Dayhoff Soundtrack: Bicycling the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

Friday, July 13, 2012

Bicycling the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

By Kevin Dayhoff

July 11, 2012

One of my passions for July, besides thoroughly enjoying the heat, is the Tour de France. This year, June 30 was one of my greatest days of summer…

That was the day that the 99^th Tour de France began with the “prologue” event. What follows, until July 22, is a tour of France’s picturesque agriculturally dominated countryside, in 20 stages that will cover 3,497 kilometres.

By the time a cyclist finishes the Tour de France, he will have burned a total of 118,000 calories or the “equivalent to 26 Mars Bars per day,” according to the BBC.

The Tour de France has a little something for everyone – history, drama, intrigue, science, a mini geography tutorial of Europe, and all of the fanfare and spectacle of what is arguably, one of the most difficult sporting challenges in the world today...

And besides, so much of the humble – and insane – beginnings of the Tour de France were started by journalists and a newspaper.

The humble beginnings of the bicycle race were as a newspaper publicity event, brainstormed by Henri Desgrange in 1902, to promote the sports newspaper “l'Auto.”

According to the history section of the Le Tour de France website, “The line between insanity and genius is said to be a fine one, and in early 20thcentury France, anyone envisaging a near-2,500-km-long cycle race across the country would have been widely viewed as unhinged.

“But that didn’t stop Géo Lefèvre, a journalist with L’Auto magazine at the time, from proceeding with his inspired plan. His editor, Henri Desgrange, was bold enough to believe in the idea and to throw his backing behind the Tour de France. And so it was that, on 1 July 1903, sixty pioneers set out on their bicycles from Montgeron. After six mammoth stages (Nantes - Paris, 471 km!), only 21 “routiers,” led by Maurice Garin, arrived at the end of this first epic.”

Although the eyes of the world are on the Tour de France every July, did you know that there were several celebrated bicycle races, in the central-Maryland area, a number of years before the first Tour de France in 1903?

According to an American Sentinel newspaper article published on October 20, 1895: “The most remarkable cycling event … was a century run, undertaken by over three hundred riders, from Baltimore, on Sunday last.

“Mishaps reduced the number, by the time the cavalcade started, to two hundred and ninety-nine, among whom were several ladies. The run was to Frederick and return.

“Two hundred and forty-six of the starters continued in the run to the finish and made the 100 miles… Messrs. George M. Parke and John H. Cunningham, of the Cycling Ramblers of Westminster, were in the run and completed the century.”

At the Corbit’s Charge encampment on Sunday, June 24, I was inspired by several conversations with local historians Tom LeGore and Ron Kuehne, known well for his historic interpretation of Westminster Mayor Michael Baughman; to revisit our local history at Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Washington DC, and Gettysburg.

All are comfortable family-friendly day trips for those of us who live in Carroll County. Well, by car that is…

So, in honor of the Tour de France, on Saturday, July my wife and I spent bicycling through history from Brunswick to Harpers Ferry and back on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath.

We had dinner at “Beans in the Belfry” on West Potomac Street, in Brunswick, near the offices of my good friends, Mayor Carroll Jones and City Administrator Richard Weldon at the Brunswick City Hall.

Located in a 100 year-old restored historic church, Beans in the Belfry is an excellent of an artistic approach to adaptive re-use, and arts and culture as an economic driver and jobs creator.

We loved the ambiance and atmosphere of Beans in the Belfry. Our food was wonderful and the service friendly and welcoming.

Next week - Saturday, July 14, 2012, we’ll try the Northern Central Railroad Trail, in Gunpowder Falls State Park in Baltimore County.

Baltimore Sun By Kevin Dayhoff July 14, 2012 2012 http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/carroll/news/community/ph-ce-eagle-archive-0715-20120711,0,1917523.story

More than 100 years ago, "bicycle riders and racers, were filled with excitement over an event to take place at the Pleasure Park, a newly built horseracing track with grandstand one mile north of Westminster on the road to Littlestown."

That property is now known as Carroll County Regional Airport.

Thanks to research for the Historical Society of Carroll County by historian Mary Ann Ashcraft, we know that on June 25, 1898, the now-defunct American Sentinel wrote that "Thursday, the 30th day of June, will be the greatest day among cyclists in Carroll County that has ever occurred in its history.

[…]http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/carroll/news/community/ph-ce-eagle-archive-0715-20120711,0,1917523.story

One of my passions for July, besides thoroughly enjoying the heat, is the Tour de France. This year, June 30 was one of my greatest days of summer.

That was the day that the 99th Tour de France began with the "prologue" event. What follows, until July 22, is a tour of France's picturesque and agriculturally dominated countryside, in 20 stages that will cover 3,497 kilometers… http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/carroll/news/community/ph-ce-eagle-archive-0715-20120711,0,1917523.story

*****