C&O / GAP Forum

We are planning a trip on the GAP and C&O from May 11 -17. Are there any trail closures due to storms or construction on the GAP. Where can I find official notices on this? Thanks.

Go to the website

Gaptrail.org

For trail conditions along the GAP and the National Park Service’s C&O Towpath website at

https://www.nps.gov/choh/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

for alerts along the C&O.

Our train gets in late to PGH. Is there a hotel and restaurant close to the train station?

Penn Station which houses the Amtrak passenger terminal is on the edge of downtown Pittsburgh with a number of hotels just a handful of blocks away including the following:

Druzy Hotel
AC Hotel (a Marriott hotel)
Hampton Inn
Homewood Suites
Marriott Courtyard
Westin Hotel

You can locate these hotels in Google Maps along with Penn Station to determine which might best for you.

Among others, There are a number of restaurants on Penn Avenue in either direction from Penn Station. Again refer to Google Maps which shows these and their proximity to Penn Station and the hotels.

Drop a note if I can provide any further info.

Make that Drury Hotel rather than Druzy Hotel. My bad.

PS: if you are taking Amtrak’s Capital Limited from DC to Pittsburgh, its scheduled arrival around midnight makes finding a restaurant that’s open at that time of night difficult. It’s not a great time to be walking around town looking for one. Ordering from Uber Eats or DoorDash to your selected hotel may be your best and safest option.

The closed GAP Trail segment between Homestead and Duquesne was reopened yesterday. Good news for local and touring cyclists.

Thank you for the update Rivnuts. Do you happen to know what the surface of the trail is like? I've found chat covered trails tend to be "soupy" or like wet cement during late winter/early spring.

Yesterday I rode the trail from Homestead out through Little Boston toward Sutersville after the closed trail section was reopened Tuesday. The trail was dry and firm in spite of all the rain we received last Thursday. Maybe I’ll get out even further tomorrow given the sunny forecast.

Rode out further on the GAP today. Trail conditions were excellent, I.e. typical of mid-summer, dry conditions.

I got to ride on the GAP today from Boston to mile marker 122. The weather was fantastic and the trail surface was great. In spite of the wonderful weather there were not very many people out. I'm sure many were spending their Easter with family.

I love this time of year on the GAP when trees and plants are just starting to grow.

Anybody know current trail conditions for C&O? Muddy? Passable?

What is the homeless person situation at Swains Lock h/b?

My plan for June is to do a botanical survey of the Laurel Highlands region of parts of Pennsylvania and elsewhere along the trail. While this had not necessarily been my academic concentration in college field guides and specie knowledge will prove useful. To that end some of the rustic camp sites should offer entries for my journal. Ecological and ecosystem documentation continues to be necessary. Inspiration has come from the late Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter who as former University of Michigan researchers traversed the Colorado River during the early twentieth-century. Fellow adventures for sure. This trip by bike for myself, however, should prove to be not so dangerous. I welcome any thoughts.

Is there any update on the trail closure at Duquesne? Are you able to pass through the work? We are planning on getting in the trail Saturday morning and want to prepare as best we can.

Whn I rode by there today, the trail closure you refer to is still in place and there is no update on the GAP website as to if or when it will reopen other than the original two-week prognosis.. There is actually a tall, locked fence gate at the base of the Whitaker flyover ramp which doesn’t enable you to skirt around it to continue on the trail toward the area of construction. If you’re willing to accept the risk, you can exit the trail at the east end of the Waterfront shopping center and continue to Duquesne on State Rt 837/River Road/Kennywood Blvd. The traffic on that road is heavy and fast with no or narrow shoulders. I certainly don’t recommend that as a safe alternative.

I’ll check on the status of the closure on Friday or sooner and provide another reply to your inquiry. Stay tuned. If needed, I may be able to assist you in shuttling between Homestead and Duquesne. (No charge.)

Thank you so much for all of the info! We are hoping that Friday will be the end of the “2 week work week” but can’t rely on that being the case with construction. We are used to riding heavier trafficked roads but 837 doesn’t seem like a good one to be on. But maybe 2.5 miles wouldn’t be too bad. I’ll check back for an update if you are able to check it out again. I really appreciate all the help!

To Scott B. From Columbus

As of 3:00 PM today, the trail is still closed. The entry gate to the Whitaker Flyover ramp remains closed and locked and all the yard signs along the trail out of Pittsburgh announcing the closure remain. Further the Gaptrail.org website today has no update to the original two-week closure announcement.

To refresh my recollection of the suspect road bypass route, I drove along it this afternoon. It would be 3.5 miles to Grant Avenue in Duquesne where you could first return to the trail. While there is perhaps a mile or so of a rather wide shoulder or sidewalk along the highway, the balance of the distance has virtually no shoulder and the traffic runs 45 to 50 mph in those stretches.

One alternative might be to start your trip in Duquesne if you were reasonably able to do so. Of course you could also get a shuttle around the detour. There were a couple of shuttle source links in the original trail closure notice. Also, my offer to shuttle you around the detour stands albeit with some caveats. My rack only holds two non-E-bikes (road, gravel or mountain. I could make a couple of trips if there are more than two in your party. I probably couldn’t fit trailers in the car. That said, I’d be happy to help if I can. If you want to explore my offer further drop me an email at rivnuts@yahoo.com to work out a plan and time. I live in Homestead so departing from there is very easy for me but could also depart from other places without any trouble.

For info the weekend looks dry in the area with temps only in the 40’s tomorrow and warmer on Sunday.

Best Wishes

I really appreciate the detailed update on the closure. I am bummed it is still closed in such a tricky section but I’m sure the work will make the trail safer for future riders. We will just opt to start at the park and ride down in Duquesne for simplicity. Thanks again for all the info I have found on this forum. I’m excited for my first GAP/ C&O trip. I’m sure I’ll be back to check off those first 13.5 miles!

This closed GAP Trail segment between Homestead and Duquesne was reopened yesterday. Good news for local and touring cyclists.

Google Maps shows this location as 'permanently' closed. April 2025.

Link - https://maps.app.goo.gl/FNxkcKvNbz9937KYA

Also, their website only shows Arlington and Old Town locations, but not Georgetown.

You can reach the Big Wheel Bikes store in Arlington from Georgetown however via the Key Bridge and the Custis Trail.

I highly recommend Big Wheel Bikes in Arlington. As Rivnuts said, it's accessible by bike trail just a few miles from the C&O. I rented a bike there for a through ride last summer. They know how to take care of riders and also have plenty of supplies on hand. They don't do a lot of advertising and keep their rates down.

Does the park have electric so my wife can charge her ebike?

See the following excerpt from the Fort Frederick State Park website:

“ Can we put our tent on an electric site or are electric sites reserved for RV’s only?
You sure can! As a tent or pop-up camper, you may reserve an electric site. When reserving campsites that accommodate RV’s, do not assume you are getting amenities with full hook-ups. Site amenities will be listed with electric/water/sewer if available at the site you are reserving. Also be aware, that your tent may be located next to an RV.”

Does the campground accommodate ebikes> i.e. charging?

Given the covered pavilion there and the amenities within such as lights and hot coffee, I’d expect there there are receptacles that could be used to charge your e-bike battery. If the weather improves and the trail firms up, I’ll ride by there and confirm. You could also call the owner at 724-244-5859 to verify.

Called on March 21, 2025 to cancel a reservation due to a family emergency. Was told there is a $20 cancelation fee when on site states full refund before 2 weeks. It has been almost 3 weeks since cancelation still no refund. Emailed several times regarding this issue with no response back, I even called several times and was told i would get a call back from the person in charge. Still haven't heard back. Makes me question my confidence in the Falls Market Inn.

From the gaptrail.org web site:

GAP Mile 136 | Reported on March 21, 2025

A segment of the Great Allegheny Passage between Duquesne (roughly mile marker 136) and Homestead (roughly mile marker 138) will be closed for two weeks in early-to-mid April so that professional contractors can address rockfall and mudslides. Specific start and end dates for the segment closure have not yet been determined but will be announced on this page as soon as they are finalized.

The section of the GAP to be closed is located beneath Kennywood Park and is bookended by the Whitaker and Port Perry Flyovers. There is no detour, and we do not recommend riding on local roads, which are heavily trafficked. Instead, we recommend hiring a shuttle service to transport you and your bicycle between the trail access points in Duquesne and Homestead. One local shuttle is Bill’s Car Service. See this list of shuttle services for other potential options

The trail will be closed and work begun the morning of March 31.

The gaptrail.org web site reports that the Big Savage Tunnel will reopen on the afternoon of March 24,2025.

Has anyone been on the GAP on parts that are chat and unpaved (which I think is most of the trail starting east of McKeesport)? I'm looking forward to get back out on the trail. In past years when I tried to bike unpaved trails around this time of the year I found the surfaces like wet cement. Any pointers on when the surfaces will be less "soupy" would be appreciated.

Aside from after lots of rain when the trail is soft, I have found trail conditions can/will be soft so long as we are still experiencing daily freeze/thaw conditions. Such conditions often occur through the month of March. The shaded portions of the trail are usually the softest. Once the daily temps stay above freezing it’s usually just the rain that softens the trail.

Thanks Rivnuts, that's what I suspected. May, sun and a solid trail will be here soon.

My family (incl husband and 2 teen boys) are riding the trail in April. We are riding South, Cumberland to DC. We plan on spending a few hours in Harpers Ferry. I hear there are some stairs? How hard is it to manuver your bike?

Yes, there are spiral, steel stairs to get from the trail up to the pedestrian walkway along the railroad bridge crossing over the Potomac River to Harper’s Ferry. (The stairway is only on one end of the bridge.). The stairs are rather wide so as long as you can carry your bike, it’s rather easy to negotiate the stairs. If you have bags on your bike, you will likely opt to remove the bags before carrying your bike and the make a second trip with your bags. With others in your party able to help as well, getting your bike up and over the bridge shouldn’t be onerous. Just be careful if the steps are wet as they can be slick.

While you might be tempted to leave your bike and bags in one of the bike racks near the bottom of the stairs to avoid carrying your bike up the stairs to go over to Harper’s Ferry, I would not take the risk of theft having known someone who had their bags stolen from there.

Hi All,

I am looking for advice on deciding the route of my first long walk/hike. I'm only debating the starting location because I live in Hancock, Md. so my ending point is locked in. I want to do a 2-day, 1-night hike/walk that is between 25-40 miles total with an overnight primitive style camp somewhere along the route (sleeping in a hammock under a tarp). I plan to be dropped off on a Friday morning and then pretty much walk to my house in Hancock and expecting to get home sometime in the evening on Saturday.

Although I consider myself to be in decent shape, I've been "training" for the walk portion for about 6 months by walking 2.5 miles every day on my lunchbreak, and 1 or 2 times a month I walk 10 - 12 miles with about 10 lbs. of gear on me in about 3 - 3.5 hours. Which is about the pace and weight of gear I plan on bringing.

As for the route advice, I am thinking about doing a Paw Paw Wv. - Hancock, Md. trip with camping in Little Orleans, Md. Total distance is 32 miles. Day 1 starts in Paw Paw and will be 15.6 Miles to Little Orleans where I will stop and set up a small camp for overnight. Then, waking up and walking the remainder of the 16.4 miles to Hancock, and then probably another 1.5 miles to my house from the trail.

Does anyone have a different route of about the same distance and ending point?

Does this seem to be to too ambitious or too conservative for a first-time long walk/hike?

Any advice at all? I feel like I'm just getting started, but I'm not a novice at walking long distances or with camping, but with the walking and camping together?

An obvious alternative route would be south of Hancock beginning in Williamsport. It’s a slightly shorter route (25 + 1.5) than the one you proffered There is an overnight campgound about halfway at the Fort Frederick State Park. Having not stayed there, I don’t know if it can accomodate a hammock.

I’ll add some further comments later.

If you wish a somewhat longer trek, you could start a little further south beginning at the McMahon's Mill Recreation Area (approximately 36.5 miles south of Hancock) or even at Dam 4 (40 miles south) and return to Hancock. From there you could ovenight camp at McCoy's Landing State Campground (public pay) or the North Mountain primitive Hiker/Biker campsite.

I'm a biker not a hiker so I can't comment on the feasibility of your first hiking/camping adventure. Its easily done of course in one day on a bike.

I would note that there was a bridge over a creek out on the Towpath north of Hancock last summer. You may well be able to find a way to hike around it successfully. Alternatively, you can circumvent that bridge by hiking northbound on the parallel Western Maryland Rail Trail.

Don't forget some bug repellent for those pesky mosquitos that seem to come out at dusk. Also there's little or no opportunity to obtain water in these areas so plan on taking what you may need or a filter to make some along the way.

Thank you for the information and alternate route suggestions Rivnuts. I didn't really consider coming to Hancock from the Georgetown side of the trail. I like to wake up and walk into the sunrise so west to east routes was all I looked at (for this first trip anyway).

I think I've decided to start in either Town Hill and walk to Hancock. Not much of a difference between them, like 5-6 miles I believe. But if I start in TH, I will be about 18 miles to Devils Alley Bike/Hike campsite for the night and it is about halfway to Hancock. If I did PP to Hancock, my halfway/camp option is one of the options in Little Orleans. I have camped there dozens of times and want to see things I haven't see/camped before while on this trip. Plus, if my start point for day 2 is around Devils Alley, it should be a beautiful sunrise if I hike up to the top of the hill to get to Point Lookout Overlook.


Similar issue with the Williamsport to Hancock route you suggested. I love that area and the idea, but I have camped at Fort Frederick a handful of times over the years.

You seem to know a good bit about the trail which I greatly appreciate. Thank you for the advice. There's three things I consider as essential and separate from "gear", they are a knife, a lighter, and a LifeStraw water filter straw. Outside of an emergency, I think I could take those 3 items make it home alright. Might suck for two days, but I'd make it.

Who keeps the C&O and GAP trails in rideable condition?
Are the massive firings of federal employees going to be a problem by May 1?

The GAP is maintained by a group of volunteer trail associations for the most part. The C&O is maintained by the National Park Service. The effect, if any, of federal government efficiency actions on the C&O is not clear at this point.

Where is an inexpensive place to stay in DC near the trail head?

I don’t intend to be a smart Alec but if you find one, let us all know as I have never found one, especially in the Georgetown district where the trail ends. Once, I did find a reasonably priced one-room Airbnb for myself about 6 miles north of the train station but it was less expensive since it was a fair distance from downtown and in a questionable neighborhood.

For a few years I was able to stay with my daughter in the Kolorama neighborhood but she moved from there a few years ago.

warmshowers.org

I'll be in DC in early March and I was thinking of riding a portion of the trail out and back. Will the trail be too muddy and icy at that point?
Thanks

Simply put the odds aren’t with you for an enjoyable ride on the unpaved C&O Trail. You may want to consider one of the paved alternative trails in and about DC such as Custis Trail, WOD Trail, Capital Crescent Trail or Mt.Vernon Trail.

Roadie Mike from Detroit MI:

Hopefully you find this additional forum message since the forum app would not allow me to respond directly to your message as it normally does.

The Paw Paw Tunnel for the C&O Canal was cut through a hill/mountain rather than continue along the winding Potomac River to save time and cost of construction by reducing the length of the canal. - Neither objective was ultimately achieved. The 3,118 foot long tunnel itself was cut through the shale mountain and built over a period of 14 years. If you look at a map of the trail you'll see the divergence of this canal tunnel from the Potomac River. Further some Google searching will reveal a number of excellent websites describing the history and facts for the tunnel itself.

The outdoor trails entering and leaving the tunnel can be muddy during and following rain. The trail immediately downriver (north) of the tunnel can be slippery as well as muddy as it travels over a wooden "footbridge" adjacent a rock wall outside the tunnel. Just beyond the footbridge the trail surface includes exposed sections of wet shale as well as the muddy earthen surface. It's all rideable under those conditions but extra caution is well advised.

Inside the tunnel the elevated towpath travels between a guardrail separating the towpath from the canal so you don't fall off into the canal. The towpath within is a hard earthen surface about 5- to 6-feet wide. You can readily walk a pannier-laden bike within this width.

However, the surface is rough and damp including some small puddles in the ruts due to leaks in the tunnel roof. It is very dark inside making a light a virtual necessity. While I've encountered riders attempting to ride through the tunnel without a light, they present a peril for themselves as well as others in the tunnel.

I hope this message answers your questions.

Will a trike (actually a trike to quad conversion, 40” wide) fit between the wall and railing? Thanks!

The 40-inch width of the trike would fit between the wall and the rail as the towpath width inside the tunnel is 5 feet. There are a few related concerns however.

The first is your transiting through the tunnel. Even with ten trips through that tunnel over the past ten years I’ve never seen a trike pass through the tunnel. I think that’s more due to the nature of the towpath before and after the towpath rather than within the tunnel itself. The trail to and from the tunnel looks like a path traveled by a car. That is, two separated single tracks such that one wheel of a trike would normally ride in one of the tracks while the other would ride in the median…doable but not ideal for a trike or a two-wheeled trailer. But I digress.

Secondly, while you likely could ride through the tunnel, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of clearance beyond your wheels making a good light a virtual necessity. Also, with the limited clearance, passing other bikers inside the tunnel would be challenging. I’d certainly wait until other cyclists or pedestrians had cleared the tunnel before beginning to go through.

Lastly, if you chose not to ride through the tunnel but, rather, walk through, pushing or pulling a trike through would be awkward I would think.

Hopefully others with trikes can offer their thoughts as well.

Has anyone stayed in one of the cabins here? Or, do you recommend another place to stay in Harpers Ferry?

I have not stayed at the Harper’s Ferry Adventure Campground so I can’t comment on its accommodations or amenities. However, I would comment that it is not an “easy” place to get to on a bike depending on your fitness and your confidence on riding on active, fast travelling, 2-lane highways, i.e Rt 340 off which the Adventure Center is located. Using Google Maps you can see two routes to the campground from the C&O Trail both of which include riding along a stretch of Rt 340 and have one or two steep climbs rising up out of the Potomac River valley. Both routes require that you cross the river from the C&O Trail. The first route requires that you carry your bike and gear up the steel stairs aside the train tressel into Harper’s Ferry to continue on toward Rt 340. The second route crosses the river on Rt 340 itself.

I’ve stayed at a hotel on the Maryland side of the river and at a bed and breakfast in Harper’s Ferry itself. Neither were partcularly great, but served the purpose for one night once getting there.

If you have not already done so, you can use this Bikecando.com website to identify various accommodations in the Harpers Ferry area that might be of interest. I would also note that there is a pay-to-stay campground immediately adjacent to the C&O Trail in Brunswick, MD about 7 miles east of Harper’s Ferry. Aside from the nearby noisy railroad operations, it is an alternative to camping at Harpers Ferry.

What Rivnuts said. You would be better off staying in Brunswick, Harpers Ferry, or Sheapherdstown if you don't want to camp.

My brother and I are biking the GAP and C&O trails in May. My bike has lollipop clip pedals. What is the consensus as to whether those are good for these trails or whether I would be better off with regular pedals to be able to put my feet down faster if I need to?

Under dry conditions and assuming one is experienced riding with clipless pedals, you should be able to ride these trails without issue with those pedals. Under wet conditions you should still be ok with clipless pedals on the GAP Trail. Wet conditions on the C&O could be problematic with clipless pedals since that trail can be slippery and muddy, especially between Cumberland and Little Orleans.

However, in full disclosure, I don’t ride with clipless pedals so that my opinion might be overly cautious. If you.mountain bike with clip less pedals, I would expect you’d be fine using them on these trails.

That’s my two cents worth. Others may offer different opinions.

Question and comment:

What does the Paw Paw Tunnel go through or under? The Potomac River perhaps? It looks like a narrow stretch of three miles that could be muddy. Will make sure my lights are working well and hope the panniers don't bump the sides of the wall.