Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Towpath Trip.

[RhinoDave]

Just wanted to share a brief report on my Trip from Pittsburgh to Washington D.C. I had mentioned it in another thread in August. I ended up riding 381 miles over eight days and rode from the Amtrak station in downtown Pittsburgh to the Union Station in downtown D.C.
Day one was 54 miles from Pittsburgh to Adelaide where we stayed at a commercial campground. Second day was 49 miles to Rockwood and another commerical campground. Day three was 43 miles to Cumberland, Md and we camped at the YMCA. Day four was 60 miles to Hancock, Md and the C&O bike shop which had an open air bunkhouse and hot showers. Day five was 55 miles to Antietam Creek and our first night without a hot shower. Day six was a short trip travel wise as we spent a bunch of time wandering around Harpers Ferry 16 miles down the trail to a commerical campground in Brunswick, Md.(The campground owner let us stay free---Awesome). Day seven was forty miles to Swains Lock which is the last Hiker-Biker campsite before D.C. Day eight was a short trip to the end of the towpath (16 miles) then we did a lot of siteseeing around the Mall before heading to the train station for the trip home.
There were a few spots along the way where I wished I had the 856, a little suspension would have been nice.
I would highly recommend this trip to anyone who is interested in doing a camping type trip but wants to stay off roads for the most part. Getting out of Pittsburgh was easy and I had no issues with traffic. Maybe because it was 8:00 a.m. on Saturday the traffic was lighter than normal. I put a couple of pictures in the gallery but I plan on creating a detailed journal with more pictures on the website, www.crazyguyonabike.com


Journal added th Crazyguyonabike.
Click on link below if interested
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3Tzut&doc_id=4318&v=D1

[benton]

Man, that looks like fun. I did a few long tours back in high school and had a great time. How do you get heavy bags on a bike that has a suspension, like an 856? Seems like a trailer would work better.

[Colin]

I used a Delta Cycle "Post Porter" seat post rack on my XP-X (856) with a couple of 15Litre "front" panniers on it and also a 7.5Litre "topbox" trunk bag for a couple of week long trips I did a few years ago (Ridgeway, Icknield Way, Peddars Way, South Downs Way)

Maximum cargo weight is 25lb but plus a bar bag and it was enough for everything I needed and forced me to travel light!



Col.

[benton]

Traveling light is a good idea. When I was doing tours my bike probably carried 60 lbs., but I was 17 years old then. Now I couldn't haul 60 lbs. worth of stuff very far unless it was dead flat.

[dcarr1971]

Sadly, almost nothing in Pittsburgh is flat.  The rail trails and tow paths are the best you can hope for, but I'm sure you guys still had your share of hills to deal with.  Sounds like a really cool trip.

[DugB]

Ah, excellent! I haven't yet had a chance to do the Alegheny Passage, but I'll be doing the C&O again (from Cumberland to DC) the weekend of 10/17 for a friend's charity. The way he broke it up, though, we'll be doing 90 miles the second day...ouch! I know I don't need the knobbies quite as much, but I'll be doing it on the 4000 (which now sports Magura HS33's with ECHO levers and soon to have a set of Crank Brothers Candy 4ti pedals I made a deal on).

Anyone else riding the trail that weekend? It was either that or field as the 64th of Foot (Black Knots) at the Gloucester Point Rev War Reenactment. Or maybe I'll just ride the trail in my redcoat ;-) Yeah, I'm a geek, too.

- Doug

[kiwi]

90 miles......whew...

[Old Proflexer]

wish i had that many days off in a row to do something like that -
 
glad you had a safe trip and had a memorable time -

OP

since i'm west coast and not too familiar with the terrain and terminology -
should i presume the towpath was to follow a waterway and the boats were towed via some roadway next to the water?
i dunno -

[DugB]

The towpath follows a 180-mile canal that goes from Cumberland, MD to Georgetown, DC. Here's the NPS page about one towpath-related topic, though the main page seems to be 404 right now:

http://www.nps.gov/choh/parknews/volunteer_recruitment_hq.htm

If you start in Cumberland the towpath is pretty level (actually a 1% downgrade) and pretty much the terrain of the average fire road. Some even do it on road bikes...you could certainly do it on MTB slicks or a hybrid/cyclocross. When it's wet, though, it can be slippery and therefore I've always used true MTB tires (my fav. combo: Panaracer Dart/Smoke) despite the additional rolling resistance. There's really no point where suspension would provide measurable additional comfort...it's really a nice-to-have. When a friend of mine and I did 120 miles of the canal a few months ago (we couldn't take off the third day, and didn't have transport to Cumberland to do the whole stretch) I actually had all of my spare clothes and snacks in my Camelbak and has 0 issues with the additional load. I actually prefer to backpack my stuff rather than have bags bouncing around and making noise. Not sure what I'll do this next time, though. There have even been speed rides where people try to do it as quickly as possible. I think the record is something like 12 hours to ride the full 180 miles.

- Doug

[RhinoDave]

Here's a couple more links with lots of information on the trip I took. I used rear panniers, a waterproof bag on top of the rear rack,, a small bag on the front rack and a small handlbar bag. Total weight of the bike and gear combined including water bottles was 73 lbs.
http://www.bikewashington.org/canal/index.php
www.atatrail.org