Jaws Was Never My Scene

Goddamn, my legs are sore. I've been hitting the gym pretty hard lately - I'm officially in training. See, my best friend since age 12 & I used to be pretty active guys - camping twice a month, year round, for the better part of a decade, hiking, bicycling, all that stuff. Fast forward ten years and we're both a whole lot fatter and pretty inactive. We've been talking about getting back into more outdoor pursuits recently (he took the kids camping last weekend and has his eye on the Appalachian Trail) but I've convinced him to sign on to a harebrained scheme I came up with: We're going to get dropped off in Pittsburgh with bikes & gear, and make our way down the Great Allegheny Passage, across the eastern continental divide, and on to Cumberland, MD. From there we'll pick up the C & O Canal Towpath to Washington, D.C. The girls will meet us in D.C., we'll all spend a couple days there, and drive home. Overall it will be 316 miles by bike, camping the whole way, probably allowing 6-10 days travel time. Right now we're planning on August 2008, which is good, because I need to get in good enough shape to cover at least 30 miles a day on a bicycle and to accumulate the gear I'll need (like, um, a bicycle. Not to mention all that other stuff). I'm pretty excited, as it gives me a goal to work towards for the next year, and it sounds like a cool route with a lot of history along the way. Expect occasional updates regarding training & gear here, as the trip nears I'll probably create a separate blog dedicated to the trip...