C&O Home  GAP Home
The C&O Canal Towpath Trail and Great Allegheny Passage

Reply to Lodging


Cancel and Return to Forum
Scroll down to see the discussion
All submissions are reviewed for appropriateness. We reserve the right to remove or edit any comment that we consider incorrect, misleading, or inappropriate, at our sole discretion. Please remember that this is a family-friendly website.
Subject:
Reply to Lodging
Your Name:

This does not have to be your real name. It could be a "screen name", your initials, or just leave blank.
Your Hometown:

Optional - it's just interesting to know where people are from
Email Address
Comment:
So we know you are a human, please answer this easy math quiz:
1 + 4 =
Michael from Brick, N.J. on 8/9/2023 7:52:02 AM:
Hi everyone,
Getting ready for my C&O and GAP bike tour will be driving down to Pittsburg park my car take Amtrak to Washington D.C. Train is supposed to come in around 1-2 P.M. where is there the first campsite? Is it doable ?
Decent lodging which will take in me and my bike?
Be getting in on September 12 .

Any help will be much appreciated and thank you very much for your time.

Michael

 
Rivnuts from Homestead, PA on 8/9/2023 9:54:03 AM:
Below are the first few hiker/biker (H/B) campsites on the C&O leaving DC are as follows with mileages from DC:

16.6 Swain's Lock #21 Five Campsites - nearby vehicle access. Newly restored lockhouse is now available for lodging with full amenities.
26.0 Horsepen Branch H/B Hiker/Biker campsite. 1.2 miles from vehicle access at mile 27.2.
30.5 Chisel Branch H/B Hiker/Biker campsite. 0.3 miles from vehicle access at mile 30.8
34.5 Turtle Run H/B Hiker/Biker campsite. 1.0 miles from vehicle access at mile 35.5
38.2 Marble Quarry H/B Hiker/Biker Campsite. 1.4 miles from vehicle access at mile 39.6
42.4 Indian Flats H/B Hiker/Biker campsite. 0.3 miles from vehicle access at mile 42.1
47.6 Calico Rocks H/B Hiker/Biker campsite. 0.8 miles from vehicle access at mile 48.2. Located near a busy railroad line, so earplugs are suggested.
50.3 Bald Eagle Island H/B Hiker/Biker campsite. 0.5 miles from vehicle access at mile 50.8. Located near a busy railroad line, so earplugs are suggested.

The first hotel off the trail is in Brunswick 54 miles from DC. Reaching there before sunset is unlikely especially since the first 3 or 4 miles leaving DC are a little slow as you ride through the city. You could consider staying in a DC hotel or AirBnB the night of your arrival and start fresh down the trail the next morning.

 
Michael from Brick,N.J. on 8/10/2023 7:35:07 AM:
Thank you for your reply and help.
Any hotels you could recommend in DC?

 
Rivnuts from Homestead, PA on 8/10/2023 9:41:58 AM:
As a suburban Pittsburgh resident, I'm not knowledgeable enough to recommend a particular hotel in DC. I'll leave that to someone with better knowledge of DC and its hotels. All the travel reservation websites show the hotels in the area and in route to the C&O trail in Georgetown. I confess to being cheap, so I spent my one-night layover after arriving by train in DC this spring in an Airbnb room located is in northeast DC. There are many of those listed in the Airbnb website.

If you are a Warm Showers users, that may be an option for you as well.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful but not living in DC limits my knowledge to make specific recommendations. Hopefully others on this forum will reply to your question.