The C&O Canal

Like the GAP, we split the 184.5-mile C&O Canal into two days. The first day was refreshingly simple. Aside from climbing over a stopped train to reach the trail (see photo above) we spent the day pedaling along the flat towpath and watching the mile markers slowly count down. After weeks of constant movement, conversations, and new experiences, the quiet felt like a gift.

Our final day of riding, however, was extraordinary. We began at 6 a.m. in Falling Waters, Maryland, and rode roughly 60 miles before stopping for lunch at a permaculture garden outside Harpers Ferry. There, Nikki Schauder and her family welcomed us with a meal harvested largely from the garden surrounding.

After weeks spent learning about regenerative agriculture, the meal underscored a lesson we had encountered again and again: healthy soil thrives on diversity. Nikki's garden produces an abundance of food not by simplifying nature, but by working with it—integrating different crops, species, and functions into a resilient system. Across the farms we visited, despite differences in scale, climate, and practice, the same principle emerged: resilience grows from diversity.

After the farm stop, my sister Annie and my best friend Katherine joined us for the final 60 miles, and I was thrilled to share the ride with them. As we followed the canal toward Georgetown, I realized how familiar everything felt. The air smelled like home. The trees, grasses, and river felt familiar in a way I had not expected to notice.

Yet by then, home meant more than a place. Seeing Annie and Katherine felt like home. So did riding beside my teammates, who had become family after a month on the road together. But home, I realized, is not simply where we live. It is what—and who—we care for, and what, in return, sustains us.

Perhaps our food system works much the same way. The more we care for the farmers, workers, animals, waterways, and soil that make our nourishment possible, the more those systems can care for us in return. Healthy food, healthy people, and healthy communities all begin with relationships rooted in stewardship and mutual care.

Thank you so much for following along on this journey. Whether you read one entry or every post, your support meant more than I can express.

Want to read more? Take a moment and read other reflections Molly shared about her journey.