107 Miles to Hagerstown
Today we rode 107 miles from Hagerstown, Maryland to Arlington, Virginia. We climbed 911 feet.
The penultimate day. We fittingly closed the chapter on our "real" riding with another century, our eighth. When we began this journey many of our teammates had never done a single century; six weeks later and we conclude the tough stuff with roughly 100 miles...on a trail. Strong. Tomorrow's ride will have more of a ceremonial feel, as we start at Arlington National Cemetery and finish at the Naval Academy Columbarium. We have allotted plenty of time for guest riders that may arrive to partake.
Today turned out better than we had hoped. Weather in the morning was cool and foggy. We had a police escort from the hotel to the C&O towpath, a real blessing considering we had to cross about four miles of morning traffic.The escort really smoothed things out and we all arrived at the trail intact. The trail itself was in much better condition than we expected. The early morning scenery was spectacular, with fog hovering over the Potomac as the sun climbed in the sky. We had SAGs every 20 miles and stayed hydrated and fed. Most of the day we again had the remains of the canal on our left and the Potomac to our right. We saw more turtles than we could count, all of them sunning themselves on this beautiful day. We got to see some more Great Blue Herons in the water as well as a few snakes in the path. Mostly, we just charged down the towpath, hoping to get to the finish safely. And we did. We exited the towpath in Georgetown and wound our way through various monuments and over bridges in DC. Tonight we stay at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall (https://home.army.mil/jbmhh/), a beautiful facility on the outskirts of DC. Looking forward to some rest tonight before the final spin.
Some of us have been at this for 43 days, and while we have enjoyed the journey, we need a break. I, for one, look forward to waking up Friday morning with no plan other than connecting with classmates and wandering around Annapolis. I can't promise a blog post tomorrow night; if I miss it it will happen Friday. Sorry, we have some celebrations planned and I'm a realist.
Tomorrow we will ride from Arlington, Virginia to Annapolis, Maryland. We will cycle 48 miles and climb 1,639 feet.
Totals to Date
Miles: 3,201
Elevation Gain: 93,073
Flat Tires: 63
States crossed: 11
Times crossing the Continental Divide: 6
Centuries: 8
Dog bites: 1
