Linking Up: Planning Your Traffic-Free Bike Trip Between Pittsburgh PA and Washington DC

The trails of the Allegheny Trail Alliance connect with the C&O Canal Towpath at Cumberland, creating a traffic-free route between Pittsburgh and Washington DC. Although the final 1 mile gap into Pittsburgh won't be finished till spring 2013, the distance of 335 continuous miles on the ground make an outstanding bike trip. To help you plan this trip -- or a shorter trip along this route -- this book has brought together most of the information that you will need to plan your trip. This Fourth Edition (Apr 2012) is 48 pages and includes all of the information in the previous editions and more. The table of B&B, motels, campgrounds, restaurants,grocery stores, bike shops, and outfitters has been updated. Several shorter itineraries have been added. The book starts with the four BIG decisions: Luxury, Support, Distance, Direction. Followed by The Planning Checklist, Trail Surface and Terrain, Logistics, Preparation, Sample Itineraries, and more.

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From the Introduction So you re thinking about a bike ride between Pittsburgh PA and Washington DC, and you don t want to ride in traffic? That s great! The C&O Canal Towpath has long been a favorite route, especially nice for bicycle camping. Now that the connection to the rail-trails of the Great Allegheny Passage between Cumberland MD and Pittsburgh PA is within reach, the route is even better.

We begin with answers to the questions that people most often ask as they start to think about the trip, followed by suggestions about things to think about as you plan and ideas about itineraries. At the end, we list some of the services and amenities you may find helpful and give a table of distances between towns. With a few exceptions, we include all the services we know about that are within reasonable cycling distance of the trail. If you have a support car you can range farther afield, but other guides provide better coverage of those larger areas than we can possibly hope to.

Trail construction continues, so if you re looking ahead to 2013 the final gaps may be completed.