Chesapeake & Ohio

I had the day off on Friday, and I took maximum advantage by not getting up until 11 am and then taking a 60-mile bike ride up the C&O Canal. It's wonderful that I can take a 60+ mile bike ride from my house in DC and never encounter a car (or even a road crossing) for 55 of those miles. Naturally, Congress tried to make the canal into a highway in the 1950s, but Justice Douglas of the Supreme Court led a walk along all 185 miles to galvanize opposition, and it was eventually designated a national park.

The canal trail goes past Great Falls on the Potomac, and it was really rushing yesterday, with all the rain we've had:

I'll be taking a two-night bike camping trip over July 4th weekend with Aron and some other folks, of which a large part will be on the C&O. And Aron, Mike and I have tentative plans to take the train to Pittsburgh and bike back sometime in the fall, using the Great Allegheny Passage trail, which links up with the C&O at Cumberland, MD.