C&O- Day 1

Today was the day. The day we should have started our ride along the C&O Canal towpath. It was a beautiful blue sky Spring day and would have been perfect if it weren’t for the storms of last week obliterating swaths of the trail and turning other parts into muddy quagmires. We read of another cyclist who was on it over the weekend and ended up bailing and having to ride 5 miles on the freeway to get out. Even the Noble Inventions coordinator that set up the trip wrote me and said we had made the right decision.

So what did we do on the first day of the Plan B schedule? We did a 40 mile ride down to Mt. Vernon and back. Ninety percent of which was on a bike path along the lower Potomac River.

From Will and Sinclair’s place we stopped at a nearby Starbucks for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Then Will and I were off down along the Mall to the river. We crossed over the water on the George Mason Memorial Bridge and picked up the Mt Vernon Trail south. This pretty nice paved bike trail ends at Mt Vernon, George Washington’s home.

The trail hugs the riverbank much of the way only deviating to go around the DCA airport. Much of the path traverses forest and woodlands. It occasionally flies just above swamps and estuaries on wooden boardwalks. And can pass though grassy parkland, too. As my navigation app ticked over 20 miles, we were at the entrance of George and Martha’s house.

Will and I locked up our bikes and paid our entrance fee to this privately run facility and walked about the grounds. Much of the mansion itself is undergoing renovations at this time. Although we could have gotten in on a tour, it would have been a couple hours after we got there, so we decided to forgo it. We grabbed a bite at the cafeteria in the visitors center and then took off back to DC. We arrived back at Will’s at 1PM and I headed over to my place for a shower and a nap.

At 4PM we reconvened and visited the Smithsonian Botanical Garden and National Museum of the American Indian before getting some dinner and gelato.

Until tomorrow, Happy Trails…