The route
There are a lot of websites out there and the top ones I used were the official GAP site, BikeC&O, and Trip Advisor for B&B reviews, for the actual timing of the trip.
I've wanted to do a long distance bike ride since college when one of my friends did a 4K for Cancer bike ride from Baltimore to San Francisco. I don't have that much time available but I read an Washington Post article (looks like they don't have the original article onsite anymore) about biking the trails along with my boss mentioning he and his father did it. They all pointed to how "easy" it was so I had my mind set on it.
I have pre-set vacation and I happened to have one in early November or late April. Both are not super ideal as winter can still be an issue, but we bit the bullet and chose November. We looked up that there was on average 10 hours of sunlight and temps generally in the 40-50s. There were chances of rain but not alot.
There are alot of suggestions on how far to go and where to stay. During planning we came up with 3 to 8 day plans and settled with a 7 day plan: one day to get to Pittsburgh and six days of riding. If I were to do it again I would come up with a 10 day plan. I had previously only done a 59 mile bike ride. I was lulled into the idea that it was "only" a 1.5 or so grade uphill at most. Well riding uphill all the time still is difficult especially without much recovery. Anyone who rides a bike can do this trip, they just need to be realistic on how much time they need.
Our eventual plan:
The 7 day plan:
Day 1: Saturday 11/3 leave DC at 4pm, arrive Pitt midnight Hampton Inn
Day 2: Sunday 11/4 Pittsburgh, mm145 -> 113 (32 miles) west newton:
http://www.brightmorning.net/rooms.html
Day 3: Monday 11/5 mm 113-->61 (52mi) Confluence Day 1: Saturday 11/3 leave DC at 4pm, arrive Pitt midnight Hampton Inn
Day 2: Sunday 11/4 Pittsburgh, mm145 -> 113 (32 miles) west newton:
http://www.brightmorning.net/rooms.html
Falling water is near 75 mile marker - 1491 Mill Run Road Mill Run, PA 15464
http://www.theconfluencehouse.com/roomsandrates.html Day 4: Tuesday 11/6 61>0 (61 mi) cumberland
Day 5: Wednesday 11/7 mm 184->124 (60) hancock
http://www.1828-trail-inn.com/rooms.html
Day 6: Thursday 11/8 mm 124->60 (64) harpers ferry
Day 7: Friday 11/9 mm 60->0 (0) Foggy Bottom
Even though we thought we planned it pretty well Mother Nature threw us curveballs.
1. Hurricane Sandy was the week prior: this caused snow in some areas of higher elevation near Deal to Eastern Continental Divide, and downed trees. We had to dismount several times and even carry bikes over difficult to walk around spots. Parts of the trail were washed out too making it very difficult to impossible to ride at times, causing alot of walking of bikes
2. Daylight Savings time: it got dark around 5-5:30 and we rode for up to 4 hours in the dark. Having headlights and back up lights is crucial. We should have been more aware of this.
3. Cold! With windchills it was in the 30s for most of the first half of the trip. Luckily we did not get any rain except for about 30 minutes of sprinkles one of the first days.
Towns I wish we had more time to explore:
Pittsburgh, PA
Connellsville, PA
Ohiopyle, PA - Falling Water
Frostburg, MD
Cumberland, MD
Little Orleans, MD
Hancock, MD
Williamsport, MD
Sheperdstown, WV
Harpers Ferry, WV
Potomac, MD
Georgetown, DC
Links:
Weather:
http://www.wunderground.com/
Daylight hours
http://www.climate-charts.com/Locations/u/US72520003669931.php
GAP/C&O:
Official GAP site - click on maps for things on each stop
http://www.bikewashington.org/canal/plan-lodging.php - very helpful for lodging along C&O
http://www.bikecando.com/_bikecando/default.aspx - useful site in general for C&O and GAP
Official C&O map
Elevation map: helpful mentally
http://www.bikecando.com/elevation.aspx
http://www.atatrail.org/tmi/elevation.cfm
Trip advisor: had more B&B reviews. Honestly any would probably be nice.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/
Hopkins 4K:
http://www.hopkins4k.org/about/
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