The Great Allegheny Passage to the C&O Canal

Harry and Karen's great neighborhood.

We contacted Warmshowers Hosts, Harry and Karen, who live in Wheeling, WV,  a few days before approaching West Virginia. They welcomed us to stay with them, and in their email they insisted that they make us dinner. When things like that happen, when people go above and beyond what they should give you, I feel entirely overwhelmed by kindness. We crossed the beautiful Ohio River, and made our way to Harry and Karen's. They were so happy to meet us and greeted us with wine and cheese and crackers. We cleaned ourselves up and ate a wonderful dinner outside on their patio and chatted about everything from bicycles to politics.

Harry warned us that the path from West Virginia to Washington D.C. was not going to be flat or easy. And suggested trying to catch the GAP trail (The Great Allegheny Passage) which would guide us to the C&O (Cumberland and Ohio) Canal Path, and would eventually pop us directly into Georgetown, DC. Both trails were the very reason we had come this far north. We had originally planned on pedaling through the beautiful state of Kentucky but couldn't find a good route through it; so when we had heard about the GAP and the C&O from a fellow cyclist back in St. Louis we changed our whole eastern approach.

And it was totally worth it. As Harry had warned us,  we spent 70 miles climbing hills to get to a trailhead for the GAP. We crossed over into Pennsylvania about 11 miles out of Harry's door, and pedaled over rolling hills till Washington, PA. We made lunch outside of a sports equipment store that  honored  the warranty on Brant's malfunctioned Thermarest. People walked in and out of the store asking us about how far we had come and where we were going.
We were extremely tired as we pedaled into the evening. With many hills behind us we were on the last road of the day. A road that winded us up to the top of some Alleghany hills. 10 miles short of the GAP trail, at the top of some country road with nice homes, popped out a beautiful swimming pool and community park with pavilions, picnic tables, green grass, water, and a porta-potty. We knocked on a few doors to see if it was okay to camp, but no one was home. A car stopped to see if we needed any help and Reid filled him in on our desire to get permission to sleep in the park, and the guy said he would go down to the community hall, make some phone calls for us, and come right back.

Fifteen minutes later he came back saying that he could only leave a voicemail but recommended that we just go ahead and set up camp. We made dinner under a pavilion that had a wonderful view of the tops of rolling hills and the swimming pool. Reid plotted sneaking in. With burritos in our hands a little car turned into the park and headed straight for us. This could be really good or this could be the end of our delightful camp idea. A stalky, middle aged  Melvin Lurch with cut off sleeves greeted us as the park overseer. He explained that he had received the phone call and that usually people camp up by the baseball fields, so it took him awhile to find us. We all sighed a sigh of relief with the word "camp."
"Usually I would collect a little fee, but I can't charge nobody who's biked here from California."

We thanked him profusely.
Melvin proceeded to give us his opinion on firearms, confess his love for drinking alcohol, and tell us a few stories about catching people sneaking into the pool. (noted).

We said goodnight and thank you to Melvin. And for the first time we were cold while we set up camp for bed: Reid was delighted.

The next morning we drank our coffee and ate our oatmeal and raced down the huge hill we camped atop in search of the Great Alleghany Passage. And was it great? Yes, it was beautiful. This rail trail blew our minds. It was very well taken care of, ran along swimmable waterways, and was encased in verdant trees. We couldn't have asked for anything better or more ideal.

We swam for a couple hours at Ohiopyle, an escape for Pennsylvania city dwellers and  a mecha for kayakers. It felt wonderful. For the past two weeks we have pedaled near dirty, big, slow moving rivers that people don't swim in, so to swim in clear water and to hop rocks in our bathing suits felt like paradise. We could have stayed all day, but we were behind and had many miles to conquer. So we suited back up in our pedal wear, and made our way towards Frostburg.

The rail trail slowly crept uphill to Meyersville and the Easterm Continental Divide. The incline was slight, but once we got to the top, the descent was epic! We stood at our eastern apex gazing out over the  sun drenched hills between us and D.C. and we all felt a little sentimental and overwhelmed by the beauty of too many things. We coasted with great speed for 10 miles to our destination, taking it all in. It was magic.

We got in late; we were  all starving, and there was no other option except to pay $30 to camp above a bed and breakfast.  They insisted that we couldn't use the access road to get to the primitive "campground" at the top of the hill, so we pushed our 100+ lb bikes up a 15-20% grade wooden planked ramp. I couldn't do it by myself. Brant almost fell on his face.

We walked out the forbidden access road and chowed fabulous pizza before heading to bed way later than we would have liked.

Around 5:00 am Reid awoke to the sound of thunder and lightning all around us. He promptly woke Brant and I up, saying, "We got to get out of here. The sky is going to open up."

Within ten minutes our tents were packed, and we made like rebels with that access road and found our way to a 7 Eleven. Just as we stepped under the awning, the sky broke loose with giant rain drops, thunder, and lightning. We all thanked Reid for waking up when he did.

The storm paused for a moment with just enough time to pedal down the hill to the safety of our bed and breakfast. We made oatmeal under the cover of the B&B's balcony and waited for the storm to pass.

Eventually she stopped, and we cruised the next 16 miles downhill to Cumberland, where we stocked up on fresh veggies from a farmers market and food for the less developed C&O canal--which would take us all the way to DC!