The Pedalshift Project #201: Social Distancing on the C&O, Day 2

The Pedalshift Project 201: Social Distancing on the C&O, Day 2

This episode covers my second day riding the C&O on my no-contact, self-supported, self-contained ride. This was a weirdly rough day of riding for me. Solitude was fleeting and it took making an early camp to get that and I think it made things a lot better.
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Tour Journal: Social Distancing on the C&O Towpath

This was a no-contact, self-supported, self-contained ride of the C&O that didn’t stick to plan, had a low point or two, and if I’m being honest probably won’t end up on my list of all time tours… but I have to wonder if it won’t be amongst the most memorable.

Check out Pedalshift 199 for the initial plan (spoiler: I did not stick to it) and Pedalshift 200 for Day 1.

This covers my second day riding the C&O on my no-contact, self-supported, self-contained ride. A few things I want to mention at the top of the show:

  • At the time I was on the C&O, the campsites were officially open even though the water pumps and bathrooms were all closed (indeed strapped shut!). Since then, the Park Service has closed the campsites. Please do not camp the C&O until that closure has been lifted. I know I will not.
  • The first segment of the journal here has some oddball audio artifacts I couldn’t scrub out, so bear with it a bit. For the journals I try to leave in as much ambient noise as I can with these so you can hear what I was hearing out there, so that’s the trade off. Thanks for understanding!
  • This was a weirdly rough day of riding for me, but I don’t think it comes across in the entries all that much. Solitude was fleeting and it took making an early camp to get that and I think it made things a lot better.

Statistics – Day 2

Miles ridden  27 (what!?)
Fires lit 1
Soft rants against passive aggressive bell ringers 1
Beavers 0
Mistaken classifications of turtles as amphibians (quickly corrected) 1
Flats 0

As always we like to close out the show with a special shoutout to the Pedalshift Society! Because of support from listeners like you, Pedalshift is a weekly bicycle touring podcast with a global community, expanding into live shows and covering new tours like The Kessel Run and The Missing Link bike tours! If you like what you hear, you can support the show for 5 bucks, 2 bucks or even a buck a month. And there’s one-shot and annual options if you’re not into the small monthly thing. Check it all out at pedalshift.net/society.

Kimberly Wilson
Caleb Jenkinson
Cameron Lien
Andrew MacGregor
Michael Hart
Keith Nagel
Brock Dittus
Thomas Skadow
Marco Lo
Terrance Manson
Harry Telgadas
Chris Barron
Mark Van Raam
Brad Hipwell
Stuart Buchan
Mr. T
Nathan Poulton
Stephen Dickerson
Vince LoGreco
Cody Floerchinger
Tom Benenati
Greg Braithwaite
Sandy Pizzio
Jeff Muster
Seth Pollack
Joseph Quinn
Drue Porter
Byron Paterson
Joachim Raber
Ray Jackson
Jeff Frey
Kenny Mikey
Lisa Hart
John Denkler
Steve Hankel
Miguel Quinones
Alejandro Avilés-Reyes
Keith Spangler
Greg Towner
Dan Gebhart
Jody Dzuranin
Lucas Barwick
Michael Baker
Brian Bechtol
Reinhart Bigl
Greg Middlemis
Connie Moore
William Gothmann
Brian Benton
Joan Churchill
Mike Bender
Rick Weinberg
Billy Crafton
Gary Matushak
Greg L’Etoile-Lopes
James Sloan
Jonathan Dillard
John Funk
Tom Bilcze
Ronald Piroli
Dave Roll
Brian Hafner
Misha LeBlanc
Ari Messinger
David Gratke
Todd Groesbeck
Wally Estrella
Sue Reinert
John Leko
Stephen Granata
Phillip Mueller
Kevan Olhausen
Robert Lackey
Dominic Carol
Jacqi McCulloch
John Hickman

Music

You’ve been hearing about Jason Kent and his music for many fine episodes. Sunfields’ latest album may be their best yet. Go get it.