GAP C&O Bike Trail Guide, Pittsburgh DC

After leading a lot of bicycle tour groups from Pittsburgh to DC (and DC to Pittsburgh), and in conjunction with Golden Triangle Bike, I've developed a Trail Guide for the GAP and C&O trails. The purpose is to help you navigate the trails from Pittsburgh to DC, help you maintain situational awareness while you're adventuring, and help you make informed decisions as events arise.

This package of route charts, drilldown area maps, and addresses with GPS coordinates will fit easily in a bike jersey pocket or a handlebar bag and is designed to avoid information overload.

The Trail Guide is designed by a cyclist, for a cyclist riding the trail; it's not a car map. Our Trail Guide is an artisanal cartography project. We've curated and hand-assembled it to deliver important information while avoiding the non-essentials. We think it's better than anything else; you'll find it delightful and useful.

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There's a lot of up-front information before you begin the adventure, and you'll learn a lot enroute. This Trail Guide lets you bring along expert insights to reduce uncertainty and make a satisfying experience more likely. When you consider the cost of your trip in time, schedule blocking, and cost — it's a smart investment.

The GAP-C&O Trail Guide is available for $24.95 at Golden Triangle Bike's location on the Great Allegheny Passage, at Mile Marker 149 (one mile from Point State Park). If you're not in Pittsburgh and want to order it over the phone, they'll ship it for $6.95 Priority Mail postage for a total of $31.90. Call 412.600.0675

If you prefer to purchase via Amazon, click here: Trail Guide for Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) and C&O Canal Towpath Trail // Pittsburgh to Washington DC bike guide.

• Includes coordinates for road crossings and trailheads to simplify connecting with support vehicles.
  
• Identifies areas of low- or no-cellphone coverage so you'll know in advance when you'll be incommunicado.
  
• Highlights the "must-see" portions of each segment for riders who aren't going to ride every mile, but want to see the key sights
  
• identifies restrooms, portajohns, water, food, shopping, lodging, camping, bike shops, tool stations
  
• links to a customized Google-map showing the route with tags
  
• primary and alternate routes, including the W&OD transition and the paved WMRT
  

Nobody Expects A Man in the Baggage Car

3.20.2016
14m
mtd:102 ytd:236

Rode Falls Church, Va to Union Station via the W&OD, Custis, and Mt.Vernon trails. They were all in excellent (paved) condition. Weather was cool and sometimes light rain. It's fantastic to have a network of trails.

Saw a Syrian protest at the Lincoln Memorial. Saw the ongoing work on the reflecting pond, and I wonder if that project isn't just a facade for a major underground deep-government project, hidden in plain sight. Saw the Capital building which looks a bit like Parisian barricades.

Rode to Union Station. My recent Amtrak experience is small stations: Pittsburgh, Connellsville, Harper's Ferry. Union Station is like the ORD of Amtrak. Also, a remarkable structure. Rolled in with my bike, no problem at all. In Union Station there was no need to take elevators between levels, the track platforms are at the same level as the outer doors. (So are the tracks, so you have to lift your bike up into the baggage car).

The Amtrak experieince is great. There's a phenomenon common to cyclists I call GBCWHW: Great, But Can We Have WiFi? When a new bit of cycling infra is introduced, it's wonderful, it's magical, it's a capability where there was none before, it's a miracle after years of planning, coordinating, and persuading. And while the magic persists and we continue to appreciate the new (bridge, ramp, service), very quickly the cyclist mind turns to: Great, But Can We Have WiFi? I love the Amtrak service and I really look forward to onboard Wifi, which is a thing they do on other routes. I'm very happy with my RORO service, I just wonder: I can has RORO&Wifi, por favor?

I really try not to delay the train when disembarking (I can't quite say detraining, although the Amtrak announcements use that term) so I'm positioned outside the locked baggage compartment fifteen minutes before arrival. In a few minutes the conductor arrived to unlock the door, and I go into the baggage compartment and derack my bike, then retrieve my five bags and start loading the bike so I can roll off in one Therblig.

The train arrives just as I finish schlepping, and a different story is onfolding on the platform. An Amtrak worker drives a tug pulling baggage carts out on the platform, stops next to the arriving train, the train stops and she opens the big baggage hatch.

I'm standing inside the baggage hold, the door opens, and by reflex I said "Hiiiiii!" as is my wont. I don't think she expected that, it kind of startled her. Nobody expects a man in the baggage car.