July GAP Trail Report

Posting at a request and to offer up a trail report to anyone interested. This was mid July 2020.

@John W. from Pittsburgh, PA -- It was really nice. Typical, I had planned on doing about 50 miles each day. I arrived in PGH on Tuesday evening and stayed [w/ permission] at the Marriott Courtyard in Homestead ["trailhead parked" in my van] and had permission to leave vehicle there for days.

Wednesday morning I rode without packs into PGH on the south-side and arrived at Point Park for "official" start and headed back on the north-side, the official GAP trail route. Stopped at my van, loaded up packs and headed out. Made good time into West Newton where I intended to find dinner before camping at Cedar Creek Trekker Campground. Grabbed dinner at the Burger place in West Newton [not great] and when I jumped on my bike the chain broke! [Note: I knew I was having a bit of an issue even before leaving. I had taken the bike into a bike shop in Rochester that replaced my bottom bearing. However, I didn’t think that the issue with shifting was properly addressed.] It was minutes after 5:00 PM and I thought I would be stranded, but thankfully West Newton Bike Shop answered the phone, was only a few blocks away and was open until 7:00 PM.

I cannot praise the shop, and specifically the tech named Jerimo enough. What great service and dedicated perfection! Admittedly, I was now able to better describe my problem now that I had miles ridden. Ended up with a new cassette, chain and middle chain ring [my influence on the latter to make it right]. Jerimo did the work and then spent at least 20 minutes testing and fine tuning everything. Even better, I felt I got fixed up for a *very* reasonable price. The bike now rode perfectly. I’d recommend this shop wholeheartedly to anyone needing service or parts [or new bikes as limited as the supply is these days]. It is a nice shop.

Onto Cedar Creek -- great campground, shared some area with a couple guys who were hiking and biking and had an enjoyable evening. Complete with free split firewood there to use. Enjoyable evening, decent outhouse and water source.
Day miles: 52

Next day on the trail [Thursday]. Stopped by a trail-side stop about 4 miles down where I was served a great breakfast and treated to some fresh fruit & veggies. Mid-day I linked up with a fellow biker [Logan, from Dayton, OH] who was nearly finished with his bike trek from Seattle, WA to DC! We rode about 20 miles together and enjoyed sharing stories. We avoided any rain in the hot and mostly overcast day, and parted as I arrived at the Outflow Camping Area… he looking to put more miles for that day. Overflow area was excellent – nice camping area, nice bathhouse with showers and a burger/ice cream place right outside the campground. Enjoyed some fellow biker company, but rain and a pretty heavy downpour made for an early bedtime! I had taken a back-up bivouac tent that leaked a bit… nothing bad, I can deal with things. The trail is in really nice shape and we even ran into workers laying down new trail surface.
Day Miles: 43

Friday – got packed up and went into Confluence for breakfast. Gas station with homemade cook-to-order meals was really good. This is a really interesting part of the trail with lots of highlights. Rockwood trailhead was really nice – a fine example of what can be done. The Mason Dixon Line, the Salisbury Viaduct and several tunnels keep the trek up to the Eastern Divide fun. I was planning to stop over in Frostburg at the Trail Inn Campground, but decided that adding 14 miles downhill wasn’t a big deal so I continued *down* into Cumberland. I bought a room at the Radisson, had a delightful Italian dinner in town and did a bit of exploring.
Day miles: 64

I had purposefully left an extra day open in case there was some emergency that tied me up – I didn’t want to miss the only train that had a bike rack that I had paid for. Bike racks on the train sell out. I spent Saturday cruising around Cumberland – quite the interesting town with lots of history. I had my gear stored at the hotel, so I picked it up and headed to the train station around 6 PM. The train is really nice, clean and surprisingly quite. When I arrived back in PGH, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. However, I felt comfortable locking my bike at the train station. There was a rack in the employee parking area that was very secure looking. Locked up, took my bags and called an Uber back to Homestead. Unloaded and drove back to the train station, picked up my bike and was on the road.

Overall… I had a great time. I didn’t have a lot of time to do a lot of research so I was just focused on doing the ride. Comparing it to the Erie Canalway, I found it to be much more rural in nature. The campground options were excellent and easy to use. The trail is in excellent shape [although I understand the C&O is different and not as nicely cared for]. The Erie puts you closer to and through more small towns and eventually in an urban area, and the bike path isn’t in as nice of shape in different parts. So, hey – that’s why you get out and do them both!

WNYBubba,

What an amazing recap! Really enjoyed your story and sharing it with us here on this forum.

Glad you got your chain sorted in West Newton. Cedar Creek might be the best free campsite on the trail (Connellsville is nice also). The free, split firewood is a such a nice touch. On my trip I stayed at Roundbottom. A lovely site but it’s a bit more rustic than Cedar Creek. I had to walk up and down the trail to find wood on the edges of the trail as there zero wood inside the campground. But it’s all worth it for that campground fire.

Was that downhill to Cumberland nice or what? : - ) From the view of the mountains, the tunnels, and the mason dixon line, and the gradual downhill, there may not be a better section of trail than the continental divide to Cumberland.

If your ever back in the Pittsburgh area for a ride, make sure to let us know on this forum. Happy to meet up and give you a tour around or provide assistance on your way out of town. Others have done so on this forum. Thanks again!

John

Thanks John.
A couple thoughts... turns out that the Overflow campground was also without charge. There is a small fenced area that is not reserved that doesn't carry a camp fee. So, only paying $80 hotel for four days out was quite the bargain [although my Erie tour was even less]!

Agree that the Eastern Divide is an awesome part of the trail. I thank you for giving me a heads up about the down into Cumberland -- it was motivation for my decision to continue on. What surprised me was that it wasn't a crazy, fast coasting ride. In fact, I had to keep peddling the entire way down. Not hard, but the grade is quite mild.

Lastly, the firewood was great. But, this past late winter I was up in Vermont spending the weekend with hiking friends at a hut on the AT. I learned about a great fire-starter and wanted to try it out myself. I worked amazingly fine! Here's the deal: you pack cotton balls into a small container [I used a metal tin] and then smother it with Petroleum Jelly. Wow -- it does the job. The petroleum is flammable and one or two balls provides a long hot flame to get the fire going.

Thank you for the kind invitation. I'm returning one... if you get into western NY or, better yet, make some plans and come up and do some riding!