Saturday, May 9: Darn, feel like I’d gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson last night and this morning. I mean I was sore from head to toe from that Friday hikeathon. Hence, got kind of a late start this morning and didn’t make it back down to the marina at Fort Washington until about 11:30 AM. My cousin Sue drove, and Judy and I owe her immensely for the drive/support duty she provided today. Sue’s lived out here for quite a while and knows how to navigate the greater DC area. So she made our lives very comfortable getting from the marina on the east side of the Potomac over to the west side in Alexandria south on the GW parkway. 

Well, we got my canoe ready and I shoved off from the pier by about noon, in the 80-something degree heat. I needed to paddle with my bike bag across and then switch over to my 29er to ride the grassy berm of the Mt. Vernon Trail. The paddle was about 1-1.5 miles across. Made it out into the river on some pretty smooth water, but then some motorheads zoomed by about a quarter mile or so away and I caught the brunt of their wakes. Captain Shawn from the Chesapeake trip had advised me to get the bow about 45 degrees into those wakes, so that’s exactly what I did, and it worked out pretty good - a bit bouncy, but otherwise safe and sound. 

Well, I kind of misjudged the route across because I could keep the Fort Washington area in sight, due to that little peninsula jutting so far out in the water to the north. So by the time I got half way out I saw that I was off track for my landing spot at Fort Hunt. So rather than continue the western trend I had to put er in full throttle and paddle to the north right out in the middle of the river get my bearings together. Now let me tell ya, this is a BIG river, despite the fact that where I was Xing was one of the narrowest points in that Mt Vernon area. So I mean you’re out there when you’re half way across the bloody river. And again, you get a cigar boat or some big fishing boat jamming by and the wake is pretty intense. And we’re not talking like getting buzzed, I’m talking like the boat is a quarter to a half mile away and you can just watch the wake coming at you. But at least it gave me enough time to orient the boat properly such that I didn’t have the wakes hitting my broadside. 

So once I got oriented properly and had the full peninsula in sight behind me I could figure out where I needed to paddle to on the other side. My sole goal at the point was to reach the other side before another big ass boat gifted me with its wake. Made it to the other side in like 50 min. And then I needed to paddle north along the west banks of the river until I could find a good place to put out. Now I know, what with the GW parkway right next to the river, that either Fort Hunt, or just up river there were a couple places to put out at. Other than that it’s just a tangle of drift logs, woods, weeds and rocks that line the shores. Goal was to find a trail of some sort on the banks, which would indicate a parking area along the parkway where people can come down to the river. 

During that recon a good 3-4 big boats had gone by in the main channel and really stirred up the wakes along the shoreline, which forced my to paddle a bit further out into the deeper water to avoid capsizing. Finally found a trail, just a bit off the course I was plotting off of Fort Washington on the other side. Pulled the canoe into a tangle of logs and arrived at the foot of the trail. Secured the boat and then went up the trail to see how far I’d have to carry the boat to reach the parkway. This pup went up for about 50-60 yrds - up this single track trail, over to big trees that had fallen over the trail and finally into a grassy area next to a parking area. Not the best, but hell, as far as I was concerned that was home baby. 

Called Sue and Jude and found that they were only a nudge to the south of me. Toughest part of the day was hauling that 45 lb canoe up that steep trail, over two trees and then having to negotiate a couple of really tight turns, where I had to really move the canoe back and forth and kind of wiggle it into the turns. By then Sue and Jude were there and they helped me get all the gear and get the canoe back up on the van. Ok, stage one of the day complete. Stage two: ride the grass berm of the Mt. Vernon Trail to the Theodore Roosevelt Island, 15 miles to the north. Now when I told Sue that ride would probably take about 2 hrs, she thought I was goofing on her. Nope, wasn’t fooling cuz riding on the grass berm was worth, at the very most 7 mph. But I had my corridor to the north. Judy joined me - well, kind of ….I was riding way too slow so she was always well ahead of me doing recon. The first two miles were damn near futile, as the berm on the side of this asphalt trail was about 6 inches to 2 feet wide, and let me tell you, having my bike mechanic Steve Thomas cut about 2+ inches off of the end of each bar, that was KEY to getting some of this riding in. Otherwise I’d have been raking those bars on everything. But still, many times it was like riding on a tightrope, just trying to hold the very cleanest line I could possibly hold. Did well most of the time but there were several occasions where I just got raked hard by holly trees and prickers. Caught a couple on my shoulders, chest and forehead. 

Then there were a few occasions where I just had to bike walk because the rideable area was like 6 inches. Just wasn’t worth taking a chance on doing a nice biff in front of all the rec riders. I did bike walk any bridge that was concrete, so I had a few of those to do. Now some of the bridges were wooden, so those were fair game. A cool thing that I found from last year’s recon was that the local mt bikers have ridden on the grass along this paved trail in areas such that there is a nice single track on one or the other side. That’s when I could shift up into the middle cookie and get some speed back into the ride. And as I was riding this single track the people riding on the trail would look at me like I was an alien - major dbl takes. There were times where I’d just ride around trees and park benches just to stay on the dirt.

I’d say half of that 15 miles has this single track on it so it made for a very fast 2:08 hrs to complete the 15-mile ride. Yea, just call me Speedy Gonzales. By the time I got to Theodore Roosevelt Island the place was just a total cluster &%^^#@. I mean people in the water everywhere - and a ton of cigar boats tooling up and down the river. So with the time at 4 PM, I decided to spare Judy and Sue another 2 hrs of so of me unlashing the boat, crossing the Potomac a second time, this time from west to east to hook up with the C & O trail, and then relashing the boat back on the van. Nope, time for dinner after a “grueling” 16.5 miles gained today. Pretty pathetic isn’t it? But tomorrow, yes tomorrow I’m free and clear after the canoe Xing to ride and ride and ride for quite a time. So the real riding begins tomorrow. And I can’t say I’m unhappy having spent 8 days connecting the C & O with the Atlantic Ocean - and taking 4 more days than I’d planned for. Nope, it was worth it just to have accomplished it. And now I can truly say that the trip will span ocean to ocean.