Tourist in MSN

Until I saw that last sentance, I was going to suggest you post this on the touring forum. Now I see why it is here.

I did it in 2013 with two friends, we were camping. Some meals were restaurant, some made in the campsites.

I am glad you posted the elevation profile, as that helps a lot. About 50 miles out of Pittsburgh, it starts getting steeper. It is shallow enough that it does not look like a hill, but you find you are in a gear or two lower than you would normally expect and you just feel like things are slow as you slowly grind up a shallow hill. And once you hit the peak, it is a nice downhill run to Cumberland when you are in your highest gear. Thus, your second day could be a bit of a chore because the first 50 miles will be a bit slow, that might be your hardest day.

To put the distances into perspective, I am trying to get ready for a brevet at the end of this month or in May. I have been building up my distances. This past Monday I rode 90.1 miles, of that 20 miles was on pavement and 70 miles was on rail trail gravel with intermittent mud. I rode my heavy touring bike with 57mm wide tires, Rohloff hub, etc. My point is that if I could ride 90 miles of a local rail trail with a heavy bike while trying to get ready for a brevet, I think you should have no difficulty doing the 70 miles to Cumberland on Day 2.

Somewhere in Cumberland, I saw a sign that said the GAP was one way, the C&O was the other way. Most people think of them as the same trail, but they have different organizations maintaining them, the C&O is mostly flat and level tow paths along canal where the GAP is rail trail with shallow grades. Even the soil types are different on the two trails.

For us, the GAP trail was probably softer, we rode it in early May, thus seasonally wetter. But the C&O trail felt quite firm.

My memory is a bit faint on this because it was over a decade ago when I rode it, but I clearly remember walking my bike through a tunnel that was very dark and very long with low batteries in my light. Be ready for walking a bike through such a tunnel, a battery light would work better at that speed than a dyno powered one.

I used 50mm wide tires, my friends had 35 and 47mm wide tires. Each of us thought that we had the perfect tires. We had several days of rain, trail was wet, but I was pleasantly surprised how solid the trail was under the puddles. But we were carrying food and cooking gear, etc. And we did it in six days.

I am sure you can ride it faster and longer distances than we did, you are used to longer distance riding. I did my first brevet several years after I rode GAP and C&O. The two friends that I rode it with have never done a brevet.

We were doing it at touring speed, meaning leisurely setting up tents, maybe having a beer while cooking supper, etc. No time cutoff to worry about.

My photos are 11 years old, it may look different now. When I got home, I was wondering why I had so few photos. Then it dawned on me that I was trying to keep my camera dry. This was the last tour I did without a waterproof camera.












Since you are in NY, I am not commenting on how hot summer can get, I am sure you are familiar with similar weather. That was why we picked early May instead of summer. It was our bad luck that for us that meant a very wet trip.

Have a great trip.