Wednesday, July 2, 2008

A Long Bike Ride

I am back home after riding the 185 mile C&O canal towpath along the Potomac River from Cumberland MD to Washington DC. The canal was a busy place for almost 100 years before the railroads took over the job of transporting stuff between the coast and the interior. Now protected by the National Park Service, this very long and very skinny unit of our National Park System provides an incredible chance to ride a bicycle through the heart of the Appalachian Mountains while not climbing a single hill...pretty cool.

I have to thank Callen for giving me some advanced information to help me appreciate the geology of the area. I am afraid I have that Western bias that assumes geology should be right in front of your nose with little vegetation hiding the nuances.

Now I am off to Lake City where we will attempt some easy 14'ers, and then one more geology class to teach while floating from Green River Utah to Mineral Bottom, 65 miles away.

I love summer!

No comments: