Day 4- Accident Prone. Who me?!

Hancock, MD to Harper's Ferry, WV. (65 Miles)
Today we didn't sleep in as long as the previous days.  I wonder if the condition of the hotel had anything to do with it?  Maybe.  And maybe not.  
 We also took the least amount of pictures today.  But the ones I have are priceless.  I could see a habit forming starting the day.  We got up, packed, and got back on the bike for a trip down the road to meet Tannon at his campsite.  He (again) camped quite a ways down the trail.  We learned the night before that there was a paved bike trail that ran parallel to the C&O for 10 miles or so outside of Hancock.  We couldn't WAIT to get on it.  (In case you aren't familiar with bikes, it is SO much easier to ride on a paved road than a dirt trail.)  We decided the 11 miles we had to ride to get to Tannon was a good warm-up.  (Also, it is interesting how my perspective changed during the duration of the trip.  It is amazing when I am viewing 11 miles as a warm-up and 20 miles of riding a 'short distance')  The paved road was as wonderful as I thought it was going to be.  It was even uphill.  But it was paved.  Bryan and I averaged 14+ mph on this small stretch.  And we were 'warming up'.  Nice job us.  
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.  It did and we found ourselves back on the award winning towpath full of fun obstacles from every direction.  Once we picked up Tannon, I somehow became the front man (or girl).  I set the pace for a while.  It was nice to be in the lead.  I felt much relief being able to see all that was in front of me and not the back of Bryan's head.  I wanted to stay in the lead and not let the boys pass me so I decided to push myself and see how fast (within reason) I could go.  I didn't know until later that I was cruising at 15 mph.  Anyway.  We passed a bunch of locks and some breathtaking views of the Potomac river.

I could feel us nearing 'civilazation' because we were meeting more people (mostly hikers) along the trail.  I was enjoying my IPod and my lead when I saw a dude on a 'four wheeler' headed towards me.  Last time I checked, motorized vehicles weren't allowed.  I guess if you are a park ranger you can do whatever you want.  He didn't even slow down.  Or move over to the side.  Rude.  I had to be the one to dodge him.  But in doing so, I found myself trying to go to the far right of the path and there was a huge pothole/mud puddle.  My bike didn't like whatever I did and I ended up doing some world class gymnastics over the front of my handle bars.  Yup.  Lucky for me I escaped unscathed.  Lucky for me the sides of the path were wider in this area and I didn't hit a tree.  Or fall off a cliff.  Or into a canal.  Or worse, the Potomac.  
And the park ranger dude/jerk didn't even apologize.  He witnessed my front flip and didn't even have the decency to compliment my skills.  
After that I was much more aware of every pothole and puddle for the rest of the day.  I felt bad for the boys because they wanted me in front in case I pulled another stunt like that they could keep an eye on me.   I was not hurt at all, but a bit shaken and I kept slowing down to a turtle's speed on every muddy area. (which was about every 5 minutes)  I am sure I drove them bonkers.  
  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, with the exception of the 'detour'.  Part of the path was under construction so we were routed into the countryside for about 7 miles.  It was a nice change.  It was extremely hilly and we maxed out at 40 mph down one of the hills (and hit about 2 mph going up a couple of them).  We got to see some pretty elaborate estates.  The houses were just plain awesome.  I could totally live in the country in uh, where ever it was...West Virginia?  Maryland?  Not sure.  
  I felt like the ride today was not too hard at all.  We seemed to be adapting nicely to our bikes and new transportation.  Each day we 'saddled up' it felt better than the one before, which was a huge surprise.  Harper's Ferry came into view around 4:00 PM.  We felt so good that we actually wanted to ditch this stop and try to get as close as we could to DC.  We were hoping to get another 25 miles in before dark.  We stopped to check the map for somewhere to stay.  When we found NOTHING for 50 miles, we accepted the fact that we would not be riding any further today.  
  The only way to get to Harper's Ferry was by crossing this huge bridge.  There was a pedestrian path right next to the rail road tracks.  The hardest part was carrying your bike up the 3 flights of stairs to get to the bridge.

  Harper's Ferry turned out to be wicked cool.  I am so glad we stayed here and toured around.  And NOTHING beats getting served dinner by this guy:

  We had pulled pork in an old caboose.  So cool.  And there were 4 ice cream parlors on the same street.  This was my kind of town.  The only con of the whole night was that the hotel we were staying in was on the top of a really really big hill.  

  The lessons learned today were huge for me:  
A) Helmets are not as dorky as they seem.  Our little group were the only idiots I saw on the entire trail that did not have them on.  What were we thinking???  I am so glad God was watching out for me today and I didn't get seriously injured.  Helmets = really cool. (I had even bought one just for the trip.  But when the boys showed up with out them, I didn't want to be the nerd so I left mine at home too.   
B) The coolest mullet on earth resides in Harper's Ferry, WV.