Bicycling the Entire C&O Canal In One Day

As a personal boundary test and the general pursuit of adventure, I set out to go end-to-end on the C&O Canal Towpath trail in one day. Things got kicked off around 7:00 AM up in Cumberland, MD, and I eventually came to an end in Georgetown, Washington D.C. somewhere around 1:30 AM, It was a super long day of peddling, but absolutely a great ride packed with many mini-adventures. The advertised total of 184.5 miles turned into 190.4 once detours were accounted for, along with getting lost a bit once I got into the city and some photo op riding up in Cumberland.

Many thanks to my wife for meeting me at multiple points along the way to sort out technical difficulties and the super critical flashlight she brought me in Carderock after my primary headlight died on me. Backup & headlamp were doing all they could but getting extra light on the last 10 miles or so was pretty valuable seeing that it was a bit choppier than it had been.

As always, the C&O trial was peppered with great people and tons of wildlife, including a ton of bats, a sleepy raccoon, way more deer than I’ve seen on it before, a few snakes and what may have been a black bear.

Special shoutout to the people at C&O Bicycle (https://www.candobicycle.com/) for a speedy repair on a misbehaving tire.

Super fun and a boatload of great memories.

Thanks for watching!

Bike: 2022 Trek Checkpoint SL5
  / rickzeleznik  
http://rickzeleznik.com/
https://www.canaltrust.org