Today we woke up extra early at 5:15 to avoid the brutal heat in the afternoon. We planned to bike around 45 miles but as you’ll see later in our blog, things didn’t exactly go to plan. On our way to breakfast, we got to see a beautiful sunrise brightening the farmland around us. After biking about 12 miles, we stopped for breakfast at a Safeway grocery store. I spent the majority of our breakfast stop waiting in line for the bathroom, just another thing to look forward to for the bike trip. After about 30 minutes, we saddled up to make our way towards our lunch break.

We stopped at mile 35 for lunch at a place called Point of Rocks (a great name) to meet with the Malinchock’s grandparents. We were very thankful that they brought us Jimmy Johns and some ice cold drinks. After eating, we took a long break in the shade to cool down a bit and departed to finish off the ride.

The majority of our afternoon riding consisted of a flat and straight towpath (not the most interesting riding but definitely very chill). We were very lucky to stumble across a man riding a bike of his own dressed only in something that could be described as less than a loin cloth. After passing this man, Evan unfortunately had a flat tire. fortunately, we got to see the man once again as he passed us in all of his glory. After fixing the flat, we pushed out the last few miles to the Harper’s Ferry bridge.

Once arriving at the bridge, to our disappointment, we found that the bridge was closed due to a train derailment. This caused a serious issue because this was the only safe way into town. Thanks to my killer eyesight, I was able to spot a way to climb up the rock wall leading to the road above that would bring us to the alternative route. Creating a fire brigade of bikers, we were able to pass our bikes and panniers up to the road above and move on our way. Our new detour added about 10 miles to our ride and boy were they hilly.

We finished our ride on a pretty sketchy highway and everyone was pretty tired from all of the hill climbing on the way to town. We found a great campsite with showers, bathrooms and power which made up for the hours beforehand. Everyone got cleaned up and headed into town for dinner. I had french fries covered in pork. We all plan to hit the hay rather early for another awesome day of riding. Until tomorrow…