I bought a bike rack and got my (actually my uncles) old mountain bike a tune up.
Kiernan practiced his independence by taking school-from-home breaks riding around our neighborhood.
We got him some padded shorts.
We put air in our tires and cleaned our chains a bit.
I bought a case of water for the trunk of my car.
We took the bikes around the neighborhood one more time and decided to try an adventure.
We drove to the closest access to the C&O tow path at the Monocacy aqueduct.
The weather was chilly and sunny. I had packed some cheese and crackers and apples and granola bars and wondered how Kiernan would do with a ride much longer than around the block.
We rode for around 5 miles with a nice stop by the river for snacks and stretching our legs.
Kiernan seemed to love this ride. We chatted and snacked and the weather was perfect for him as he over heats easily. We talked seriously about doing the entire trail. It is 185ish miles long.
I looked at this website about biking the C&O.
We decided that when the weather was good again we would go to the beginning of the trail in D.C. and see how far we got. We also decided that every long ride should have a massive amount of pizza associated with it.
We went home happy and with some ambitious aspirations. We talked about how far he could go (clearly further than 5 miles) and we talked about the possibility of bike camping.
A week later on a much hotter day (today in fact) we drove down to Georgetown and handed my car keys to mom and filled my backpack with water and snacks and headed out to find the start of the trail. There was some construction and there were a ton of people and a much desired stop to grab some great Tacos at Chaia Tacos.
Kiernan sat on a bench and fed birds and then we rode around looking for the start of the tow path.
We found it after about half an hour and I finally took off my mask.
It was muggy and had rained the night before so there were a ton of muddy/sandy puddles and we had to take a detour at one of the bridges (under construction) but we made it out of the crowded city section and out to the crowded Capitol Crescent and C&O tow path section.
Kiernan, against my recommendation, wore flip flops and began complaining at top volume about his muddy feat after a few puddles. Then he hated the world because he was hot. Then he was too exhausted to go on. He said he never wanted to do this again. We took a detour onto the Capitol Crescent trail to get out of the mud and onto the parallel pavement. We stopped for a break at Fletchers Cove. We ate some snacks from my backpack and drank lots of water and he changed colors from red to pink to his normal color.
He got cheerful and found a giant clover patch and went to check on some very large expensive boats in the river. Mom called and recommended against going all the way to Great Falls (mile marker 10) and said she should meet us at Lock 6 (a bit past mile marker 5) instead. She said that there was no parking anywhere near Great Falls and that she could find a space at lock 6.
We agreed with her plan. So we rode up the tow path for a few more miles and the population thinned out and we talked about video games and made it up to mom after viewing a ton of turtles an egret a great blue heron and 2 Canada geese with their 2 goslings.
We got some pizza and some showers and bragged about our mighty deeds at home and agreed to try it again when the weather was good and hopefully not so hot.
We did manage to get through the D.C. portion and next time will start at Lock 6 on the Maryland side of the line.
I wonder how much we will do.
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