Mile 23 - Poole's General Store. |
After breaking camp, I started off in search breakfast. After crossing Seneca Aqueduct, left the towpath and headed up Riley Lock Road to Poole's General Store. Here, I enjoyed a hot dog, orange juice, and a caffeine fix. I also reloaded on water and then headed back to the path.
Washington DC's Oldest Bridge (Mile 1). |
Again, the towpath was very quite this Tuesday Morning. Below mile 22, the canal basin is still watered, so you are no longer in side an endless tunnel of trees. At mile 14, I stopped at the Great Falls Visitor Center just to say hi. If you pass through this section, be sure to make the short walk out to see the falls. There are also a number of nice hiking trails here (including the local favorite "Billy Goat Trail"). You could easily spend a few hours in this area.
The Locks of Georgetown. |
Between Mile 12 and 13 is a very picturesque section called Widewater. An old river channel here has been dammed to create a large lake for the canal. Unfortunately, there is also a quarter mile long towpath breach which requires carrying your bike over jagged rocks. I recommend you use the marked detour route, which follows a maintenance road along the berm side of the canal.
The final 10 miles were un-eventful, and I arrived in Georgetown around noontime. Although the city was bustling along this workday, the towpath remained quite peaceful as it passed through this old section of Washington, DC. At the end of the towpath, I turned right and headed down to Thompson's Boathouse for my victory photo at the old watergate. This is the location boats would first enter the canal from the river.
Georgetown Trail head. |
If you are not from Washington, then I would highly recommend continuing down the river to the National Mall for a great bicycle tour of the monuments. One suggested route would be to simply bike over to Union Station, thus passing just about every major tourist attraction.
In my case, it's "been there, done that". So I was more interested in just getting back to my home, located about 20 miles north of town. I decided to ride the subway out Shady Grove, and then bike the final 5 mile along my daily commute route. Although bikes are permitted on trains during mid-day hours, it is not much fun trying to navigate a fully loaded bicycle through the crowded downtown stations.
Victory at the Water Gate. |