I'm working on route selection for a three day trip in the DC area. I'm trying to decide between the Great Allegheny Passage Gap from Philly to Cuberland or the first ~125 miles of this route before detouring towards DC.
I'm planning on riding 38 mm tires so I'm hoping for mixed terrain gravel / road with a preference toward county roads with most of the route having a gravel grading of 1 or 2. I'd prefer to avoid singletrack and gravel ratings of 3+.
I don't have experience riding in that area of the country, so if anyone has done these routes I'd love to hear about your experiences!
by prattja8
1 Comment
The Great Allegheny Passage is actually (mostly) in Pennsylvania. It runs between Cumberland MD (the end of the C&O) and Pittsburgh. The trail you are thinking of that’s close to DC is the C&O Canal Towpath. It follows the Potomac River from DC to Cumberland. I actually just got back from a weekend overnight trip on the C&O. Routes that fit your criteria around here are a bit limited, I mean this is part of the biggest metropolitan area of the country. If you had a week, I would suggest the the transvirginia DC- Harrisonburg 400 loop. I haven’t actually done the whole loop. But I did the transvirginia valley route that shares 200 miles with the DC- Harrisonburg loop. There is a bikepacking loop in Montgomery County just west of DC, but it involves some singletrack from what I’ve read. Honestly, if I were you, I would just do an out and back on the C&O. I don’t know if you’ve been to Harpers Ferry but it is a really beautiful and historic spot. You could ride the 60 mi from DC to there, check out the historical park , camp out at Huckleberry Hill campsite . The next day check out Shepherdstown West Virginia and keep heading west and pass through Big Slackwater which is one of the coolest sections of the Towpath, camp out either before or just after Williamsport. Then turn around and on your way back you can take a detour and ride through Antietam national battlefield. Even if you aren’t into history it is worth a visit to ride through the battlefields and read the plaques and learn about what happened there. Bloodiest day in American history. 38 mm tires will be perfect for the C&O. I go out there all the time and it never gets old. Campsites with porta potties every 5-10 mi. No matter where you are on the Towpath you’ll pass through at least one town per day. And most of it is pretty fast gravel. Farther north toward Cumberland it gets chunky but everything within 100 miles of DC is pretty smooth (aside from the first 10 or 15 miles which is like a historic gravel mix or something that is pretty chunky)
*oops I just realized that itinerary I laid out is actually more like 4 days, but you get the idea.