FLCC> C&O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage Tour -- Short Report

[Steven Powell]

We're back from the FLCC touring group expedition from Washington, DC 
to Pittsburgh, PA and this is a short report (we'll post a more 
detailed version later to the FLCC website, along with some photos).

This was a self-contained bike tour (we carried everything on our 
bikes, including camping gear) jointly organized by the FLCC and the 
Sacramento, CA Bike Hikers.  We formed a group of 6 (Andrejs Ozolins, 
Steve Powell, and Lorie Hine from Ithaca, and Joe Lesh, Pam 
Debarruel, and Art Goolkasian from Sacramento).  We left Rockwood 
Manor Park in Potomac, MD on Sunday July 13 and arrived in 
Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday July 19.  We covered the 350 miles of 
riding in 7 days, on 95% unpaved trails.  The trail surface was 
highly variable on the C&O canal, ranging from packed sand, to loose 
gravel, to rocky, to smooth packed dirt, to deeply rutted and very 
sticky mud.  On the first day, we were caught in a thunderstorm and 
soaking rain (just as we needed to cross a very large metal bridge), 
but then had 6 days of perfectly sunny and dry weather for the 
remainder of the riding.  There were a total of 6 flats, no broken 
spokes, but 1 tire that developed a severe bulge and was replaced.

The C&O canal ended in Cumberland, MD after approximately 185 miles, 
and we then switched seamlessly over to the Great Allegheny Passage, 
a rails-to-trails conversion that would take us 150 more miles, and 
to within 15 miles of Pittsburgh.  This is an amazing trail with 5 
tunnels (2 of them almost 3/4 mile long, each) and many, many, 
beautifully restored railroad bridges that have been retrofitted for 
trail use.  This trail was recently completed and most of the surface 
consists of crushed limestone that has been packed into a very smooth 
but dusty surface.  Much easier and smoother riding compared to the 
bumpy and muddy/sticky C&O.  The Great Allegheny Passage ended in 
McKeesport, PA where we loaded our bikes into a trailer, and were 
transported the final 15 miles to downtown Pittsburgh by a local bike 
shop van (eventually the trail will be extended all the way to 
Pittsburgh -- perhaps within the next year).  This avoided biking on 
some terribly busy roads through an industrial area east of 
Pittsburgh.

We spent 2 nights in Pittsburgh at the dorms of Duquesne University, 
and explored the city by bike, foot, and funicular.  We then packed 
our bikes into boxes and took the Amtrak train back to Washington, DC 
-- quite a bargain at about $40 per person (including our bikes). 
Our final riding took place in downtown Washington, DC at 5 pm during 
the Monday evening rush hour -- we biked right down the middle of the 
national mall --  escorted by a local cyclist who we had met earlier 
in the week on the C&O canal.

There were many more adventures including: meeting the nicest 
boarding house proprietor who washed and dried all of our cycling 
clothes without charge, pushing our bikes up the steepest path 
imaginable to a campground at the end of the day (why didn't we take 
the road?), carrying a 14 lb watermelon 10 miles (did it survive?), 
and visiting a Frank Lloyd Wright home while wearing cycling shoes 
(fortunately there were no wood floors).  These and other stories 
will be covered in a longer report on the club website.

--Steve

-- 
Steven Powell
Cornell University
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering
321 Rhodes Hall
Ithaca, NY  14853
Tel # 607-255-4551
Fax # 607-255-6236
e-mail: sp35 at cornell.edu