Elaine found more snapshots! This is a follow-up to an article from 2022.
More Excursions with Eva
by Elaine Stonebraker
The old “Eva Magic” has turned up some more photos of our annual biking/camping trips on the C&O Canal!
Eva’s bike trips were important to her, and helped her to grow. She was able to take the physical strength that she had developed working at the nursery, and to build on it. She was adventurous enough to dive into a completely new challenge (she’d never even been camping!) and gut it out. The cold was brutal, yet, she awoke cheerfully after a night sleeping on the hard ground. ( “Guten morgen, fraulein!” ) And the determination that she held inside was fortified.
Over four years we were able to pedal most of the 184 miles of the C & O Canal, carrying everything from tents, to sleeping bags, to food, clothes and water. Of course, someone always forgot something, so we’d share. One pair of mittens? No worries! You only need one hand to hold the handlebars, and the other can stay warm in a pocket. (Then we’d trade!)
Neither of us could afford fancy lightweight equipment, so everything we needed to stay warm added up to what felt like TONS of dead weight. The occasional rest stop was always welcome, and if the sun came out, there were smiles all around.
If you’d like to retrace our trips, the towpath can be virtually pedaled on Google Earth’s Street View. It’s as if you are there, riding, but without all the weight and bitter cold! Search for “C & O Canal” and other landmarks.
On our maiden voyage in 1990, we set off from the center point of the C&O Canal, in Williamsport, not wishing to tackle the extra cold of Western Maryland until we got some winter camping experience. That year, we rode as far as White’s Ferry.
These next photos were taken at Dam #5, just above Williamsport. That structure across on the VA side is still in use as a generating plant, and still uses leather belts, as far as I know. During the Civil War, my Great Uncle Henry lost thousands and thousands of dollars worth of canal boat and its contents, when Confederate soldiers pushed it over the dam.
The next year, Eva had just had a “suspicious” mole removed. We made our trip a short one, again being cautious. But that trip, from Hancock to Williamsport, may have been the most scenic of them all, especially with all the yellow tulip poplars overhanging the path. How sad that it had to end so soon, with the fall foliage at its very peak.
In 1992 we dropped off my car in Hancock, loaded all my gear into her little brown truck, crossed the Potomac to Berkeley Springs, WV, and then went back down the mountain to Paw Paw, where we began our trek. I remember her driving across the bridge, commenting tiredly that the mandolin music on the cassette we were listening to, was “too perky for us right now.” All the planning, packing and driving was catching up with us, and we hadn’t even started pedaling.
What turned out to be our final trip ran between Cumberland and Paw Paw. When we got to Paw Paw, we went past the parking lot where her truck was, just so we could push our bikes through the famous Paw Paw tunnel, then double back. On the return, she filled the half mile long tunnel with song. The sound of her glorious voice, singing “Dona Nobis Pacem” in Latin (“Grant Us Peace”), as we walked through the darkness, will always be one of my favorite memories.
There were long uneventful hours of pedaling along the river, but there was always enough variety to give us something to look forward to. The rock ledge at around Mile 107 was an amazing feat of engineering, as was much of the Canal and towpath. You can zoom down to that exact spot on the Google Earth Streetview and see that it hasn’t changed a bit.
Finally, these pictures of Eva at St. Mary’s River State Park, taken in the fall of 1995, mark a day to remember! For many reasons, Eva was feeling hopeful and excited about her career that had all the appearances of potentially really taking off. Besides, we’d just biked the entire rugged trail around St. Mary’s Lake, so we were both feeling quite elated! In the first one, she is standing on the dam. The second one is a special favorite that hasn’t been shown before. I told her this might be the last time before Spring that she could dip her toes in the water, so she took off her boots, and stretched.
So, until next time, Eva, her Mom Barbara, and I will say, “See you at the next Hiker-biker!”
All photos by Elaine Stonebraker except as noted. Used with permission. Please do not copy them unless you, also, have obtained permission.