Pittsburgh to Mount Veron - Day 6
04/30/2003 15:21:37 by AdministratorFrom: Mount Vernon
To: Mount Vernon
Mileage: 37
Last day of biking. Dustin has to get home for the SATs on Saturday morning. He has been studying pretty hard during this vacation. It was nice to be away from all the distractions of being at home. Mary and I left the kids at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. They were done with biking, and wanted to spend the day exploring Mount Vernon. This is the second time they've been there, but they were just toddlers their first visit. They visited everything except the house itself because of the very very long line to get in. Mary and I left (directly from the parking lot) on the Mount Vernon trail to Washington D.C. It links up to the C&O near the Key's bridge and Georgetown University. It was partly cloudy, but turned to all sunshine around 11:00. The temperture was in the 80's. The paved trail winds around for 18.5 miles along the Potomac river and through Alexandria VA. We passed many people jogging, walking, and biking. But the trail was not crowded at all. We past Jones Point Lighthouse, Ronald Regan National Airport and Lady Bird Johnson Park. We crossed the Arlington bridge instead of going down two bridges to Keys bridge so that we could park on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. We saw a red tailed fox on the side of the Lincoln Memorial's lawn! This paved trail is a must do for any biker. It reminded Mary of a ride in an amusement park, with natural beauty. She puts it in her top ten rides; I kid her because she has so many top ten rides. What a great way to end this biking journey. Clyde was very happy on this stretch of trail, and strutted his stuff. He needs a bath, and some TLC. He was a really trooper with no problems except once a day the large tandem chain would fall off due to a stick getting caught in a crank cog. Mary's leg feels very good after this trip of 37 miles. After 6 days at about 56 miles a day, I feel great. Today my back did not hurt at all. Next time, I will prepare a little differently. I would do more upper body strength building. The trails take more arm and back abuse then I thought that they would. I think the next adventure will be doing the Erie canal!
