The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

A Ride from Pittsburgh to DC-GAP and the C&O

October 7th to October 20th

Ride Director: Albert Balingit
Ride Co-Director: Jacquolyn Duerr
Ride Driver: Kate Placey
Report by: Cathy Stewart

Pittsburgh to DC via the GAP/C&O Towpath- a ride through history during peak fall colors, October 7-20, 2022

Our group of 24 gathered in Pittsburgh – the official start a happy hour at the event hotel.  Pittsburgh was surprise for first-time visitors.  The convergence of three rivers, a mélange of gritty and graceful bridges, and a skyline of stately Victorian buildings amongst towering skyscrapers and modern sports arenas make it a dazzling city.  The chosen hotel, Embassy Suites, was convenient for exploring the city by bike or on foot.   The menu options for our first group dinner at nearby McCormick and Schmick’s was proof for the BAC noobs that Albert and Jacquie know their way around a negotiation. 

On departure day, we pedaled in the opposite direction briefly for photo ops at Point State Park (MP 0) The route, 335 miles in total, was mostly car-free.  The first 150 miles (the Great Allegheny Passage or GAP) is a rail trail through rural Pennsylvania to Cumberland, MD.  The surface is mostly hard-packed, with good drainage and gentle grades.  Lodging options were limited in Rockwood, a depressed little town, but Albert and Jacquie used their powers of persuasion to convince Judy to provide rooms at her closed hostel and dinner with entertainment at her lovingly restored and historic Mill/Opera House, also shuttered and on the market.  Whether the town can rise again to serve cyclists on the GAP post-Covid is hard to predict.

From Rockwood, we climbed gradually to the Eastern Continental Divide and across the Mason Dixon line into Maryland.  It was all downhill from there to Cumberland, marking the end of the GAP and the beginning of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Towpath.   The only day of rain coincided with a zero day in Cumberland, a charming town with pedestrian malls, historic buildings, and several good restaurants. 

The C&O was historically used to transport commercial goods on barges towed by horses and mules and remnants  of old stone aqueducts, locks, and lock-keepers’ houses line the route.  The Towpath’s 185 miles of rather “lumpy” surface follows the north bank of the Potomac River from Cumberland, Maryland to downtown Washington, DC, and demanded riders’ full attention and firm grip on the handlebars.  Wider tires were recommended and beneficial.  Wildlife was plentiful (snapping turtles, a bobcat, woodchucks, herons, and deer).   The trail was significantly slower and messier after a rainy day but luckily, the Super 8 in Hancock had a hose for cleaning bikes, shoes, and gear as well as a laundry room.

In Shepherdstown, we stayed at the elegant Bavarian Inn where we enjoyed an excellent meal and gorgeous sunset views from our balconies overlooking the Potomac.  The next day’s short ride to Harper’s Ferry allowed time do visit Antietam, site of the deadliest single day of the Civil War.   Getting across the river to Harper’s Ferry presented a final challenge – carrying our bikes up a spiral staircase to the crowded pedestrian bridge.  Our final day on the C&O brought us into Georgetown.  So many choices, all easily accessible from the Embassy Suites, including a ride to Mt Vernon for some of us.  The farewell dinner at Grillfish capped off a nearly perfect trip.  Albert told us that we were the best BAC group he’d ever led.  Really!    

Despite the gentle grades, the ride was rated 1C for good reason–on the longer days, the varied surfaces were more taxing than a pure road tour – even one with more elevation gain.  Heavier style E-bikes would be challenging in some places, e.g. the hike around Paw Paw Tunnel and the spiral staircase at Harper’s Ferry.