Questing takes all shapes and forms. This last weekend, I took my wife and daughter on a 127-mile bike backing trip. We have been preparing for weeks, starting with small, twenty-mile rides and two weekends ago, completing a fifty – three-mile ride. I am a huge fan of doing hard things and I have written on both doing hard things and the spiritual practice of questing. Questing Three Days On The Appalachian Trail and Questing
Going into the weekend, I have been watching the weather all week, the East Coast was slated for a significant heat wave with temperatures in the 100’s. I am fairly confident in my skill set to keep people safe and alive at these temperatures, but still, I was anxious. We have been training for a couple of weeks in high heat and high heat indexes and practicing taking in a lot of fluid in large boluses. The thunderstorms that had been predicted on and off never materialized.
We had a saying in the military, poor planning equals poor performance. With my standard operating procedure set and my PACE plan planned, we began our journey. For the entire weekend, we had type I fun. There was a small moment on day 2 when my wife began to experience some Type II fun. The heat and humidity as long as we stayed cameled up never rose to type III fun, though the potentiality was there.
Day 1: The Journey Commences
July 18 – Drive and Stage – Home, Albion, Pa to Shuttle from Harper’s Ferry WVA to Cumberland MD
Up at the butt crack of dawn, my wife and I assembled in our kitchen and prepared a breakfast of French toast, sausage and fruit. After eating together, we woke up our daughter and assembled the last few items we needed to pack in the van and got on our way. The drive to Harper’s Ferry was uneventful and we met our shuttle driver, Will from Wheelzup Adventures out of Cumberland, MD to take us to Cumberland where were lodging and staging for the beginning of our ride. If you ever attempt this ride, I would give a solid positive to this group, they did a great job handling our logistics. We would arrive at our lodging, 9 Decatur Guest House where I stayed in 2022 when I did the Great Allegheny Passage/ C and O thru bike then. We had dinner at the Crabby Pig, another fine eating establishment in Cumberland.
Day 2 : The Questing Gets Underway
July 19 – Cumberland, Maryland to Hancock, MD
When I went through in 2022, my host at 9 Decatur Guest House Gale was sick with COVID so I did not get to experience her legendary breakfast, but this year, we were not disappointed. After a filling breakfast, we gathered our equipment and assembled our bikes, and we took off for the first leg of our journey. This trip, I built in difficulty for my daughter by planning the first day to be a long day. We had talked the night prior and a couple of days before the ride about possibly doing this ride in two instead of three days. The current plan was to do 60 miles then two 30-mile days.
We covered the first 30 miles with ease and arrived at Paw Paw tunnel around 12 where we stopped for lunch. It was at this point, that my daughter said she was confident that she could do this ride in two days and tentatively, our plans changed. I told everyone that the easy part of the day was over and the next 30 miles would be work miles with not only fatigue in our legs, but the heat index would be rising throughout the afternoon.
This first section of the C and O and for much of the section leading into Hancock, MD is largely a cow path with small sections of smooth gravel. This year, it was dry, and the potholes were not as bad, though, one should have some decent riding skills to be able to handle a bike loaded with around 30 lbs of gear and avoid potholes to navigate this successfully.
After lunch, we filled our water, cameled up one more time and took off for the afternoon leg, 30 miles, stopping every 10 or so miles to camel up and eat. The afternoon flew by and soon, we arrived at the C and O bunkhouse, paid our nightly fee and set up camp for the night. The C and O bunkhouse is also called the chicken coop and is essentially a bunkhouse covered with screen. It is basic, but has electric, a refrigerator and is within walking distance of several restaurants. Dinner on Friday was at Buddy Lou’s.
Day 3: Questing – Let’s Go all the Way
July 20- Hancock, MD to Harpers Ferry, WVA
After further deliberations the night prior, we decided to go for the full 66 miles today and make this a two day journey. I honestly was quite anxious about this, neither my wife or my daughter had ever rode these distances before and we already had 61 miles under our belts. The weather today was favorable, with more cloud cover. Increased cloud cover can be good as it shields you from the direct sun, but sometimes, it means more humidity. The plan was the same today, get through the first 30 – 40 by lunch, then stop every 10 miles after for water and food in the afternoon. (we actually stopped every 10 miles on average throughout the ride).
Like yesterday, the morning flew by, and we crushed the first 30 miles before lunch. We would stop, eat lunch, drink a significant amount of water and electrolyte, and got after the afternoon portion. In due time, we were down to single digits and then we were at the foot bridge leading into Harper’s Ferry and after a long hill climb, we arrived at our van and hotel and Sarah hit the stop button on my bike computer, officially ending our ride.
We did it, 127 miles in two days.
Day 4: The Journey Ends
July 21- Harpers Ferry WVA – to home, Albion, Pa
We were quite dirty by the time we got to Harper’s Ferry. I was especially dirty; my legs were black. After a nice shower and a clean set of clothes, we went after some dinner. Dinner completed, we retired to our beds for some reading and much needed sleep. On Sunday, we arose, had a hotel breakfast, did some sightseeing around Harper’s Ferry and took off for home, arriving home around 1630.
The Practice of Questing
While it may not seem like a spiritual journey, it was a spiritual practice. Trusting my skill set, listening to my wife and daughter, and keeping an eye on their safety made this a fun experience, but also one that was fraught with stress. Two weeks ago, there were several deaths in the Grand Canyon due to heat injuries and the week of this trip, temperatures were in the triple digits in the area we were operating in. Both my wife and daughter had never done these distances in this short amount of time before and other injuries were on my mind, specifically heat stroke and rhabdomyolysis. There was a lot of noise in my head going into this event. But that is the journey of the quest. Trusting the experience, not clinging to an outcome, and letting problems arise as they do and addressing them with a clear mind. Clinging is the source of suffering and clinging to a should or an outcome only sours the experience.
Jesus went to the desert to clear his head. The world’s monastics have all used isolated places to go to clear their heads. The natives in America used quests to clarify their purposes and aims. Hopefully, as my daughter grows and faces the many challenges she will face, she will look back on this experience and see that all her problems must be taken one pedal stroke at a time and reevaluate the plan often, ready, and willing to make changes as situations arise.
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