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.

click to embiggen

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.

Who Was Jubal Early?

03.17.2016
28m
Mar mtd:56 ytd:190

Departed Pittsburgh with Amtrak's roll-on, roll-off bike service to Harper's Ferry, WV.

The Amtrak bike service was just perfect. I have been wondering how a loaded touring bike would be handled given Amtrak's baggage policy, but there was no problems. I went on board with four panniers, a medium-size drybag athwart-ships on my rear rack, and a small drybag on top of my front rack and it was no problem at all. I took the bags off the bike in the luggage car and set them on the deck. No discussion of excess baggage charges.

Although I was the only bike on the train when it departed Pittsburgh, when I departed in Harper's Ferry there were 3 bikes on the rack. I'm glad to see the RORO service is being used. I've never been to the Amtrak Station in Harper's Ferry.

I hadn't been in Harper's Ferry since the July 2015 fire, which was kind of a big deal. The tourist industry is still very much intact.

While I was in town I stopped at The Outfitter at Harper's Ferry, which is co-located with a General Store. They have a pretty-well stocked bike section, and also a camping section. Met a lovely lady at the cash register, which had two phone numbers prominently displayed for customers: one for NASA, one for the White House.

I asked, What's with the phone numbers? She said, a surprising number of people coming of the Appalachian Trail need one or the other. She explained, people are alone on the trail for a while, maybe there's some drinking or drugs involved - I'm not saying - but they've seen something and feel the need to report UFOs. I just give them the NASA number and we move along.

I ask, and the White House? She said, some other folks do a lot of thinking on the AT, and they come into town convinced they've found a solution to one of the world's big problems. I give them the White House number and somebody there takes their message. She had a certain mirth in her explanation, I liked it a lot.

Anyway, I think The Outfitter at Harper's Ferry is a good place for supplies. Not a full bike shop by any means, but tubes and common items.

Rode into Brunswick. The local bike shop, Three Points Cycles, is closed Tues-Wed-Thur, but there was a really nice sign in the window to the effect, "Closed T-W-Th during the winter, but here's my cellphone number. If you're in a jam, call me and I'll help you if I possibly can." I really liked that.

The trail was in excellent condition. No handles on any of the hiker-bike water pumps; maybe it's too early in the year. No leaves on the trees yet, so I saw a few things I didn't know were there; a few train tunnels, for instance, such as the one at Point of Rocks. Saw a lot of squirrels, turtles big as my dog (I have a small dog), ducks, some turkey vultures, and got to see a magnificent blue heron takeoff.

Pulled into White's Ferry to cross the Potomac to Leesburg. The ferry bears the name, General Jubal Early. I've been on this ferry a dozen times but never pondered the namesake.

Turns out Jubal Early was a Confederate officer who attacked Washington DC. His forces were winning the day, unexpectedly, but he knew he didn't have enough men to hold the city if they took it. So he fired artillery into the city, saw Abraham Lincoln on the defenses, and withdrew - crossing the Potomac back into the Confederacy. Kind of interesting that his crossing the Potomac is memorialized every time this ferry crosses the river. Kind of weird, the entire presentation of Confederacy "heroes" in the South.

Jubal Early went on to develop and promulgate the Lost Cause of the Confederacy myth, which was embraced by Southerners and is still heard in today's rhetoric. The Lost Cause apologists gave us today's "South Shall Rise Again" idiocy.

The Legend of the Lost Cause began as mostly a literary expression of the despair of a bitter, defeated people over a lost identity. It was a landscape dotted with figures drawn mainly out of the past: the chivalric planter; the magnolia-scented Southern belle; the good, gray Confederate veteran, once a knight of the field and saddle; and obliging old Uncle Remus. All these, while quickly enveloped in a golden haze, became very real to the people of the South, who found the symbols useful in the reconstituting of their shattered civilization. They perpetuated the ideals of the Old South and brought a sense of comfort to the New.

So there's that.

Planning a Pittsburgh to DC bike trip on the GAP and C&O Trail

As in many things, a good framework of Questions leads to understanding and a satisfying outcome, so I thought I'd set down a 2016 update of Questions to Consider when planning a bike ride on the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Trail.


In their book Linking Up, Mary Shaw and Roy Weil identify four big initial decisions:

• Daily Distance: How far should we ride each day?
  
• Luxury: What kind of overnight accommodations do we want? Camping, hostels, B&Bs, hotels?
  
• Support: Self-contained with panniers, lightly supported with a van, fully supported with an outfitter providing a guide?
  
• Direction: Should we ride eastbound or westbound?

I'd like to expand on their framework a bit. Here's the initial questions I'd pose, and some sample responses to each.

Definitions

• Who's going, and what's the nature of the relationships and the group dynamic?
  Just me and my bikeFour couples, we've known each other 20 yearsGrandparents, Parents, and Grandkids8 members of our local bike club
  

• Why? What's the reason for the trip?
  Celebrating a significant life event
  Graduation/ DischargeMarriage / DivorceHad this on the bucket listFamily ReunionWe're seeking an adventureWe're cyclists who have wanted to do this

• What degree of involvement do you want in your trip planning and trip leadership?
  I want to show up at one end, ride to the other and embrace the unknown
  I want to study all the maps/ websites and make my own plan
  I want an outfitter to recommend options, I make choices, they make arrangements
  I want an outfitter to build the plan and provide a ride-along guide

Time and distance (335 miles)

• What's the enjoyable daily mileage for the least proficient rider?
  20 - 30 miles a day, not carrying bags on the bike
  30 - 45 miles a day, not carrying bags on the bike
  45-60 miles a day, carrying bags on the bike

  
  

• What's the enjoyable daily mileage for most of the riders?
  20 - 30 miles a day, not carrying bags on the bike
  30 - 45 miles a day, not carrying bags on the bike
  45-60 miles a day, carrying bags on the bike
  60-75 miles a day, carrying bags on the bike
  
  

  
  

• Flexibility Will every rider ride every mile every day, or will one/some want the capability of opting out?
  Every rider wants to ride every mile
  We want the capability of one/some opting out of some segments
  

  
  

• Duration How many days do you plan to spend riding the trails?
  I can only spend 4 days on this trip
  5 Days from Pgh to DC
  6 Days from Pgh to DC
  7 Days from Pgh to DC
  9 Days from Pgh to DC
  

Luxury

• Where do you prefer to spend the evenings?
  CampingHostels - Low Cost Motelsmid-range hotels and B&Bsupscale hotels or glamping
  

Support

• My problem-solving approach to the unexpected (weather, mechanicals, surprises) is:
  dealing with the unexpected is something I enjoy
  dealing with the unexpected is something I prefer to avoid

• How will you carry/move clothing and luggage?
  panniers or bags on our bikes
  have a shuttle move them from one night to the next
  have a van carrying our gear follow our route each day
  
  
  
• Are you going to use your own bikes, or rent bikes?
  Use our own bikes
  rent bikes
  a mixture of personal and rental bikes
  
  
  

Direction:

• What are your travel logistics? (new in 2015: you can roll your bike onto the Pgh-DC train!)Fly/drive to start, Bike to other end. Shuttle-van back to start. Fly/drive from start to home.Fly/train to start. Bike to other end. Fly/train/ rental car directly from other end to home.
• Do your particular logistics benefit from starting in either Pittsburgh or DC?It works better to start in Pgh and ride to DCIt works better to start in DC and ride to PghOur situation won't dictate the direction of riding

If you can answer those questions, you'll be well on your way to planning your DC to Pittsburgh bike tour. Tomorrow's post suggests ways to process the questions-and-answers presented here.

Rivendell's Yves Gomez Mixte aka Betty Foy

9/1/2013 18m

Rode around Redwood City and Palo Alto today for about 18 miles. Thought I'd jot down a few more details about the Yves Gomez, Rivendell's mixte, which is also the same bike as their Betty Foy.

The dual-name is kind of a marketing kludge. I'm under the impression that Rivendell originally named the bike the Betty Foy. It's the perfect bike (IMO) for "guys of a certain age" who are are getting a bit tired of hoisting their leg over the rear rack and trunk bag. But it seems some men were reluctant to buy a bike named Betty, and so they've repainted some of them and positioned them as the Yves Gomez.

Who was Yves Gomez?

Many people do not know who Yves Gomez was. When he was fourteen years old he had an assignation with Marie Antoinette. He taught Rasputin to play chess and he taught Casanova about women; he is considered the prototypical Renaissance Man. Some people believe that reading Yves Gomez' memoir inspired Ayn Rand to write her character John Galt. A museum in France has an artifact that may be Yves Gomez' safety bicycle, which today we'd classify as a mixte; his diary notes that he preferred this frame because he found the normal top-tube "too constrikting {sic} for my private bits".

At any rate, the Rivendell mixte is also available in the Yves Gomez namespace with an testosterone-supplemented colorway. In fact, the original head badge on the Yves Gomez bore the tagline, "the international man's mixte".

The Betty Foy - Yves Gomez that I've been riding sports a really clever arrangement of the brakes and shift levers. Although my standard bike (a Surly LHT) is friction-left and index-right, this bike is friction-friction and that worked really well. This arrangement is just a pleasure for shifting and braking.

The Tektro 559 brakes are very authoritative and modulate quite well. The bike I'm riding has Schwalbe Big Boy Tires, 700x50s, which is a testiment to the clearance available on the frame.

This is a really nice bicycle.

Bike Porn at Keiren Race: Bright Colors and Big Guns

6/22/11 #223

0700 two yogurts 0900 bowl of bran bud cereal 1300 two pb&j 1600 granola bar 1830 Liver, broccoli, snap peas, carrots

These photos are from the flick photostream of y.hayama, taken on a trip to the Hakodate Keirin Velodrome located in Hakodate (City), Oshima (Subprefecture), Hokkaido (Prefecture), Japan.

This article gives an overview of Keirin racing at Hakodate. This is a Chicago bike tourist's report on the races.

The monocolored outfits look much better IMO than the multicolored, frenzied NASCAR-sticker-crazed kits the European bike teams are wearing.


click image to embiggen in a new window

Check out the Big Guns

Look at the leg muscles on this rider:

Southside Works 2011 Bike Trail

3/28/11 #237
27.8 miles 34F

Had an excellent ride today. Started in South Oakland, road the Jail Trail to the Penitentiary Trail, out along the Riverside Trail to Millvale. At the end of the trail in Millvale I had planned on stopping for a snack at Pamela's Pancakes, because every great ride needs a great food stop. Unfortunately, I got there at 4.30 and Pamela's closes at 4pm, so that foodventure will have to wait for another day and another blog post.

Back along the Riverside Trail, out on Herr's Island, back to the Ft. Duquesne Bridge, Ft. Pitt bridge, and the Station Square and Southside Trails.

The transition from the Southside Trail to the Baldwin Borough Trail, and specifically the section between Southside Works and the Hot Metal Bridge, has always puzzled me. Here's a picture from Google Maps, with a few key landmarks - The HofbrauHaus, REI, and the American Eagle building marked for orientation.



The trail designers have done so well in so many ways, but the current "Tunnel Park" segment seems non-intuitive and somewhat neglected. From the ground-level perspective, even the name Tunnel Park hasn't made sense, at least until I learned there's a train tunnel under there. This picture shows the path of the train tracks at either end of Tunnel Park.


This picture depicts the bicycle trails as routed in 2010, which really do leave bicyclists to fend for themselves. I've commented before that I don't know how an itinerant bicyclist manages to find their way through there, and it doesn't surprise me that the folks at American Eagle's corporate campus are finding bicycles riding on their sidewalks.

Today's Discovery

Today on my ride, I happened to ride to the back of the HofbrauHaus plaza just to see what the river looked like from there. Below the HofbrauHaus is a busy construction scene, building what looks like a magnificent trail section. It's breathtaking, quite dramatic. It seems like this will be the trail route from the Hot Metal Bridge along the Monongahela, past American Eagle and HofbrauHaus. This picture shows the apparent route of the future trail:


I have thought that the new Millvale connector trail might be the most elegant trail design in the area, and I have looked forward to what promises to be a very sophisticated design on the Mon Wharf Trail, connecting the Smithfield Street Bridge to Point State Park. The trail design along the river at Southside Works beats them hands down, it's very impressive.

Bicycle Speeding Ticket, Central Park NYC: A Double Injustice

3/24/11 #232
12 miles, 41F, clear/blue

In New York City, bicyclists and the Police Department (NYPD) have been having a contest of wills. The bicyclists are enjoying unprecedented success with bike lanes and bike parking. Jannette Sadik-Khan, the city's aggro Bicycle Commissioner is kicking ass. Bike advocates say it's all about their rights, but Sadik-Khan says it's all about safety - and she has the numbers to prove it.

The NYPD and the Big Apple bicycle community have not enjoyed a great relationship. New York's Finest regard the Critical Mass rides as intentional disturbances somewhere between civil disobedience and anarchy. The city's recent focus on statistical policing using software called CompStat generates numerical ticketing quotas goals for police officers, and ticketing cyclists is a relatively easy way to make their numbers.

There's been some public pushback against the new bike lanes. Cyclists demand that police enforce the bike lanes. People who park delivery trucks in the bike lanes are upset to get tickets from the police.

That's not all; there's the Hipster War. Hassidic Jews have had bike lanes removed because they contend female cyclists, dressed in shorts, skirts, and spandex, are inappropriate. Bicycle advocates came back in the middle of the night and repainted the bike lanes.

The police have probably had enough of bicyclists, and that frustration is expressed in a variety of ways, some clever and some ridiculous.

The city announced in October that it was increasing enforcement of bike laws, specifically running red lights, ignoring stop signs, speeding, and failing to use bike lanes.



Recently, an NYPD patrol car was parked over the bike lane, preventing anybody from using the bike lane. When bicyclists left the bike lane to get around the patrol car, officers ticketed the rider for leaving the bike lane. The $130 ticket was for "Reckless operation of bicycle."

In the last few weeks, police officers have been ticketing bicyclists for failure to stop at red lights inside Central Park. The kicker is that they're ticketing the cyclists during the hours that the park is closed to cars and all motor vehicles - there's only bikes on the road. The fine is $270.

Yesterday, bicyclists riding in Central Park (again, when the roads are closed to cars) had their speed measured with police radar guns and speeding tickets were written. The police were running a radar speed trap for bicyclists.



From the NY Times:

The speed at which David Regen, 49, had been traveling as he coasted down a hill on West Drive inside the park was not terribly fast — 25 miles per hour, according to the ticket. That is the same speed at which cars are permitted to travel when the roads are open to them. But parks department regulations dating from 1991 limit bike riders to 15 m.p.h.

Mr. David Regan was given a traffic ticket (see copy at right)for "exceeding speed limit". You'll see that where the form asks for a license plat number, the officer wrote in "bycicle" (sic).

This bicyclist is the luckiest guy in the world. I would love to have a ticket for speeding on my bicycle. I would frame it and hang it up on my wall, right between my pictures of the Pope and Elvis. That would be the coolest thing.

Murphy's Law persists, though, and it was inevitable that something would ruin Mr. Regan's wonderful story of The Man Trying To Keep Him Down.

Later that night, a NYPD officer came to Mr. Regan's home, apologized for the way he had been treated, and told him the ticket was bring withdrawn. They reminded him of the park's 15 mph speed limit for bicycles and went on their way.

First they give him an unjust ticket (the first crime). Then they take his badge of honor away (the second crime). Voiding the ticket and stealing his Ultimate Rule#5 Bike Story: that is such an injustice.

Shouting FAG at bicyclists is so gay

3/18/11 #232
28.6m

65F. Beautiful day. Rode 26.8 miles in 2h25m.
Stopped at Starbux, caffeine and cake.
Sightings: 6 people riding bicycles sighted.




Curiousity of the day: Today (for the first time) I wore my pink Deutsch Telecom jersey, which I'd bought off ebay. It meet all of my Ebay criteria: Cyldesdale size, highly visible, less than $20.

At the beginning of the ride I wore running tights, my jersey, a yellow jacket and a helmet cover. After mile 2-ish I was very warm, so I removed my helmet cover and my jacket. It was much more comfortable without them.

Curious thing was that three times, people in cars (aka cagers) saw fit to yell "Fag!" at me as they drove past. That's a clear deviation from the norm. Where I ride it's very unusual to have a cager yell anything negative; the frequency is less than once a year.

There is, to be sure, an excellent bike blog called "Bike Fag", (great recent post about Graeme Obree) but I don't think they were confusing me with the blogger or confusing me with Graeme Obree. In fact, take a look at Graeme Obree with his bike, and check out the size of the chainring. That's the bike of a world record holder.


In each case today, it was a younger male, 18-25, in what could be called a macho vehicle - a pickup truck or a muscle car. Nobody in a Volvo or a Subaru ever yells at a bike.

Drawing from the recent news about politicians and preachers, which reveals that those who are the most virulent homophobes are often conflicted themselves, I had to chuckle at these idiots.

Bottom line: no fast, fabulous gay bicyclist would ever been seen wearing blue running tights with orange stripes, topped off with a fuschia jersey. It just isn't done.

What, what, what were they thinking?