Little Orleans, MD to Williamsport, MD-41 miles

We had Kirsten shuttle us from the Levi Deal mansion in Meyersdale, PA to the trailhead where she picked us up yesterday at Little Orleans, MD.  Well, actually she slept in the back while I drove.  Since she returned to Pittsburgh I was once again fully loaded with paniers, laptop, backpack, extra bag and all the necessities to maintain Leslie's femininity.  That works out to about 80 lbs with the bike.

It was another hard and fortunately uneventful day.  This is a very sparsely populated area and we didn't see a lot of people.  I think we are one of the few husband/wife teams that do this.

Each canal boat carried 4 mules, 2 that were working and two that were sleeping.  They were fed well and part of the family.  The mules rode resting rode in the front of the boat.  The other two pulled the tow ropes upstream.  Coming downstream was much easier than going upsteam.  The canal has 11 aqueducts where the canal passed OVER the river or creek and over 150 viaducts where they channelled water beneath the canal.  The canal has 75 locks as the elevation change from the high to the low is over 600 feet.  So the mules pulled the boats upstream to Cumberland from D.C. or points downstream and then filled with grain or coal they floated full downstream to the Eastern markets.

We saw many sites and it is a marvel of engineering.  I didn't have any internet connection so I am retyping my notes from memory from 3 days ago.

Here are some of the pics of the day.

Kilns along the C & O

Cement factory

one of the many pumps.....in use today but I hope you like water with your iodine

another lock......old hat at this point