Rain.

It's now Wednesday night. The tent is set up and the rain is out (for now). The day started with a turtle rescue. We ran into mountain bike mike, who we had seen several times yesterday but were just formally introduced to today. We rode 15 miles to the town of hancock maryland where we were directed to weavers for a great meal. We then pedaled over to the save-a-lot to replenish our food supply and back onto a side trail for a little shortcut to our camp tonight. The side path was a real treat as it was paved, and the main path we had been riding on since Cumberland had become rather bumpy to say the least. 30 miles today which ended with a rainy night in the tent again but also with a few raspberry cookies we bought at weavers.

We went swimming in the Potomac Thursday morning to clean up before starting our muddy ride. About 20 miles into the ride we were hit with a detour from the trail which took us on to country roads for about 5 miles. It was nice to get off the path again and on to some smooth roads, but the hills weren't as enjoyable. The detour ended with a steep hill with signs that warned 'steep grade dismount and walk your bicycle'. We chose to ignore the signs and had a much better time for the decision. Today was filled with wildlife as well. Early in the day, we rescued our second turtle from being smashed on the path. Later on bryce caught a treefrog that he thought had poisoned him because his hands broke out in a rash, but after a short look around and an itching sensation all over my body I realized that we were in the middle of a large nettle patch which we quickly exited. The night ended with a big storm again that would soak the trail for our ride friday. Horay!

We woke up Friday and rode all day through the muddy trail. We decided to push a little harder and rode until dark to get through 36 miles. We arrived at our campsite to find that we would have to share it for the first time with a full bouscout troop. They offered us smores and invited us to play werewoles and townspeople with them, which we did until retiring into our tent. The boyscouts, however, decided that 10:00 wasn't a good time to turn in and spent the majority of the night sabotaging each others tents and throwing rocks around which hindered our ability to sleep, but it was entertaining.

More stuff later.