Pittsburgh to DC - Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal

[siafirede]

After hearing that the C&O canal trail now connects smoothly to the Great Allegheny Passage Trail all the way to (near)Pittsburgh PA, I kind of want to ride the entire length of both of the trails.

The tentative plan now is as follows:

Friday May 2nd: get a ride up to Pittsburgh from a friend and see the Bouncing Souls, Tim Barry, and Gaslight Anthem (sweet show lineup). Stay the night in Pittsburgh somewhere...not sure where or with whom.

Saturday May 3rd - start the ride!
Sun
Mon
Tues
Wednesday May 7th - finish either in DC or at my house in Fairfax.

That gives me 5 days to ride 320-350 miles depending on where I stop. If I went the length from DC to my house, I would follow the Custis and W&OD back from DC.

I would be bringing a backpack with a sleeping bag and light weight shelter and hopefully camping most of the days on the trail. I haven't looked into how I will split up the days yet or where all the campsites are, but that is not really important yet.

This will be great training for RTL and give me some more experience doing self supported uni tours. Frank (hell on wheel) mentioned he might be interested in joining me. He completed the 180+ mile ride from DC to Cumberland a few years back.

Links:
Great Allegheny Passage: http://gaptrail.org/
C&O Canal: http://bikewashington.org/canal/index.php
Someone's account of DC to Pittsburgh: http://bikewashington.org/canal/ride2007/index.htm

Hopefully I can take off work and go through with the ride!

[siafirede]

Update:

I am able to take off the days from work and my friend Zach will be joining me on his bike.

Should be a great trip. Now to work out how I am going to divide the days. Looking at an adventure bicycling company, they divide the trip into 7 days and stay at places with beds. I am hoping to do it in 2 less days with 1 less wheel and camp most of the time.

[OneWheelLess]

that'll be killer, what kind of speeds do you think you'll be averaging/ how many hours of riding will you be doing?

[siafirede]

Originally Posted by OneWheelLess

that'll be killer, what kind of speeds do you think you'll be averaging/ how many hours of riding will you be doing?

I will be using this as part of my training for Ride The Lobster, so I would be trying to keep a decent pace. I am not sure about the speed though b/c I haven't had a chance to ride more than 25-30 miles on my geared uni yet (and I will be weighed down with gear). The goal would be to do 60-70 miles a day and not go below 11-12 mph, but aim for higher speeds and mix in random hour long speed bursts of 16-17mph to prepare for RTL(but that is just a goal, may not be a reality). I am guessing we will be stopping every now and then to enjoy the sites though. I am not sure about the hours of riding either, but probably spread out across most of the day.

I am looking into where the primitive campgrounds are now and found this resource:
http://shaw-weil.com/linkup/campsites.htm

Looks like I can have a fire at most of them.

[Nimbusnut]

That is so cool. Dang! I thought I'd be set with a 20" and a 24". Now I have to explain to my wife that I need a 29" and a 36"... Too bad I can't convince her to learn the ways of the uni!

[Silvia]

Hey. I live in that area too but am rather busy with finals coming up the week after and I couldn't keep up that long anyways. However, I was thinking of maybe just meeting up with you all when you hit the Falls, close to DC for 2 hours or so if thats ok. I have a 36" but haven't had the chance to ride with anyone else who has one too.
Silvia