C&O Canal and GAP Ride - Day 4 - Paw Paw Tunnel

We awoke shortly after dawn and took our time lounging around drinking coffee and eating a meager breakfast of honey biscuits and bacon. The contrast between the sweet and salty made for a wonderful explosion of flavor. At this point, I could wax on philosophically, drawing parallels between contrasting flavors and the importance of developing relationships with people who are different from ourselves. However, this is a cycling blog and you don't read it to hear me wax on philosophically, so I'll let that lay and let my readers do with it what they will.

Around mid-morning we bid farewell to our primitive home away from home and hit the trail.

10 miles up the trail we would experience the very impressive, very long, very dark, Paw Paw Tunnel. As we neared the tunnel, the mountains closed in around us and we found ourselves in a narrow gorge that was only wide enough for the trail and the canal. I couldn't help but think about the blood, sweat and tears that went into cutting this pass out of pure rock.Before long we came upon the Paw Paw Tunnel. When we got there and peaked inside we could tell there was another biker already in the tunnel and heading towards us. We waited until he came out, visited with him a bit and then turned on our lights and ventured inside. Since the trail is extremely narrow, its surface kinda rough and the tunnel very dark, we walked and pushed our bikes.

Going in!Somewhere in the middle, I slowed down for a photo op. In the dark I heard Bob yipe in pain and utter an expletive. This due to his pedal running into the back of his leg and drawing blood. Of course all of this was my fault for stopping in front of him in the dark, never mind the fact that we were walking at a snail's pace.Coming Out!Totally cool!!!