Things to Consider When Planning a Trip Between Pittsburgh & DC

In the last few days, I've been rerouting and rescheduling my trip between Pittsburgh and DC due to the forecasted weather. Doing so has reminded me of things to consider when planning such a trip.

1. While the Fall is a beautiful time to make the trip, you are vulnerable to the residual effects of seasonal hurricanes. Similar to two previous trips, my initial Fall itinerary has been affected by predictions of consecutive days of rain along the way stemming from storms coming up the Atlantic coast. The GAP, and especially the C&O Towpath, will become soft and even quite muddy in spots after multiple days of rain making the trip much less enjoyable if not agonizing. Having flexibility in your schedule and reservations to avoid this situation is well advised. This leads to a second observation.

2. If you are planning to use Amtrak between DC and Pgh and also planning to take your bike onboard, you'll have more flexibility to change your schedule, if desired, when transporting your bike from Pittsburgh to DC. Bike reservations on Amtrak are more available in this direction rather than from DC to Pgh. If you plan and get reservations for you and especially your bike, changing your reservation for weekend travel is nearly impossible as those reservations sell out early and are in strong demand during the biking season. Although still difficult to change, weekday reservations are more readily available albeit with daily differences in cost. Also, note you cannot simply change the direction of an existing Amtrak reservation. To change the direction of your train trip, you must cancel the original reservation, albeit with the stipulated cancellation charge, and then make a new reservation in the other direction which may not be available on the same date as the initial reservation.

3. Delaying a Fall trip to avoid the rain can also lead to notably lower day and night temperatures especially at the higher elevations, e.g. Meyersdale, PA. This may require additional cold weather clothing or camping gear.

Now... what to do, what to do.