The Great Allegheny Passage/C&O Canal Towpath Bike Trip 2019-Day One

We’ve prepared as best we can for the longest multi-day bike trip we’ve taken up to this point.  This trip is a bucket list item for me. I’ve heard about the Great Allegheny Passage for years and we decided to ride it, and the connecting C&O Canal Towpath this summer. We will be away from our vehicle for 9 days for the longest portion of our trip, and will have to have everything we’ll need for those 9 days packed in our saddlebags and panniers.

We’ve both done our homework. I’ve watched Youtube videos of others biking portions of both trails, and read everything I could find online. There’s a significant amount of information available about the Great Allegheny Passage, it’s one of the most popular bike trails in the U.S. There’s quite a bit less on the C&O Canal Towpath. I’ve read the guide book cover to cover, and spent some time with the trail map.

Jimmy has researched all of the logistics of the trip; lodging options, restaurant options, train schedules, etc.  and has made recommendations on mileage based on our desire to see the sites, take lots and lots of pictures, and have time to stop and explore little towns as we pass through them. He’s the one that does all the research beforehand, and he’s an expert at this! 

The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) and the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal Towpath combined run from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington DC. The two trails meet in Cumberland, MD. That is a combined distance of 333 miles of car free bike riding! We aren’t going all the way to Pittsburgh and we are not travelling all the way to DC. Instead, we prefer to keep with the more rural areas and the smaller trail towns. The GAP is a converted railroad (rails to trails) and has a packed pea gravel surface. The C&O on the other hand, follows the towpath that mules used to pull the flatboats up the canal from Washington DC to Cumberland, MD. It has a dirt surface. It rained most of the day as we traveled from Kentucky. Though there was not a great deal of information about the C&O Canal Towpath Trail, there was a consistent message in the information I was able to find. And that was, that the condition of the trail is largely dependent on the amount of rain. So we may be in for a muddy mess because we’ve certainly had a wet spring/summer so far…

One of the challenges with any overnight bike trip is how to get back to the vehicle without having to ride the whole trail back to where you began. In the past, we’ve used shuttle services, or we’ve ridden trails both ways with no other options, but this is the first time we’ve been able to use Amtrak. Amtrak makes it easy! Because of the train schedule, we decided it would be best to use the train to start our trip, rather than taking the train back to our vehicle after our bike ride.  The Capitol Limited runs from Chicago to Harper’s Ferry (and beyond). We will start our day early since the trains leaves at 7:00 am, (hopefully). When we checked in to the B&B, the owner suggested we verify departure time with Amtrak. Amtrak does not own the rails on this section of track, (surprisingly), so they have to coordinate with CSX, who owns the track and uses the same line for freight. Hopefully they will be able to work it out tomorrow morning and we will get to leave on time. Apparently a couple that stayed here last week had a 3 hour delay because the lines were being used by CSX.

The second challenge to an overnight bike trip is what to pack. Since I will be carrying everything I need over the next nine days with me on the bike, I’ve had to think carefully about what is really required. You can get by on a lot less than you might think. We plan to find one place to do laundry about mid-trip, so that enabled us to cut our clothing needs in half. I have a ziplock bag of clothing a ziplock bag of bike clothing, a Chromebook in a padded case, a small bag of basic toiletries/first aid supplies, portable charger/device chargers, snacks, and a trail guidebook. I estimate that my saddlebag, fully packed, weighs about 15 pounds.

I packed everything in ziplock bags in case of rain. My saddlebag is water resistant, but could still get wet in a downpour. This brings up another challenge. When you commit to a multi-day overnight bike trip, you also commit to ride rain or shine. We have all of our lodging reservations made in advance, and there’s really no other option except to ride in the rain if you are going to keep your reservation. Because we planned lower daily mileage with this trip so that we could really explore the area, we do have some freedom to wait out a thunderstorm if we have to. But if we have a day that is a complete wash out, we will have to ride. That is part of the adventure though, and some of our best memories are made in less than perfect conditions, with lots of laughter.

We chose the town of Connellsville, PA as the place to start. It’s got easy access by bike to the Amtrak station, (just 3 blocks from our B&B) and it allows us to explore both south and north. It’s also a small town with a safe place to leave the vehicle. The owners of the Connellsville B&B were gracious enough to allow us to leave our vehicle for the duration of our trip. We will ride back here and stay 2 more nights after pedaling from the south. We will then have the option of exploring further north toward Pittsburgh, covering more of the trail. 

So we will see what tomorrow holds and what type of adventure awaits!