Bike Touring in the 1970s

• Discuss the state of bike touring in the 1970s:
  • Bike touring during this era was gaining popularity as a way to explore the world and embark on long-distance adventures.
  • It was a time when people sought alternative modes of travel and embraced the freedom and simplicity that bike touring offered.
• Overview of the popular bikes used for touring in that era:
  • Steel-framed touring bicycles were the go-to choice for bike tourers in the 1970s.
  • Brands like Raleigh, Peugeot, and Miyata were known for producing reliable touring bikes.
  • These bikes were designed with longer wheelbases and relaxed geometry to provide stability and comfort during long rides.
• Introduction to the traditional panniers and racks used for carrying gear:
  • Panniers, typically made of canvas or nylon, were the primary means of carrying gear on bike tours.
  • They were attached to racks mounted on the front and rear of the bicycle.
  • These racks were often heavy and made of steel, adding extra weight to the bike.
• Highlight the limitations and challenges of the gear available at the time:
  • Bike touring gear in the 1970s had some limitations.
  • The panniers were not as efficient at distributing weight evenly, which could affect bike handling and stability.
  • Additionally, the racks added significant weight to the bike, making climbs and maneuvering more challenging.
• Share anecdotes and stories from notable bike tourers of the era:
  • Renowned bike tourers of the 1970s
  • Thomas Stevens, who completed the first documented bike trip around the world,
  • Anne Mustoe, who cycled around the globe in the 1980s.
  • Bikecentennial 1976

Technological Advancements in the 1980s and 1990s

• Technological advancements that impacted bike touring gear in the 1980s and 1990s:
  • During this period, advancements in materials, components, and design significantly influenced bike touring gear, making it more efficient and comfortable.
  • Introduction of lightweight materials such as aluminum and titanium for bike frames and components:
    • Aluminum frames started gaining popularity in the 1980s due to their lighter weight compared to traditional steel frames.
    • Titanium frames, known for their strength and durability, also emerged as a high-end option for bike touring enthusiasts.
• The emergence of clipless pedals and the impact on efficiency and comfort:
  • Clipless pedals, which allow riders to securely attach their shoes to the pedals, were introduced in the late 1980s.
  • This innovation improved pedaling efficiency and comfort, especially during long rides and climbs, by allowing for a more direct transfer of power.
• Innovations in camping gear, including lighter tents, sleeping bags, and cooking equipment:
  • Camping gear manufacturers started focusing on lightweight designs in the 1980s and 1990s.
  • Tent materials, such as lightweight nylon and aluminum poles, reduced overall weight while maintaining durability.
  • Sleeping bags with improved insulation and smaller pack sizes became popular, and compact cooking stoves provided efficient meal preparation options.
• The rise of waterproof materials and improved clothing for inclement weather:
  • Waterproof materials like Gore-Tex became widely available during this era.
  • This allowed for the development of waterproof panniers and cycling apparel, keeping riders dry and comfortable in rainy conditions.
  • Clothing advancements included breathable and moisture-wicking fabrics that enhanced comfort during long rides.

The Rise of Bikepacking in the 2000s

• Explain the concept of bikepacking and its differences from traditional bike touring:
  • Bikepacking is a form of self-supported, off-road bicycle travel that emphasizes lightweight gear and the ability to venture into rugged terrain.
  • Unlike traditional bike touring, which often involves paved roads and larger amounts of gear carried on racks, bikepacking focuses on carrying essential gear in frame bags, seat packs, and handlebar rolls.
• Introduction to bikepacking-specific gear, such as frame bags, seat packs, and handlebar rolls:
  • Bikepacking gear is designed to optimize weight distribution and stability while navigating off-road terrain.
  • Frame bags attach to the bike’s main triangle, seat packs secure under the saddle, and handlebar rolls fasten to the handlebars, providing ample storage space while maintaining a balanced load.
• The impact of mountain biking and gravel riding on the development of bikepacking gear:
  • The rise of gravel riding in the 2000s plus the influence of mountain biking impacted the development of bikepacking gear.
  • These disciplines demanded lightweight and durable gear that could withstand rough trails and demanding conditions.
  • As a result, bikepacking gear evolved to meet the specific needs of off-road adventurers.
• Discuss the benefits and advantages of bikepacking gear in terms of weight distribution and off-road capabilities:
  • Bikepacking gear allows for a more balanced weight distribution, as the gear is distributed within the bike’s frame rather than on racks.
  • This improves handling and stability, especially on challenging terrain.
  • Bikepacking gear is also typically lighter and more compact, enabling riders to navigate through tight trails and rough conditions.
  • Downside… can’t carry as much!

Modern Bikepacking Gear and Trends

• Lightweight and durable materials like Dyneema and Cuben Fiber
  • These materials offer exceptional strength-to-weight ratios, making gear lighter without sacrificing durability.
• Integration of technology with bikepacking gear
  • For example, GPS navigation devices specifically designed for bikepackers have become popular, allowing for easier route planning and navigation in remote areas.
  • Additionally, solar-powered charging systems have been developed to keep electronic devices powered during extended trips.
  • Battery improvements
• The emergence of bikepacking-specific clothing and accessories:
  • These items are designed to meet the unique demands of off-road riding, such as moisture-wicking and quick-drying fabrics, specialized bikepacking shoes, and rugged yet lightweight helmets.
  • None of this is new, but the tech is improving and costs for basics are dropping
• Trends in minimalist bikepacking and ultra-distance races:
  • Discuss the rise of minimalist bikepacking, where riders aim to carry the bare minimum gear for maximum efficiency and speed.
    • Explore the growing popularity of ultra-distance bikepacking races, such as the Tour Divide or the RAM , and how gear choices impact participants’ strategies and performance.

Future Possibilities and Closing Thoughts

• What’s next?
• More evolution to bikepacking
• Will “bike touring” ever go away?
• Wrap up

Greetings and welcome to another edition of the Pedal Shift Project. The Pedal Shift Project is a series of conversations, thoughts, and experiments around the bike touring lifestyle from tips and tricks to ideas on how to ride your ride. Let’s shrink the world by bike. Show notes and more are available@pedalshift.net slash 3 2 6, and you can email the show pedal shift pedal shift.net, or text me at 2 0 2 9 3 0 11 0 9 and check pedal shift out on all the socials as well.

Hello everybody, and welcome to the 326th edition of the Pedal Shift Project. My name’s Tim Mooney. Thanks so much for joining on this edition. We are doing our patented takeaways episode for the return to the C&O tour, which was a lot of fun. I really, really ended up enjoying it. I hope that was apparent by the end of last week’s episode.

It’s always so great to get on that trail. I think it’s a crown jewel. I am a broken record on all of this. I have, let’s see, 1, 2, 3, 4. I have seven takeaways for this particular tour. And they are as always a no particular order. And I also am gonna wrap things up by taking a look ahead at what is to come this summer on the pedal ship project and actually the summer and beyond.

Stick around. We will get to that at the end of this here Program.

Takeaway 1

Number one takeaway from the return to the C&O 2023 tour. I think the C&O naysayers have a lot less to naysay as the surface improvement expands on this trail. The. The expansion of the new surface was I think, to some people, a little controversial, and I talked a little bit about this on the second and third days.

There were many folks, and I think me included, that were. I don’t know. , a little resistant to the, the new trail surface because there is a major historical element to the C&O towpath. For those of you who have not been with the show, who have not heard me talk about this endlessly, this was a major economic engine for the region back in, at the 18 hundreds or so, and the way that all of the goods were.

Literally pulled down this canal was with, pack animals and whatnot. And so there’s a real historical nature of it. Now, maybe I think there’s a piece of me that because of the fact that I grew up along the Erie Canal, that I see that that’s a big deal and the historical nature of it is, is important and preserving history can be important.

But I think I’ve changed my tune over the years. I don’t think it’s necessary that we have a. 18 hundreds era surface to a trail in order to appreciate what the towpath meant historically, especially now because there’s an overall evolution as to what this towpath means and what it means for each of these different regions.

Erie Canal, in terms of New York and the C&O in terms of Maryland and dc. So I think that it’s fine to have an evolution of these types of things over time, especially as the uses evolve. The canal itself, it evolved over time. It was shallower for a while and then it was made deeper, and then they dug the papa tunnel and then all of these different types of things.

So I think if we keep frozen in Amber perspective on what history means, I think we’re ignoring. Well history. So I think that the surface improvement is a great idea and it certainly makes for better riding. I think it also means that when you make the investment on the surface, allowing it to drain better, allowing it to not get as rudded, it means that there’s fewer future maintenance costs, perhaps.

Now I don’t know the answer to that specifically, I’m just speculating on that, but I think that that’s probably something that’s a good investment for the future of the trail. In that respect as well. And oh, by the way, it rides really great. So that’s , a fantastic addition to making this a better experience for more people.

Now, I will say that I think that a lot of folks who are more on the backpacking or excuse, I keep saying, I keep doing that. Do you do this? I say backpacking instead of backpacking. When I mean backpacking. The folks that are into bike packing, I think many of them want a little more, I don’t know, gravelly experience, a little bit more of the traditional surface perhaps.

And, and tell me if you, you think I’m wrong on that? So by having a, a smoother ride, it maybe, I don’t know, takes away a little bit from some people’s notions of what. Bike packing means, and that’s fine. I mean, you know how I am on all of this. Ride your ride, go, go where you want, take, take the surfaces you want.

But I do think that the new surface expands the ability for more people to be able to enjoy the towpath. And the overall C&O experience, so you can have a more traditional bike touring set up, you could ride on this new surface on a Brompton for sure. There are just a lot more opportunities that are available.

It opens up the accessibility, but where I think that it might have been harder in other circumstances for other folks who are riding. So, I think that I always go back my avatar for the naysayer and, , I’ve mentioned this person before. It was on some kind of a forum. I can’t remember what it was.

It might have been Reddit, it might have been Facebook. I think it might have been Facebook. Cause it was years ago, somebody who referred to the C&Os surface as embarrassing or something like that. And it was just like a really very. Highly personal take on the whole thing, that it was just like, oh, it was terrible.

And, loading the, the gap over the C&O and, I’m, I’ve been team C&O forever, which is to take nothing away from the gap, but I’ve always been a little bit salty over. Had whole experience. And I think that the new surface really takes away those arguments quite a bit. But I guess in a, in a way, it capitulates to that argument.

So maybe I’m the one who’s changing too. But I, I do think that overall, just to go back to the, to the takeaway here, there are fewer and fewer reasons for someone to say no to riding on the C&O because I think that with the new surface for well over a third of the entire length, I think that it just makes it a lot easier and better.

And from everything that I understand, friend of the show Preston Piper mentioned that the expansion goes beyond where I had seen it goes, it goes further towards or past past mile marker 72. Sorry, I’m stammering away here cuz I’m trying to remember the names. Past Shepherdstown Go past Antum in that direction.

Into the mile marker eighties territory. I don’t think it’s quite getting there yet, but if they can connect up all the way to Lisport then, then we’re really starting to get to the point where now we’re closer to two thirds of the entire trail, which is, is pretty exciting. I think so. Fewer things for the naysayers to naysay about, I think and, and more reasons I think to ride on this trail.

Now, I will say the, the cl the part of the trail that I ride the most is here on the DC side. And man, it’s just, it’s a tooth Rattler at parts and I, I would really love for them to improve the surface down this direction as well. But as I mentioned in that last episode, the, the day three episode, I think that would be very tricky because it’s used as a commuter route for, for a large.

Portions of it, especially as you got closer to dc. So I, closing the trail to do this work, I think would be really challenging. So hopefully it’s part of the plans. I would love to see it.  I’m all on team resurface now.

Takeaway 2

All right. Take away number two. Get yourself a water purifier, especially if you’re riding on the cno.

I think that a water purifier I use the Sawyer models. There are a ton of different types out there. They’re really inexpensive, they’re really lightweight. There’s no reason for you, even with the most kind of minimalist packing to throw one of these into your gear, regardless of the type of bicycle adventuring that you’re doing.

If you’re riding the C&O, I think it’s now on the musts to carry now as well, because as we talked about before, it looks like the park service is now going to be permanently not treating the well water. Now, could you get away with drinking the well water untreated? Maybe? You’d be certainly taking a risk.

They, they treated it for a reason. The, these are old wells. I don’t know the nature of how the water feeds into these wells, but certainly there’s a possibility that there could be some pathogens and different types of things that would be problematic for you if you drank it. Maybe not gonna kill you, but certainly be.

Less fun. So, these types of, of devices are cheap, easy to get easy to use and way better than the iodine treatment that was being used previously for it. So w now all of that funding, and I understand it was pretty expensive for the park service to treat all those wells continuously.

Now all that funding could go to trail maintenance and to other things. And of course the park service is underfunded and the trail maintenance. Con, costs continue to climb as climate change hits and the storms do more damage to the trail and they gotta make sure they keep it clear and all that other kind of stuff.

So at least it’s able to move that funding to, is it more important stuff, I guess, to different things. Things that are, are equally important. But if you bring along water purifier, you’ve checked that box now, all of that, those water sources are available to you. And I think that’s a great thing. So for every single ride I do, from now on, I’m gonna be bringing my water purifier with me.

One thing that I think I may do is, I haven’t used mine in a very long time, and I actually need to do some research on this, but, you rely on that type of a thing, and I, I don’t think they go quote unquote, Old, but I would like to do some research on that. For those of you who have older water purifiers, I may just replace the one that I’ve gotten, get a brand new one.

I mean, they’re cheap enough, quite frankly, that you could probably have a new one for each season. I’m not into kind of over consumption of things, but at the very least, maybe replace the filter itself within the larger unit maybe every year. So that’s something I’m gonna be looking into more. And learning a little bit more.

I frankly don’t use mine very often because I don’t tend to go on adventures where I need it as much. I look at somebody like my buddy mysterious James, who is constantly going on adventures where, where water purifier is really his source of water. So, I, I need to start thinking about that more because I’m gonna now have what is one of my major.

Bike touring adventures, something where I’ll want to be carrying a water purifier with me. So get yourself a water purifier. There’s all sorts of different kinds. Maybe someday I’ll do a, an episode where I talk more about it. I, I did one years ago on various methods for water purification. I think that I’m now firmly in the camp of these relatively inexpensive higher tech kind of water purifiers.

Like the, the brands like Sawyer create. All right. That’s number two.

Takeaway 3

Number three, takeaway. Sitting out versus pedaling through bad weather. This is the. I don’t know. Is this, is this an every tour kind of a thing or is this a, this is a main topic of discussion. This is a, I think a, an issue that a lot of people face.

There are a lot of folks who don’t like cycling in anything but perfect weather, and I don’t begrudge you that point of view at all. When I look at a lot of group rides, And I don’t go on them very often cause I just don’t like cycling with, with others that much. It’s not that I, I shouldn’t say that.

I just, I prefer to cycle alone I think is ultimately , my thing. But when I look at a lot of the group rides that I’ll see on various different boards or in various different groups, they’ll say, well, we’re gonna meet here at this time, but if the weather forecast. Is for 30% chance of rain or more, it’s canceled automatically.

And I’ve often thought that’s a shame because while is it great riding through rain? No, not always, but I actually enjoy it from time to time. But there is a certain point where weather. Is a problem. Weather can be uncomfortable and then it can get to a point where it’s dangerous. And of course, on this particular trip, I decided to make a call to scuttle, sort of a big chunk of my day.

Two, because of the nature of the thunderstorms that were coming through, at least the forecast. And that was because it was easy for me to do. So, the opportunity cost was really low. I got to hang out at the cabin. I got to have more of a day with my partner, Kimberly. I got to hang out with the dogs. I got to eat better food.

All of these types of things. And oh, by the way, I didn’t have to ride in the rain and potentially the muck. But on a bigger tour, maybe a, the tour that I’m looking at doing later on this year, I’ve got a couple in mind actually. If I’m gonna be in a place where I don’t have that kind of support system and whatnot, I will frequently just say Throw on the rain gear and go for it.

But I’ve also made calls in the middle of larger tours where I’ve said, no, I’m taking a zero. I’m, I remember speaking of mysterious James a trip I believe it was on my Brompton. It was the Big Sur trip on my Brompton. There was a day where it was just absolutely nasty, nasty rain forecast, high winds, very heavy rains.

And I said, James, what do you think about just taking a zero? And he’s like, sure. And so we did and we had a wonderful day. I think you can listen back on past episodes where we talked about it. There was a couple in camp that pushed forward and they ended up calling it in the middle and ended up staying at this horrifically expensive hotel that’s in the middle of nowhere past the Pfeiffer Big Sur Campground area in the one town that’s there in this rather remote section of Highway one.

And so was that better for them or worse? It was certainly more expensive. We stayed at a $12 campsite and ended up hanging out in the lodge all day. It was great. I loved it. So, you gotta make the call based on what’s comfortable for you. I often stay, I. Well, in fact, I say it every episode, ride your ride.

And I don’t think it’s a problem to say, Hey, I’m gonna sit this one out. I’m gonna, I’m gonna wait out on this. I’m gonna take a fast forward, I’m gonna add an extra day. I’m gonna add extra miles to future days on my tour. I don’t think that’s a problem at all. Just you gotta go with what your gun is telling you.

And like I said, sometimes I. Power through things. Last year on that eerie canal trip, I just rode through a whole lot of rain without rain gear on, and just got hammered in parts. I sat under an underpass in Syracuse during a massive thunderstorm, and then I just kept going because, eh, I, that was my plan, that’s what I wanted to do.

Do what makes sense for you and make sure you’re always doing it with an eye towards safety. For me on this trip, it was definitely an eye towards safety. There are lots of trees that are all ready to come down with the wrong gust of wind or maybe even a lightning strike on the C&O. And so, riding through a thunderstorm on that trail, It’s just not recommended.

I don’t think so. I’m, I feel real comfortable with the call. Is it a bummer? I didn’t cycle every single last centimeter of this trail? Yeah, sure. But you know what it’s gonna be for me next time. I’ll do another through ride at some point. Maybe this fall, maybe next year. But it’s definitely gonna be coming soon.

Takeaway 4

Alright, number four, takeaway. Don’t wait to amass the right gear. Get out there and ride with what you have on night. Zero I and, and day and the morning of day one, I encountered the group out of nearby here. I think they were from Fairfax or, or somewhere close in Northern Virginia. And and a group.

And there were a bunch of guys who clearly had, Classic bike packing gear, nice relatively expensive gear. And that was part of their setup. And then there was one person in their group, and my, my guy had old older gear that was not waterproof and was rocking some garbage bags.

And you know what? That’s the dude who was my favorite in some ways, because, It’s important I think, to go out there and enjoy the adventures. And if you’ve got gear that’s maybe from the nineties or something like that, I’m raising my hand cuz I got some gear from the nineties for a few things.

It’s fine. It’ll work, it’ll hold things. You can get it on your bike if it’s an older kind of canvas panier from back in the day. Yeah, it’ll, it’ll work fine. Will it keep your stuff waterproof? No, but you know what? You can put waterproof bags inside it and then go for it. So, ride with what you’ve got. Don’t let the adventures don’t delay your adventures because you don’t think you’ve got the right things. You can absolutely modify just about anything to be able to work on your bike. Bungees are great. Garbage bags are great. I, I would use something a little bit more.

Robust than a garbage bag. There. There are different opportunities out there that gar garbage bag, compressor bags, they’re just thicker outdoor material bags, things like that. That’s the kind of stuff that can be really, really helpful. Follow your f Our friends in the backpacking community, because they use all sorts of that kind of stuff inside of their, not really waterproof backpacks.

And it works out really good. Don’t worry about having the perfect bike. You know what most bikes can probably handle even the, the gnarliest of parts of the C&O, for instance. So get out there and just, enjoy your adventures. When things fail or when things aren’t as good for you as you would like, well that’s gonna be your first one, your first piece of gear, your first part of your bike to upgrade.

That’s how I did it. That’s how I recommend other people do it. And, I think it’s better to get out there and ride and enjoy the experience with the gear that you’ve got before you commit to hundreds or perhaps even thousands of dollars worth of gear. You can do it without it. All right, so that is point number four.

Takeaway number four.

Takeaway 5

How about number five? I love that we’re back. I’ll throw that into quotes, but I am low key, missing the empty trail during the pandemic. Let me start off. With this, the pandemic was terrible. There were a lot of people that lost livelihoods, that lost money, that lost their lives, that lost friends, that lost family.

The pandemic was not good. End, end of sentence, complete thought. However, there were some things that we got out of the pandemic that at least from bicycle touring perspective, we couldn’t travel away. I couldn’t go to the west coast. I couldn’t go to, Europe or Florida or whatever. But I had a pretty empty C&O for a couple of years there, and that was nice and I really enjoyed that.

When I go out, I really like the solitude. That’s not the case anymore. People are very much back particularly on nice weather weekends on the C&O. And you know what, that’s. Just part of the deal. So I like the fact that I get to go out and go to travel for conferences and yo, what did we do? We went to a jazz concert last night duke Ellington hundredth anniversary kind of thing.

My, my partner Kimberly, is into jazz and it, I was sitting there as we were listening to the music and amongst a whole bunch of people and, and just enjoying that whole experience, how that was really taken away from us during. During the pandemic and for very, very good reasons. We helped save each other by not going to these types of things.

And it’s nice that it’s back and it’s nice that lots of us get to travel now to do more bike adventures in more different places. Still low-key miss having an empty trail. I’m just, I’m not gonna lie, I like the empty trail. It was fun. It was really fun to feel like you were in the zombie apocalypse kind of a place and you were the only person out there.

And it was fun. And I also think back and, and you all were along for the ride, when you know they had. Sealed off the, the, the porta-potties. We had absolutely no idea how to deal with the virus, and we’re sort of like, oh God, the virus could get on the porta-potties, so we should, we should, we should seal them off and nobody should use ’em.

And now of course that seems quaint and funny because it was like, well, now we were outside and it was probably okay. Anyways, I’m on a, I’m on a major tangent here. I love that we’re back. I’m low key, missing some of the elements of an empty trail. That was takeaway number five. That was a bit of a rambler.

Sorry about that.

Takeaway 6

Takeaway number six, after the trip. I checked out the road route from point of rocks to Leesburg, and I can’t recommend it except maybe if you’re coming from Leesburg to point of rocks. Okay, let me, let me backtrack a little bit down here. Many of you have written me over the course of the last couple of years, whites Ferry.

The cable ferry is out, as I talked about on the, I think the day three episode. There is very little prospect of it coming back anytime soon. And, and I won’t go into all the details on all of that. You can listen back to that. You can do some Googling and see what’s going on with all of that.

Here’s the deal. The. The downside to that are for the folks who are not campers, the folks who are looking at end-to-end BnBs Hotels, whites Ferry was a major component for you because you crossed there, you were able to cycle just a few extra miles, and there were a couple of hotels that were really a.

Accessible to you on the Virginia side. The problem is, is that it’s almost impossible to get to that part of Virginia very easily from that part of the trail. Otherwise, the next bridge is Chain Bridge, which is all the way back down in dc. That’s, that’s your next opportunity to cross over. The next opportunity to cross over behind you is point of rocks, and as I’ve talked about before, and as I’m telling you right now it’s US 15 that takes you from that bridge on the Virginia side and there’s almost no shoulder going towards Leesburg.

There’s a major, I shouldn’t say major there, there’s a curving uphill slog. It’s, it’s, it’s a least a solid half mile, if not a mile. But my point of view, and you know me, I will cycle in a lot of very busy places. I just don’t think it’s very safe. I don’t think it’s meant for it’s certainly not built for cycling and I think that it’s a very busy crossing, especially now that the cable ferry is no longer there at Whites Ferry will.

Will you take your life in your hands? I don’t know. I think that if you did it early in the morning when there wasn’t much traffic, it would be fine. But you know, you may not be doing it early in the morning. You may be doing it at the end of the day. You may be doing it in close to rush hour in the middle of the week.

That’s just where I think that it’s not a particularly safe route. I talked about a few weeks ago, or maybe even a few months ago, about the idea of taking the Metro Silver Line, which is the newest metro rail here in Washington, dc. It goes all the way out to Dallas Airport and beyond. Now. And taking that and hooking up with a Washington Old Dominion Trail, and then eventually pushing through and, and getting to the C&O from there, crossing at point of rocks.

I think in that direction, it’s okay. There’s a little bit more of a shoulder going in that direction. I. And because you’re going downhill as you approach that bridge rather than uphill leaving the bridge, I think that it’s, it’s substantially safer for cycling. So I think that if your idea is that you’re gonna be maybe co going from DC to Cumberland and perhaps beyond, you’re gonna be doing the gap.

My recommendation would be not to do the C&O for your first day of riding. My recommendation would be for you to do the paved Washington and Old Dominion Trail on the Virginia side. And yeah, you’re gonna miss out on some stuff, but it’s a great trail and there’s actually some breweries along the way.

There’s a great adventuring that can happen on that trail. Do that, take that to Leesburg or wherever you’re gonna end up spending your first night. Stay at that hotel and then get up early in the morning. Make sure you do this on the early side, or maybe consider doing it after rush hour, but then go and cross over a point of rocks.

I would highly recommend you take a look at Google Earth and Google Maps and the street view and all that. Familiarize yourself with all of that. There’s decent shoulders leading up to that point, but then it starts to get rural and then you lose your shoulder. Can you take the lane? Sure. We’ll, will drivers respect you?

Hopefully, yes. But then you cross the bridge and then you hit the C&O and then you’re off to the races from there. That would be, for me, the only way that I would feel pr that all that safe. I may at some point test this out and, and of course document it and record it for everybody. And then maybe maybe do a full C&O ride from that point on, or maybe just end up going to Harpers Ferry and taking the train back.

There’s a variety of different things that you can do with all of that, but I do think that that’s a really interesting possibility. There’s, of course, also, as I mentioned before, the Silver Line as another opportunity to do a fast forward, to get you further up there. So, That’s what I wanna say here.

So, so, so again, to summarize here, I cannot recommend the road route coming from the Maryland side to the Virginia side, and then going to Leesburg using the point of rocks crossing. It just doesn’t feel very safe to me. I did, I, I looked at it in a car and it just did not seem very good.

Okay. That was the second to last one. That was the penultimate of our takeaways.

Takeaway 7

Here is the last of the takeaways, and number seven. Amtrak is such a good way to make this trip work. And there’s rumors that we might get another opportunity with rail and that is that the, the Maryland system for commuter rail, it’s the MARC.

I wish I could remember what the acronym is. It’s M A R C. It’s the Maryland Commuter Rail. It goes all the way out to. Martinsburg at this point. Martinsburg is actually the station that is closest to where my cabin is. Is it handy? It can be. It’s very limited. It’s basically does early morning stupidly, early morning roots from Martinsburg to DC cuz it’s a commuter rattle.

And then evening after work routes from DC back to Martinsburg. There are rumors and it’s more, I think, than just rumors. There’s actual. Movement to expand either the offerings so that there’s more of them, and that would be good because if you can get to Harpers Ferry or to Martinsburg, Harpers Ferry is very easy to get to the trail.

Martinsburg, it is possible. It’s a little bit rough with the road riding, but yeah, you can get to the trail that way too. But more importantly, they’re actually looking at potentially expanding the MARC service beyond Martinsburg, all the way to Cumberland. And that is huge because as of right now, we have one bit at the Apple to get from DC to Cumberland, and that is on the Amtrak Capital Limited.

If MARC expands its service there, we will have. At least a couple of extra trains, perhaps up to three additional trains that would get us all the way out there. That is really fantastic. MARC does allow bikes on all of its route now. So I think that, that they would have an eye towards that, that of the bicycle adventuring opportunities that would be there for folks.

It also would be a much cheaper setup. Right now when you’re buying a ticket to Cumberland, that’s usually somewhere in the 20 to 30 to $40 range. Depends on when you buy the ticket and whatnot, but your bike is always an extra 20 bucks as well. So I’m usually not getting a, a train out to Cumberland from DC for anything less than 40 bucks as just a starting point.

If MARC makes its service available, it would be substantially cheaper and more frequent, so that’s pretty good. Oh, by the way, you wouldn’t need a reservation for your bike, which I know is a major limiting. Factor for folks as well. So I, I’m really keeping my fingers crossed. I’ll keep an eye on this as well, but I think that this would be another huge, huge boon for folks who are looking to try to do the C&O coming from Cumberland, DC or otherwise doing some kind of, A train element to your riding.

Some of you may be like, you know what, Tim, I know you’re huge on the cno, but I just wanna get to Cumberland and get on the gap and go, well, this would be another opportunity for you if you’re coming from DC or if you’re finishing up your Pittsburgh to Cumberland ride. It would be an opportunity, more of an opportunity to get back to DC by rail.

So, More to come on that. I’ll, I’ll keep, I’ll keep my eye on that. But that was another huge thing that actually I discovered as I was riding on this return to C&O 2023, and I’m really looking forward to potentially giving you more updates on all of that. Alright, so those are my takeaways for this trip.

Number one, C&O, naysayers, you have less de naysay. Number two, get yourself a water purifier. Number three, sitting out versus pedaling through bad weather. Yeah, make your call. Number four, don’t wait to amass your gear. Ride your ride with what you got. Number five. I love that we’re back, but I’m low key, missing the empty C&O number six.

Can’t really recommend the point of rocks crossing going from Maryland to the Virginia side. And number seven, let’s keep an eye on what’s going on with the Maryland commuter rail. All right. Those are the takeaways.

This summer on The Pedalshift Project

Now, as promised, let’s look ahead to summer on the Pedal shift project. I am mindful that most of the show for this year has basically been tour journals and.

While I’m sure a lot of you really dig that, I really dig it because it’s, frankly, it’s a little bit easier in terms of production for me, although, there’s, there’s a lot of kind of stuff that I have to piece together. It’s just in terms of like a massing content, it’s a little bit easier for me.

It’s usually weeks if not months of content that I do, that I create in basically a few days. On the editing side, it’s a little more difficult than an episode like this where I just sit in front of a mic. But don’t worry about that. That’s sausage making. We don’t talk about making of podcasts on the show except when we do, but I’m, I’m excited to talk about some topical shows, some of the old school shows that we used to do back in the day more frequently.

We’ve got some episodes coming up in the next few weeks that I think you’re gonna like, I’m excited about them. In upcoming episodes are gonna include as I scroll through my editorial calendar. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Oh, yeah, yeah. Next week episode 3 27. The. Evolution of bike touring gear from the 1970s to the present.

A little bit of history, but a little bit of just looking back from where we came. Some of you who listened to the show, I know you go back to those bike centennial days back in the mid 1970s. Some of you are younger listeners and you know nothing but bike packing gear. Interesting to just see the evolution of things.

So we’re gonna do a whole episode on that. The episode after that. Number 3 28 bicycle touring goals. Check in. Do you remember we did the bike touring goals way, way back in January episode 3 0 9. Well, here we’re gonna be 19 episodes later and I’m gonna check in and see how I’m doing on those goals.

I haven’t looked yet. I’m a little nervous. It’s exactly the half year point. So I’ve got six more months if I’ve been really bad on some of them. And I know I’m thinking of one that I absolutely have not done and I have no actual plans to do yet. So I gotta make sure I do plans for them. So anyways, bicycle touring goals.

Check in episode 3 28 and then we got some more stuff coming in terms of topical episodes as well before we hit. The big thing, the fun thing, the thing that I think is going to be dominating my well dominating your listening for the summer, and that is the big summer tour. I have got a summer tour all figured out.

It is all planned, it is all ready to roll. And I’m gonna be revealing that in a future episode in mid-July, mid-July is when that is gonna be coming down. And then it’s gonna be immediately followed by, The adventure, and if it goes the way that I’d like it to, it’s gonna largely fill up the pod for the entire rest of the summer and into the fall.

It’s gonna be that long. It’s really fun. It’s quirky and at the same time, I think it’s it, it, it’s just great. I’m, I’m, I cannot tell you how excited I am for it, but I’m not gonna ruin the surprise it’s gonna be coming in about a month or so is when, from where I’m sitting down recording this.

And if you’re listening to the show when it first comes out, it’s gonna be coming out in mid-July is the preview episode, and then we’re just gonna get rolling from there. All right. Lots of fun stuff coming ahead for you on the Pedal Shift project. Excited for the topical shows. Excited for the new adventures, and I’m glad to take you along, as always, for the ride.