The Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Trail

Everything screwed up—it rained, we had to abandon the last half of the tour because the trail was a mess, one of the places we stayed greeted us with an open refrigerator in the hallway with a skeleton and whisky bottles inside, we added a Class 2 climb, I mistakenly set my camera to low resolution photos, and the tour company's map got us confused in McKeesport—but we had a great time. You can't miss when you travel with the right folks.

Turning Around

On our tour of Falling Water, two riders warned us about conditions on the C&O trail. Parts of it were washed out, the detours were hilly, tress and rocks blocked the path in many places, mud made biking difficult, and mosquitoes attacked them when they slowed or stopped to deal with those problems. The GAP trail is Rails to Trails with a foundation sufficient to support trains. The C&O trail is the towpath for the horse that pulled barges up the canal. Horses did not need the same heavy duty subgrade and impervious surface as trains. Months of rain and two hurricanes did the C&O in. We checked out 8 miles of it past Cumberland. It was passable but not fun.

We chose to skip the C&O trail and at the end of the GAP trail in Cumberland, Maryland ride back to Pittsburgh the same way we came. It added a Class 5 climb, 17 miles on a 2% slope but the trail surface was much better than if we had gone forward. The tour operator was not able to refund the B&B bookings for the last 4 days but they were able to book all but one night back to Pittsburgh. The one we booked ourselves, the Hoover Suite in the Morguan Tool B&B (They should have used one less B, there was no breakfast.) was a hoot. Check out the pictures from Day 6.