Soggy Bottoms: North Bend SP, Cairo, WV 10/9/09

(Ned again) Once again we heard torrential rain throughout the night, but woke up to beautiful blue skies. Instead of the Interstate, we took Highway 40A (the Old National Highway, which started as an ancient Indian footpath, and was then used by trappers, explorers, militiamen, and pioneer settlers.) As we climbed over several passes of the Appalachian Mountains, and although we got rained upon at times, we were pleased to see that the fall colors of the Maryland Panhandle were just coming into their peak. We stopped and took photos of the beautiful Casselman Bridge, built in 1813, the largest stone arch in America at the time, and used continuously until 1933. (See today’s pic) Right up the road from there we stopped at the little town of Grantsville, an Amish & Mennonite mountain village, and ate lunch at Casselman Hotel, a historic roadside inn. The lunch of honey-dipped fried chicken, baked beans, applesauce, and warm bread served with fresh apple butter was comfort food for us on this stormy day. We even bought some freshly baked ginger cookies for the road. We entered West Virginia, continuing to marvel at the bright fall colors, interspersed with beautiful farmland. At Clarksburg we stopped to buy some supplies and the weather had suddenly become warm and muggy, which reminded us of our trip through the south a year ago. After listening to several of the locals talking, we realized it even sounded like we were in the south again. Soon we found our way to North Bend State Park, which features a Rails to Trails bike path (a former train track bed, now converted to a hiking/biking trail) which we were eager to try out. The weather remained a warm 75, but the sky seemed foreboding. Nevertheless, we decided to try out the Rail Trail, and see if we could make it to the town of Cairo, several miles away. We had fun biking through an old railroad tunnel, and across several bridges, but then started to feel a few raindrops. We decided to keep riding, and see if we could make it to Cairo. Within a few minutes the skies completely opened up on us, and we started to question the wisdom of our plan. Finally, having never found Cairo, we turned around and, squinting through the deluge of rain, frantically splashed our way back down the now flooding bike trail. We started cracking up at how wet we were getting, and somehow could not suppress the thought of how mad mom was going to be at us when we got home! By the time we returned, we looked like wet rats, although the air temperature had remained warm enough, so that we never really got cold. However, it felt very good to get on some dry clothes, and relax in the van sipping warm mochas as the rain poured down outside.