It is getting warm again. We will miss the trail with its shade and cool trail side glades. We got out a little earlier today after an excellent breakfast prepared by our hostess Maryanne at the Gingerbread Bed and Breakfast. Blueberry French Toast and sausage from a pig she bought for butcher. Sleep was much better than the night before but a surprising amount of big truck traffic started out front just before 6AM. As we loaded the bikes, we saw it was logging trucks. They were coming down this fairly small entirely residential street at 60 or so and I was just glad we only had about a hundred yards of sharing the road with them. We got on the trail at mile marker 44 and started pedalling. Again we felt flat but this time understood we had 500 vertical feet to ride in the first 22 miles. That's not much of a grade, but on the loaded bikes you feel it. We crossed more bridges and rode through short tunnels when we came to the Eastern Continental Divide. Hooray! According to the maps we had a steady 2 percent descent for the next 22 miles. It was great! After a couple of miles we came to the longest tunnel of the ride. The tunnel is called Big Savage after the mountain it tunnels through. 3300ft long and you can't see one end from the other. We were shocked at the cold air coming out of it as we approached. The ladies put on windbreakers and we rode in. We all have headlights and although the tunnel is lit, the cool air is foggy and lighting is minimal. I was glad some cyclists approaching from the other side had lights. After Big Savage we made great time down the hill. On the way we crossed the Mason and Dixon Line. I did not realize what it was named for or exactly what it marked. It is a line established by an astronomer and a surveyor to establish the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. And the Pennsylvania- Delaware border. It was done to settle a border dispute before the Revolutionary War. In the mid 18th century that was really the frontier. We passed through two more tunnels over 1000 ft long before we came to the trail terminus in Cumberland. We decided to stay in Cumberland for our next to the last day off and go out on the water in canoes tomorrow. At least we can take a dip when we feel hot. I just saw on the local
Weather that it hit 97 here today. At least the humidity is only 90 percent!
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