We Finally Bikepacked Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Towpath

We finally bikepacked the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal towpath. Beginning in Pittsburgh we visited Ohiopyle, PA, Myersdale, PA, Cumberland, MD, Harpers Ferry, WV, the Great Falls of the Potomac and more on our way to Washington, DC.

We camped most nights and had the good fortune of spending several nights alone along the Potomac River. The National Park Service provides free campsites every 5 - 10 miles along the C&O. You get a place to pitch your tent, a picnic table, manual water pump (we filtered the water) and outhouse.

This route is not only beautiful, it is also a journey through America's past with sites and communities that played a role in The French and Indian War, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution and the push Westward. And yes...George Washington probably did sleep somewhere along this route.

The video is part travelogue, part local history, part personnel reflections of a retired couple who have been bicycle touring over forty years and who somehow never did this ride until now. We hope you enjoy the videos and still shots of these beautiful national treasures.

We don’t talk about bicycles or gear in the video but Randy is happy to discuss it.

We want to thank everyone who had a hand in developing and maintaining these trails. Thank you also to the kind people we met all along the route.

A useful website for planning is Bikecando: https://bikecando.com/default.aspx
The National Park Service has a very nice phone app for the C&O Canal National Park.

Video shot on GoPro 11 and my old Fujifilm XE-1. Stills shot on Fujifilm XE-1 and iPhones. Video edited in Final Cut.

View some other Randy and Carol bicycle touring videos:

1982 bicycle tour of Colorado and Utah (no smart phones, no GPS, no internet, no digital cameras).
   • Over Mountains Through Deserts  

Bicycle tour through Puglia region of Italy
   • Puglia by bicycle