An experiment with bike camping, Part 2

Foxes have a cry that sounds a lot like a small child in great pain. They seem to particularly love letting loose with this cry in the middle of the night. At 2 AM I popped awake to the sounds of screaming, spent a little while listening intently for footsteps, in case the madman who was torturing children in the woods was coming for me next (BTW, there's always the noise of something rustling about in the woods at night, and it's very easy to convince oneself that it's a madman coming for you). After a few minutes I managed to get my adrenaline level down and realize nothing was amiss, but it still took me a while to fall back asleep. At one point I tried one of the insomnia remedies I use at home, which was to listen to nature sounds through headphones, but it turned out that really wasn't an appropriate approach when the thing that had startled me in the first place was nature sounds. Instead I put on a podcast - my other nighttime balm dating back to the sleepless days following my heart surgery - and soon dozed off.

I awoke at 0530 feeling pretty rested, all things considered. Fox shrieks notwithstanding, I generally sleep well in a tent, particularly when the weather is as comfortable as it was on this trip. I wanted to get an early start to get out ahead of some forecast rain showers. I did take the time to make coffee and have breakfast, but right afterwards I broke camp and hit the trail. Without all the water and food I was running a little lighter and made slightly better time, though I did stop more often to take in the views and fiddle with audio. I finished the audio book of my friend Lisa's CNN history and replayed the podcast I had listened to in the middle of the night in order to hear the part that I had missed after dozing off.

On the ride home

During Ted's visit he and I had gone out and done some geocaching together (he's still actively into it and it's a fun thing to do together) and so I had it on the brain. There are no geocaches hidden directly along the C&O Canal as it's National Park Service land and NPS frowns on geocaches, but I did detour off the trail at Point of Rocks to find one. Riding up into town also gave me a little opportunity to feel what it was like pulling the trailer on paved roads. A little easier, but deadly up hills.

Stopping in Point of Rocks to look for a geocache

Point of Rocks has a cool old train station

The rest of the trip back was uneventful and I arrived back at the car ahead of any rain. Hooray! A mid-Atlantic summer camping trip that wouldn't require drying out gear once I got home! I walked around Noland's Ferry a bit but there's really not much there - it's just a defined parking area with bathrooms and one old building (not open to the public).

Back at Noland's Ferry

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was a dusty trip. When I got home I hosed down each item - including the bike and trailer - to get the dust off it before bringing it into the house. Fortunately, it was very fine dust and wasn't caked on. A quick shpritz with the hose was all it took.

Dust on the front fork of my bike

So, the trip was a success. I learned that travel fully loaded is slow. I probably brought too much stuff. My kayaking friends (many of whom are also cyclists) were quick to offer me recommendations on how to reduce my gear in response to my Facebook post about the trip. I didn't overdo it on food, but I probably could have lived without my (admittedly ultracompact) cot. I probably could have just stayed in my bike gear instead of bringing clothes for camp. Considering what a lightweight drinker I am, I could have brought a smaller flask of bourbon (I had been too lazy to transfer it to a smaller container). I brought cooking gear I didn't need for the simple food I prepared, and it's possible I didn't need my tarp (I used it to cover the bike and trailer overnight rather than as shelter). Did I need a bike lock? Probably not, though as a lifelong paranoid New Yorker I felt better with the bike and trailer locked up overnight. After all, it would have been really bad if the madman had used my own bike to get away after murdering me. Not that it would have mattered to me at that point. And I need to use more compression sacks to squeeze my volume down. But that's what this trip was for - to do the experience in a naive way and learn from it. All told, an enjoyable outing and a successful learning experience.