancakes out of muffin mix. The mix was 3 packages for a dollar at the discount store. That was too good of a deal to pass up so we thought we would experiment. They turned out pretty good. After breakfast,instead of packing up and getting on the trail we decided that we needed naps. My full belly and waking up early made me sleepy. After our leisurely morning we headed out around 9 am. It wasn’t very far down the path and there was a large tree that had fell down over it. We decided the easiest way would be to unload our bike and lift them and our panniers over separately.I was just unhooking the first one when I looked up in time to see we were being descended upon by a cloud of hungry mosquitoes. That changed my mind pretty fast and we just lifted the bikes over with all the gear still on. The high pitch whine of thousands of mosquitoes was very motivating! Haha.

Yesterday we went into Brunswick. We bought milk, ice, water and two cans of cold coffee. We have been drinking water from the Potomac river since we started. I filter 8 litres of it every night at camp. After cooking and dishes, we still have around 6 litres left for the next day’s ride. It has been pretty hot lately so the ice cold purchased water was a treat. Riding out of town we congratulated each other for being so frugal and only spending $13 dollars of our budgeted money. About that time a gentle breeze blew the smell of fried food to us. Like hungry coyotes we turned our noses to the wind and followed the scent to the Potomac Street Grill. I got a sausage sub and fries. It hit the spot. After doing the math we were happy that even with a meal out we still had $3.59 in our budget.

A little past Harper’s Ferry I spotted some mushrooms. I turned around to see if they were chicken of the woods. They were! I am only confident in identifying 5 or 6 types of edible mushrooms. My brother and his wife are experts at it and have taught me the little I know. I excitedly picked enough for dinner. Rose had never had them but was looking forward to trying them.

We arrived at camp around 2pm. After setting up our hammocks we walked down to the river to swim and get drinking water. I sat on a rock with just my head above water for quite a while. The water felt great. Then it was time for my favorite part of the day. Dinner!

I sautéed the mushrooms in butter with some salt and pepper and a few slices of fresh garlic we had from mom’s garden. The mushrooms were so good we regretted not taking more of them.

For dinner we had potatoes steak chunks onions in a ginger sauce over rice and hen of the woods mushrooms. Rose loved them too.