On Memorial Day weekend, my brother and I set out to ride the Great Allegheny Passage Trail. The GAP is a 150 mile Rails-to-Trails path that connects Cumberland, Maryland and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We gave ourselves three days to finish the ride. It seemed perfectly reasonable to us that we could average 50 miles per day. Also, my sister-in-law came along and provided support throughout the trip. She would drive ahead and meet up with us at various places along the trail. This way we didn't need to pack more than a couple hours worth of food and water. We had it all planned out... Until we started.
Day One: 5:17:45, 45 miles
So the first rule in executing a great plan, is to change it before you even start. This is exactly what we did. Instead of starting our ride in Cumberland as we had planned, we decided to start a little down the C&O Towpath in Paw Paw, West Virginia.
We did this for a couple of reasons. One of which I'm sure is just plain old ignorance. Another being that it was closer to where we had spent the night on Thursday. So we figured what the heck, so what if it adds a couple miles into the ride. We will be able to absorb that, right? We'll that couple of miles turned out to be 30. (Guess we should have looked at that map a little closer.) The day was further complicated by the fact that we started out way later than we had planned too.
So off we were, behind schedule, ignorant and happy. But finally we were on our way - headed west on the C&O towards Cumberland. It is quite a nice ride with lots to see like historic locks and houses and civil war battlefields.
Thirty miles and about three hours later we rolled into Cumberland (our planned starting point). Hungry and a little tired, we stopped for a late lunch at about 3:00PM. We had been making what felt like pretty good time at about 10 miles per hour. But with the late start and the hour for lunch, we were starting to wonder just how far we were actually going to get. We knew the trail was going to start getting harder.
The next 22 or so miles is all uphill. We knew that meant harder riding and slower pace. So, we decided we would stop in Frostberg. There we would reassess our situation. This was an easy, logical decision since it was the next town on the map.
The ride from Cumberland to Frostberg proved to be much harder than Paw Paw to Cumberland. It certainly didn't help that we had the 30 mile warmup. Those 17 miles took us nearly 2 hours to complete. By this time it was starting to get late and we were pretty tired so we decided to call it a day. Forty five miles and five hours of riding wasn't all that bad of a day. The only problem is that we were only 17 miles into our original itinerary. That is about 40 miles shorter than where we wanted to be on day one. I was already starting to wonder if we were going to be able to complete ride.
Day Two: 5:38:00, 58 miles
Day two started out well. We got up, ate and were on the trail early. The plan for the day was to stop more often - every 15-20 miles for a brief rest. Picking up where we left off in Frostberg, we were back on the hill with eight more miles of climbing ahead of us. At least we were fresh. The ride up to the continental divide was great. There were lots of scenic views of the valley. We crossed the Mason-Dixon Line. And rode through the 3,300 foot long Big Savage Tunnel.
It was amazing how much there was to see in just those few short miles. Reaching the Continental Divide was such a relief. Plus, we knew it was all down hill from there (literally). Next stop - Myersdale.
Still trying to make up as much time as we could, we didn't spend too much time in Myersdale. We wanted to get to Rockwood where we planned on taking a longer break for lunch.
After lunch at Rockwood, we decided that we would continue on to Confluence. At that point we would decide if we would go on to Ohiopyle or stop for the day. Our butts were already getting sore and Confluence was another 20 miles (or two hours) away.
By the time we got to Confluence, we were pretty sore on the back end. My legs were not too bad. They were tired, of course, but I had been eating more so I wasn't totally wiped out like I had been on the first day. My biggest problem was my butt. Aside from being sore from sitting on a bike seat for 10 hours in the last two days, it was starting to get raw. We needed this break. By this time it was about 3:00 PM. We decided to go to Ohiopyle and call it a day. It was only 10 more miles and the next stop after that was an additional 20 miles.
Day Three: 6:10:28, 80 miles
Last day. It was all or nothing on this day. If we had to stop short and not make it all the way to Pittsburgh, I would be very disappointed. That was the capstone to the trip - to make it the whole way. It wasn't about the 150 miles (or 180 the way we did it). It was about finishing the ride and completing the challenge.
We had a lot of distance to make up. Seventy seven more miles to go. That is farther than I had ever ridden a bike in one day. I spent a lot of time the night before working on recovering my legs for the ride. Unfortunately, I didn't have a good solution for recovering my sore butt other than staying off of it.
The strategy of breaking up the ride seemed to work well. So, we decided to take it one step further. We would alternate short micro breaks and longer breaks as the day went on. Every 45 minutes to an hour we would stop. The first break would be short and the next would be longer. This would allow us to stay well fed for the long day. Plus it gave us plenty of opportunities to rest our aching backsides. The longer breaks coincided nicely with major stopping points along the way - Connolsville, West Newton, Boston and then on to Pittsburgh. Over the. course of a single day we witnessed an interesting transition from the small towns of Pennsylvania like Connolsville and Smithdale to more urban areas like McKeesport to the center of a major city.
A nice surprise was fact the last 30 miles or so were all paved. (Except for that short stretch near Homestead - What's up with that?). Once we started seeing more and more people on the trail we knew we were getting close. And that was all the motivation we needed. I knew we were going to finish the ride.
The other thing we didn't account for in our planning is where the GAP trail actually ends. I had my mind set on ending at Point State Park and the big fountain where the three rivers converge in Pittsburgh. This is where the trail should really start. It just makes sense. But this is actually about 3 miles from the end of the GAP trail which ends at a place called The Hot Metal Bridge. But nonetheless we finished the ride at the fountain. We made it. Success!! A great weekend for sure.
