Greg & Camille Go Bike

We expected a long day of biking. Early start with complimentary breakfast at the hotel. We were packed and out the door around 8:30 am. Passed by a small farmers market (w/ Unforgoatable soaps) and then a quick stop at the Donut Connection. Early in the day we apparently passed through California and honestly, it wasn't impressive. I guess we didn't miss much by postponing the California trip.

The route started of a bit gross biking on the bike lane/shoulder of a heavily trafficked highway followed by parking lot biking by big box stores. We were a bit worried about the rest of the day would be like this, but the rest of the day proved much better. Soon, we turned into neighborhoods which eventually gave way to a mix of farmland and light residential carry us through most of the day.

We were treated to views of lots of animal friends along the route with horses, goats, cattle, sheep, chickens and roosters, plenty of birds (both seen and heard), cats and event a few dogs. One of the dogs gave chase dashing through some tall grass before quickly giving up. There were many puppies for sale as well with homemade signs advertising labs, lab retriever, beagles, poms, jug (pug & jack russel terrier), walker and other puppies for sale. There were signs along the route advertising to look out for horse & buggies and we actually passed by a few (although we weren't shameless enough to snap a close up picture). It seemed like half the houses we passed had a buggy sitting down the driveway and there were tons of signs advertising handmade wood products.

As we approached Charlotte Hall, we picked up a nice bike trail and followed it for ~6 miles. There were more than a few others out the trail including, walkers, bikers and a pair of kids riding around in a gold cart. As we approached the Charlotte Hall library, we enjoyed a nice break on a board walk overlooking a marshy area and snacked on some of our groceries (pan de sal w/ube & tuna; separately...). Quickly stopped at the library but didn't stay long.

Back to the road and we traveled through plenty more farmland. The next 20-something miles were much the same with tons of farms (and many farm animals than we'd seen so far in the trip), some rolling hills and signs of Amish (?). Just after crossing a bridge over Allen's Fresh Marsh, Camille finally picked up her first flat on the new bike with a big chunk of metal sticking out of her tire. We learned that the her tires are an absolute pain to remove and literally snapped one of the tire levers when first trying to get it off. Thankfully we had a few spares. After ~20 minutes sitting in the hot sun, we were back on the road. Not for long though, because the smells wafting from Captain Billy's Crab House enticed us to stop. We shared some delicious fried Haddock, blackened scallops, hush puppies and a no alcohol mango daquiri. Yum!

Next stop was Chapel Point State Park. We were hoping for some nice views of the water, but the little water front that was available was mostly occupied by families enjoying the day. There's apparently a paddle in campsite available here but it was already completely occupied by one of the families. Our original plan for the day had been to stop at La Plata and spend two nights to wait out the storms on Sunday. Neither of us were excited about spending another rest day at a hotel alongside a highway full of big box stores, so we made a last minute decision to carry forward to Indian Head which was right by the water and seemed to have a different tone. This decision did mean that we'd cut off about 40 miles of biking out and back down a peninsula to the south. Maybe we'll save that for a future DC trip.

We now had about 17 miles left for the day and we made quick work of it. The early portion was a bit gross sharing the road with some unfriendly drivers. One lady called us morons when I waved to say hi (they were leaving their driveway). Shortly after, they screeched by and the car following them was so aggressive that they basically forced a hummer coming from the other direction off the road. Along this stretch, there were a lot of fancy gates at the head of driveways and long windy driveways leading up to hidden or cliffside mansions. A lot of the houses just seemed really pretencious and Greg hates all of them. Grrrrrrr. It wasn't too long though before we reached 225 which was pretty hilly but featured a really wide and mostly consistent shoulder. We had a real treat for the last few miles hopping on the Indian Head Rail Trail and some great views of the Mattawoman Creek.

At the hotel, Camille showered and then walked to get groceries while Greg did the same. We were still pretty full from the feast at Captain Billy's (~3:30) so supplemented with snacks: cracker jack, popcorn, yogurt. We started watching Howl's Moving Castle but gave up and went to bed after about an hour.