On the cusp of Fall, my Dad and I went on a week-long biking trip. From September 29th until October 5th, our only real concern was to get from point A to point B by pedaling. Life/work responsibilities temporarily fell into the background, allowing us to fully enjoy the sights (and smells) of Autumn.
Fall was in full swing as we rode along the C&O Canal trail.
I’ve done my share of hiking and backpacking, but I’ve never spent 7 consecutive days in nature. I’ve also never rode more than 30 miles on a bike. This trip would change all of that.
We’d be traveling 330 miles along the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal and Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Trail. We’d ride through 4 states, starting in Arlington, VA (on the Virginia/DC border) and ending in Pittsburgh, PA.
I took a lot of photos on this trip. When it was all said and done I had taken just shy of 1,100 pictures between my DSLR and iPhone, so it took me quite a while to choose my favorites.
All of the photos that were taken on the iPhone (maybe 15% of the photos I took over the course of the trip) are tagged with GPS coordinates. Here’s a visual representation of the general areas where these photos were taken. It’s a neat way of looking at the path that we followed.
The bike trip didn’t begin until Sunday morning, so we got there a day early. We arrived in Arlington, VA on Saturday afternoon.
I’m currently training for the Honolulu Marathon, but my plan was to take a week off from my training so that I could do this bike trip. Luckily I had some time to squeeze in a 13 mile training run through the National Mall in DC on Saturday night. I love exploring a city via running; I feel like you see it in a whole new light.
After getting my 13 miles in and a full night’s sleep, we woke up for an early breakfast on Sunday morning. After breakfast, the trip began!
Day 1: Arlington, VA to Brunswick, MD (59 miles)
We crossed into Washington DC and rode around all of the monuments. This was the day before the government shutdown happened, so they were all still open to the public.
Then we jumped onto the C&O Canal, where the real trip began!
Everyone rode at their own pace on this trip. I spent a good portion of the trip leaving my Dad in the dust, as illustrated below.
Our first stop was at Great Falls Outlook. This area provided some great views of the Potomac River below.
Parts of the Canal had water flowing through, while other parts were totally dry. And then there were areas where the water looked like straight up slime. This stuff is fine to drink, right? Because I was drinking it whenever it was available…
Being that this was my first day on the trail, I was overwhelmed by the sights around me. I was so excited to be “in the woods” and I had a difficult time not stopping every 5 minutes to take a picture. Eventually I came to the realization that if I were to stop every time I saw something photo-worthy, it’d take me months to complete this trip. I forced myself to be a bit more selective.
In the spirit of that mentality, here’s a shot of one of the many inviting campsites that we passed on the trail.
The path eventually brought us to White’s Ferry, where a long line of cars waited to cross the Potomac River via cable ferry.
White’s Ferry was the first place (of many) where we’d see evidence of historical floods. It’s a strange feeling to look up at the second story of a building and imagine the water levels being that high.
As we continued along the trail, we passed many lock houses. I learned that the lock keepers lived in these houses so that they could tend to the locks, which were used to control the water and raise/lower boats to allow them to continue along the waterway.
Most of these lock houses were still in great condition. Some of them are available to the public; you can book them ahead of time and stay in them for a weekend.
After roughly 46 miles, we reached the first campsite in Brunswick, MD. After a long day of riding, that first beer tasted incredible.
They had a catering company prepare delicious meals for us each night at the campsite. After a day of riding, this is a beautiful thing, even by the light of a headlamp.
Day 2: Brunswick, MD to Williamsport, MD (48 miles)
We woke up and rode through a thick layer of fog into the sleepy little town of Harpers Ferry, WV. 
Harper’s Ferry has a lot of history (mainly Civil War history; John Brown was captured here). A number of us went on a guided history tour which was pretty interesting. I managed to snap a shot of the tour group looking out over the Potomac River as the fog rolled out behind them.
After the tour, we walked our bikes over an old railroad bridge to cross the Potomac river into Maryland.
This trip would take us over a lot of cool bridges, some of which provided spectacular views of the land below. Many of these bridges were old railroad tracks, while others were built just to connect the trail.
We then hopped back onto the C&O Canal Trail.
We don’t really get seasons here in Los Angeles, and I love Fall, so it was awesome to be surrounded by the crisp brightly colored Autumn leaves. This day of the trip was when I really started to notice the Fall colors, especially when we hit an area of the trail that was paved and ran right along the water.
This part of the trail is known as Big Slackwater viaduct. It replaced a portion of the towpath that had been overtaken by the Potomac.
There were also some nice rock walls around this area. I stopped to do a bit of climbing around.
Another delicious meal awaited us at the campsite that evening.
Day 3: Williamsport, MD to Little Orleans, MD (46 miles)
Portions of the trail were closed today, but that wasn’t going to stop us. Someone actually came out and deadbolted all of the portapotties closed as well…
Most of the trail was covered in tree canopy. Today was no exception. While some areas had bright orange and yellow leaves falling off the trees, other sections were still lush and green.
There were old lock houses and foundations from old homes all along the trail throughout the trip.
On this particular day, I felt compelled to stop and check some of them out. I love exploring abandoned stuff, so this was a no-brainer for me.
I didn’t feel overly safe walking around inside this one, but I did manage to snap a few shots of the interior… Or what was left of it.
A large portion of this days section of trail was paved, which was a welcome change from the dirt/gravel we had been riding on prior.
We passed through Hancock, MD where we stopped for lunch. This was one of many small towns along the trail that I really enjoyed passing through.
I eventually came across 2 more old homes just off the trail. I couldn’t help myself… 
So I left my bike on the path and did a little exploring. 
And here’s the house down the road. I didn’t go inside because… wasps!
We had absolutely gorgeous weather for the entire trip. The temperature was just perfect, and when we weren’t covered in tree shade, the sun was warm and shining bright.
A few miles down the path, I passed a few abandoned-looking trailers… But I decided not to push my luck. 
Roughly 5 miles from our stopping point for the day, I had to stop and take another picture of the leaves, as they were a brilliant orange. I had to take a quick video as well. The moment was too perfect.
Bill’s Place had character, and was a nice place to wrap up the day, as our campsite was right around the corner.
I don’t have much to say about Day 4, which would have taken me from Little Orleans, MD to Cumberland, MD. I was having tooth pain for a few days at this point, and at this point it got bad enough that I wasn’t able to sleep through the night in Little Orleans, so I went to see a dentist the following day in Cumberland, MD. The dentist quickly identified an infected root canal. Fun!
This was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced, and the whole ordeal put me out of commission for about 24 hours. Needless to say, I’m glad it’s all over with.
Day 5: Cumberland, MD to Rockwood, PA (45 miles)
I got my act together just in time to hop on a steam train and enjoy the ride on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad to Frostburg, MD.
The train dropped us in Frostburg, and we began riding on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail. The GAP was created from an abandoned rail line – the last train rolled through in 1975.
The GAP took us across the Mason Dixon line into Pennsylvania.
We rode into the Allegheny Mountains and passed through the 3,300-foot-long “Big Savage”, an abandoned railway tunnel.
We surmounted the Eastern Continental Divide…
From here on it was easy riding for the day, as most of it was downhill.
And the Fall colors continued.
We crossed over the Keystone Viaduct…
And the Salisbury Viaduct, which provided some amazing views.
I stopped numerous times on this particular day to enjoy the Autumn colors.
Husky Haven Campground was our stop for the evening.
Day 6: Rockwood to Belle Vernon (71 miles)
This was our longest day of riding, so we hit the trail around 7am, immediately after a quick breakfast.
Here’s a “selfie” taken by a mile post, because… Why not?
I had to stop and take a picture of the Casselman River, as it looked pretty amazing at the time.
About 40 miles into our ride, I got a flat. Luckily, one of the bike mechanics wasn’t too far behind, and he helped me change it out.
And I was back on the trail in no time!
We stopped in Connellsville, PA for lunch. Only 58 miles ’til we arrive in Pittsburgh.
Day 7: Belle Vernon to Pittsburgh (38 miles)
The final day of our trip was the only day with even slightly inclement weather, and it really wasn’t bad.
It was very misty in the morning and a bit overcast, but nothing unpleasant.
It grew a bit more overcast as we rode into the suburbs/industrial areas of Pittsburgh, and we got about 10 minutes of heavy rain, but that cleared up pretty quickly.
As we stopped on a bridge to watch a train pass below us, the rain stopped and the sun broke through the clouds, providing us with warmth for the remainder of our ride.
We finally arrived in Pittsburgh around noon.
My sister lives in Pittsburgh, so we had dinner there, and I flew back to LA at 4am. The airport was a ghost town at that hour!
This truly was an incredible experience from start to finish. I am happy with the photos I took, but I feel like they don’t truly capture our adventure.
Being able to spend this time with my Dad was awesome. There’s something incredibly refreshing about getting away from day-to-day life and spending a week with nature. I also really enjoyed all of the small towns that we rode through, many of which seemed to be largely dependent upon cyclists for their economy.
If you ever have an opportunity to try something like this, I’d highly recommend it! Adventure Cycling, the company that organized this trip, will be doing it again in May 2014. You can read more about that trip here.
If you’d like to view more photos from this trip, you can find them on my Flickr account.
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