First up, the start of my 27th year! It was a great birthday spent with awesome people, but one of the highlights was a family Facetime. Seriously, technology is the coolest thing ever. The only thing cooler would be if I could just clone myself and have a birthday in Maryland and Dallas at the same time!
We're starting to make it a tradition to be in Mexico for July 4th. This time, we headed to Cancun and stayed on the island Isla Mujeres. Literally, an island. We had to take a ferry! It was beyond gorgeous and I could have easily spent an entire month there. One of the main reasons we picked this hotel? They had a pool bar. The crystal clear water, all inclusive food/drink, picture-perfect sunsets, and personal cabanas were a nice touch too.
Fast forward to a couple weeks later, and it was time for Deep Creek! This year, Brad took it a step further with the goal to bike there. I remember thinking how insane that sounded and how there was no way we could do it, but guess what? WE TOTALLY DID.
We started out on the C&O Canal in Georgetown and biked to Shepardstown for Day 1, which was about 75 miles. Look how happy and fresh we look at mile 1!
About halfway through the day, we decided to take a nice break and fuel up on snacks. A few minutes into our break. the sky got dark, the wind picked up, leaves were flying, and then came the rain. We hopped back on our bikes and tried to race through the storm.
Unfortunately... we went right through it. Endless mud and broken trees across the paths. We even had a few close calls with our tires slipping in the mud. We could hear the thunder and I was pretty convinced we weren't going to make it, so I turned on my GoPro. You can see it go down in the video I made of the ride. Go ahead and ignore my chipmunk voice.
Once the storm slowed down, we had to maneuver the broken branches which really slowed us down. We thought we had seen some pretty bad branches until we got to this bad boy. I'm not even sure how this happened, but I'm thankful it didn't fall while we were riding by. We had to literally crawl under the broken tree (with our bikes) to get to the other side. This is also in the YouTube vid!
Somehow, we made it through, just a little soaked. Still smiling while we enjoyed our snacks and headed onto to Harper's Ferry and then Shepherdstown!
Once we made it to Shepherdstown, Uncle Michael and Aunt Cindy were there to meet us at our hotel. We showered off the mud and chowed down some pizza (carb-loading, duh). Sadly, all the clothes in our saddlebags got soaked in the storm, so we spent a majority of the night trying to dry them with the mini hotel blow dryer. Good times, good times.
Day 2 started off sunny and we were SO EXCITED! We also had Uncle Michael join us for this leg- woohoo! We knew it was going to be a long day (110 miles) as we headed to Cumberland, but I'm not sure anything could have prepared us for what we'd experience. Here's a pretty shot before the madness.
When we rode the C&O canal 3 years ago, we got to go through the Paw Paw tunnel. However, this time, it was closed for renovations. When Brad planned the route it said that there was a detour, so we figured how bad could that be? Let's just start with the fact that it poured on us AGAIN. Once we reached the detour, we noticed a sign that said we would have to walk our bikes since the detour was going to be steep and rocky. We started to question it, but proceeded to follow the signs...
I'm not sure words can accurately describe this detour, but just imagine that for about 45 minutes you are walking up a constant incline, dragging your bike, trekking through mud and rocks. Every time we thought we were at the top of the mountain, it kept going. One of the most mentally and physically challenging things ever. The only thing to keep you going was knowing that you were getting closer to the end. Phew. It's honestly probably better that we didn't know what to expect beforehand because I'm not sure I wanted to know that we would be physically CLIMBING a mountain. You can see Michael climbing the hill ahead of me here. Even Santa was exhausted.
Once we made it to the top, we walked our bikes around and down and got back on track. It was a very, very long trek to Cumberland filled with, you guessed it, more mud. Just imagine cruising along and every 10 seconds having to go through a puddle of muddy water which not only slows you down, but also gets you covered in the smelly gunk. Somehow, we made it off the canal *right* before it got dark. After 116 treacherous miles, it made a century look easy! I'll need to remember this during mile 70 of Seagull... We enjoyed another shower at our new hotel, more food, and prepped for our final day. Knowing that it was only going to be half of Day 2, I figured it couldn't be that bad... right?
Day 3 started out with a nice 16 mile stretch of the longest and most gradual hill you can imagine (or so I thought). We eventually made it through and arrived at Frostburg! I was really curious about how we were going to really get into the mountains of Deep Creek, but I quickly found out. Downtown Frostburg was just a warm up for the hills we were about to encounter. It reached the point where you would have to bike up as much of the hill as you could before your legs gave out, and then walk the rest of the way. Luckily, these hills came with a nice downhill, so once we reached the top we hopped back on and cruised down. Slightly terrifying because you're speeding down the hill at probably 20mph, but gratifying because you were knocking out miles. During these climbs I was about 1 second away from pulling over to the side of the road and calling for a ride. But then, something kicked in, and I would see Brad pushing through ahead of me, and I got back on the bike. Mind over matter, ya'll! I also flipped on my GoPro and took a few videos with some pretty negative nancy commentary. Whatever gets you through, right? Here's a shot from said videos. That house up on the left was looking pretttttty nice.
It's all kind of a blur, but after a handful of more hills, a near dog attack (see below), lots of energy gummies and water later, we crossed a bridge and saw the lake. There was no going back now!
We finished strong(ish) and made it to the mountain where our house is. VICTORY (almost)!
Last obstacle of the day? Making it to the TOP of the mountain. We alternated biking and walking til we made it to the top. We rode up to the house to find the family lined up in the driveway with a tunnel welcoming us in. I've never been so happy. Just look at these smiles!!!
We quickly went into full relaxation mode for the remainder of the week... craziest 3 days and 246 miles EVER. I can safely say I never thought I would do that in my life. But it's true, you really can do anything you set your mind to (with the help of amazing people by your side!). Don't doubt yourself- ever!
A relaxing week at Deep Creek wouldn't be complete without a bear-sighting! This cute little (big) guy snuck into our garbage trying to find a snack. I mean, we do eat amazingly up there, so he was in the right spot.
We also had a family in-home paint night! We're a family of artists I tell ya!
The rest of the week involved lots of sleeping, eating, and creamery runs. All the good things.
Until next year, DCL!
Post-DCL life included us moving into a new apartment, Sam taking the bar, Sam going to HONG KONG, and now life returning to mostly normal. Another super successful summer in the books! Just kidding, in Texas it's basically summer til October. :)
If you made it to the end of this, you're amazing and I love you.
xo,
Kendra
