September 3 back on the road again

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/101882538

   Last night, not too long after we were in our sleeping bags and it was dark, we heard a voice say that he recognized that our tent was in that spot but he had come get the wood that he had collected when he had been at that site before.  We were startled by this as we were half asleep and it was already quite dark. We had seen some wood at our site, sure enough, it was gone in the morning. We  had seen another tent late last evening, but hadn't seen anyone around it.  Jim did see someone packing up that tent first thing this morning, and chatted with him. He was a bicyclist trying to travel from DC to Cumberland in 3 days, and it wasn't the right voice.  The mystery was solved when one of the other people said there was another tent half hidden in the woods at the downstream end.  As we left, we could see it from the path and  saw evidence of a fire by the tent.  

  It was a beautiful morning and amazingly woke up to a tent with no dew on it and our wet clothes from swimming in the river in the late afternoon were also almost dry.   Downstream from our campsite the Potomac is beautiful as it gets very wide as it goes over a rocky area.

 It then comes to Harpers Ferry where  the river flows through a gap in the high ridge and rock faces rise up high in the air, then the Shenandoah River flows into the Potomac just beyond. 

  At the stairs up to the bridge, first we carried/pushed Kay's bike up, then the panniers and trunk pack from Jim's, then Jim's bike. It  was a bit of a struggle but we made it. A lot of people were up on the bridge looking at the great views of the river and at the national historical park on the other end. No stairs there!

   Kay on the beginning of the stairs.

Appalachian Trail hikers descending the stairs.

       Yay! We made it! We're up on the bridge!

    Harpers Ferry and Jefferson County, the county it is in, saw much conflict during the Civil War. It was captured and recaptured multiple times.  Back when we were at the Shepherdstown Bridge, it was also interesting to read about a young man who was fighting with the south and ended up helping to burn the bridge over the Potomac of which his dad was a major stakeholder. 

   We got to enjoy a great loaf of sourdough bread with kalamara olives and rosemary in Harpers Ferry as well as a very friendly person at the post office as we wanted to mail back some things we didn't need any longer. 

   Today's ride wasn't especially long but about 1/4 of it was on the shoulder of a busy 4-lane highway, we felt safe as the shoulders were very wide but the noise and air quality wasn't the best. After that we were on lower-use 2-lane roads which wound through the countryside and were much nicer!  However, at one point we heard a lot of engines roaring and went by a motorsports place which had 3 circuits from 1.2 to 2.2 miles long for car and motorcycle driving and racing but also are used for performance-driving training for government employees. It was quite a large place and also very noisy.