Troop 1397 began planning for the 185-mile C&O canal bike trip early. In March, we decided that allC&O Canal Bike Trip (2000)
scouts who wanted to take the trip would have to qualify for the Cycling merit badge before the trip.
Over the next several months, the scouts and leaders participated in numerous bike hikes of various
lengths. These hikes helped build up endurance and taught us a lot about our equipment.
The C&O canal trip began on Thursday
evening (7/13/2000). We reserved a group camp site at
Rocky Gap State park. This park is about 10 miles
from Cumberland (our start point). Since we had
a youth group pass, the campsite didn't cost us anything.
The drive from Clarksburg to Cumberland
took about 2 hours. The campsite was the best we
would have the entire trip. Rocky Gap has a nice
lake, a small grocery store and modern rest rooms.
The youth group campsites are the farthest away
from the lake, but are very spacious and private.
On Friday morning, we got up and started
shuttling scouts and bikes to Cumberland. There is a
small C&O Canal visitor center at the start point
where you can get last minute maps and information.
We planned to bike the entire length of the C&O canal
in four days. So, our plan was to bike about
45 miles each day and look for campsite where our supply
vehicles could easily reach us. We did not
take much equipment on the trail with us - mostly food,
water and extra tubes for the tires (you can
expect to get several flat tires along the trail, so
be prepared). The first campground we reached was
at 15-mile creek. This is one of the C&O canals
hiker-biker campgrounds. Note that you must now
pay $10/night at most of the C&O canal campgrounds
(they used to be free). The 15-mile creek
campground had the usual water pump and porta-johns.
There were several other groups of campers
at the campground. There was also a small store/mayor's
office just up the road where you
could get a cold soda and a few snacks. This campground
was very difficult for the supply drivers
to reach - long, narrow, twisting roads. It also
rained on us this night, but we were able to get our
tents and tarps up before it hit.
On Saturday, we started out in a slight
rain, but it cleared later. The rain made a lot of mud and
puddles on the towpath which slowed us down a lot, but
on the other hand, it also kept the
temperature more moderate than usual in July. There
were several down trees along the path.
One of the trees we had to go through since there wasn't
any easy way to go around it. Looking
back, it would have been useful to have a small hand
saw with us on the trail. Around noon, we
reached the town of Hancock and moved to a paved biker
trail which ran parallel to the towpath
almost down to Ft. Frederick. We stopped and toured
Ft. Frederick in the afternoon (note that
there is a $1/scout entry fee). There's also a
nice visitor center and grocery at Ft. Frederick.
We also picked up "I survived the C&O Canal" pins
for each of the scouts. That evening, we
stayed in Williamsport. I had called the Williamsport
city council earlier to make reservations
at the park which is next to the river. The campground
was large, open and fairly private, but
there was no water. We drove to the public swimming
pool area to pick up water. We also got
to take showers at the swimming pool. That night
there was a pretty violent thunder storm. Again,
we managed to get our tents and tarps up before the rain
hit.
On Sunday, we stared out again.
We hit the Big Slackwater detour at mile marker 88. This ia a
five mile detour that takes you out on some hilly country
roads. We stopped for lunch at mile
marker 76.6 at Barron's Country Store and museum.
The store is small, but the owner has a
scale model canal boat and gave the scouts a very interesting
history lesson about canal operations.
Later in the afternoon, we stopped at Harper's Ferry
for some ice creme before stopping at the
Calico Rocks campground. This campground is about
1/4 mile from the nearest parking area, so
we had to carry our equipment down to the campsite and
then back again the next morning. Also,
there were trains running throughout the night nearby
- and (of course) it rained on us again.
A photographer from the Gazette met us here and took
pictures of the scouts setting up camp.
There was a great article in the newspaper later that
week about our trip.
Monday was the last day on the trail.
We had to stop for awhile near the Monocacy river
aqueduct while park rangers filled in a big hole in the
towpath. The towpath apparently washes
out from underneath fairly often and simply collapses.
There were some 2-ton trucks which they
had backed down the towpath to do the repair work (very
carefully). We stopped at White's ferry
for ice creme and then made another stop at Riley's Lock.
This is where you'll find some of the
most scenic parts of the C&O canal. Also,
past Great Falls, the towpath begins a noticeable drop
into Washington, DC. We were all grateful for this
final break. We arrived in Georgetown around
5:30 pm. You have to cross over a bridge in Georgetown
to get from the west side of the canal to
the east side in order to continue along the towpath.
We walked the bikes through several down-
town streets and finally ended up at Thompson's Boathouse.
It took us awhile, but we finally found
the 0-mile marker next to the boathouse. Our supply
drivers also had a difficult time meeting us here
since Rock Creek parkway is closed to inbound traffic
during the afternoon rush hour. But we were
just grateful to have made it !
Miscellaneous notes:
Be sure to take at least one extra
bicycle tube per bike. We had several flat tires along the trail.
Also,
check the tires before inserting the
new tube - we found small pieces of glass, thorns, ... stuck in the
tires.
As usual, bring a first aid kit along the trail. We had a couple mishaps where Band-Aids were needed.
We brought cell phones with us on the
trail which helped us keep in touch with our supply folks.
However, there were many places on
the upper part of the canal where you were ought of range and
could not use the phones.
We did not cook for ourselves during
this trip. We brought in food (pizza, fried chicken, ...) for the
evening meals. The scouts were
pretty tired at the end of the day and didn't need the extra burden
of cooking and cleaning (especially
in the rain).
One of our adult leaders was very knowledgeable
about bikes and brought along some special tools
to adjust spokes, brake pads, ...
We also found that we needed some extra bolts for the bike racks.
The best reference book we had for
the trip was the "184 miles of Adventure" booklet available at
the NCAC scout shop. We took
this booklet along the trail with us. Another good reference was
"The C&O Cannel Companion" by
Mike High. This is a 250-page book with detailed information
about each part of the trail.
Return to C & O Main Page