Day 5 Williamsport to Leesburg VA 68 miles – 303 cum

We wanted to get on the road early today because we were supposed to meet Roger from the Norris House B&B at 2:30PM promptly or we would have to find another way to get to the B&B.

We had a really good breakfast and made our way down to the visitor center to meet Dave Moore at 8:00AM. Dave was there and we started on our way. It again was a rough path and the humidity was high although we were lucky to have cloud cover so the temperature didn't get very high. We were making pretty good time and rode along chatting away. Dave had never met Randy, Anna and Keith before so he talked with everyone getting up to date.

We eventually hit the detour where the towpath has been washed away so we went out on the local roads for about 10 miles or so. It reminded me how much more fun it is to ride on the roads than the trails. These roads were not very heavily traveled so it was fun.

We came back to the towpath and continued on. Now we really appreciated the smooth roads versus the very rocky and rough towpath.

We were pushing hard to get to the White's Ferry and Roger on time but we were losing ground. We were also out of water. We filled our bottles at a pump and we drank the water even though it was rusty looking and tasted like iron. We also met Tom a young man of 18 who was trying to make it all the way from Hancock to Washington DC which is 125 miles. He had already fallen once avoiding a turtle and was scraped up a little bit. We said good bye and kept on going.

part of the canal

Our new friend Tom

Rafters on the Potomac

Randy is a little tuckered out!

On the ferry to Leesburg

Randy, Dave, Keith and me on the ferry

By now it was around 1:30 and we were hungry. A group of bikers recommended a pizza place off the trail so we decided to have lunch. As we started off the trail, Randy noticed that the tire on my trailer was going flat so we changed it when we got to the restaurant. There was a small piece of glass in the tire probably from last year's trip.

We met up with Tom again and he had a blown tire which had to be replaced. He bought a new tire and we loaned him tools and a pump so he could get rolling again. He had used up all his money so we invited him to have some pizza. Keith gave him some money and we said good bye again. I called Roger and told him we weren't going to make it by 2:30. I told him we could make it by 4:00 and he said to pedal hard which we did. At 4:00PM, I called him to say we were still 7 miles away and he said he would wait.

We finally made it to the Ferry at 4:45. Our new friend Tom was also there having a snack with 35 miles to go to DC.
We crossed the river and Roger shuttled us to the B&B in Old Town Leesburg. This place is pretty nice. It is one of the oldest houses in Leesburg. It started to rain as we unloaded our bikes and baggage so we thought we were pretty lucky. We walked to dinner to a place Roger recommended and it was fabulous.

Tomorrow is our last day.