Great Allegheny Passage by Bicycle

The Great Allegheny Passage stretches for 150 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Cumberland, Maryland.

And for the truly adventurous, it connects directly to the C&O Canal Towpath taking you all the way into Washington, D.C. by adding another 185 miles. It is a bucket list trail for adventure cyclists around the world.

I’m lucky enough to have this trail network basically in my backyard and I am even luckier to have a group of adventure cyclists in my bike club that enjoys bike camping.

I put together a spring bike camping trip each year alternating between the canal towpath and GAP. This will be my second year leading this trip on the GAP. And lucky for us too as the spring rains in the Mid Atlantic really did quite a bit of damage to the canal towpath. They are pretty good at putting it back together and identifying detours but that wasn’t something we needed to worry about for this trip.

The surface of the GAP is well groomed, hard packed gravel and it holds up to whatever mother nature can throw at it.

This year’s trip consisted of a travel day to Pittsburgh on a Thursday and setting out on the trail Friday morning. Our plan was to travel from Pittsburgh to Cedar Creek Trekker Campground on Day 1, then on to Ohiopyle State Park on Day 2 with our last camping night in Rockwood at Husky Haven on Day 3. Day 4 would see us cross the Continental Divide and glide downhill from there into Cumberland.

Carpools and travel plans found everyone in Cumberland on time for our shuttle service. It is easy to park in Cumberland for the long weekend, but it is a good idea to call the town office and let them know ahead of time.

Our shuttle carried 11 people, bikes and all our gear to Pittsburgh in just a couple of hours and dropped us right at the door on the Holiday Day Inn Express on 10th Street in Southside.

We took the afternoon to enjoy Pittsburgh hitting a local taproom and a few of us set out to see Pittsburgh by bike in the late afternoon visiting Point State Park, the official beginning of the GAP, and crossing the Hot Metal Bridge.

There are many ways to travel along the GAP – bike camping is just one option. This trail travels through many small towns that cater to the traveling cyclist. It is pretty easy to credit card camp the whole way. Food and restaurants are plentiful and with proper planning you would only need to carry a few changes of clothes and maybe some rain gear. But that’s not how we roll. It’s all camping and river baths for this group – well, we did have showers available on Day 2 so it wasn’t all roughing it.

You will find several hiker-biker campsites along the trail all managed by volunteers of the regional trail corporation. Dravo campground is at mile marker 122. Cedar Creek Trekker campground is at mile marker 110. Roundbottom campground is at mile marker 99 and has room for more than 100 tents – that’s a huge camping area! Connellsville campground is found at mile marker 89 and is very close to the town.

They all offer ample space for tents and offer varying levels of services – but none offer showers.

Like I said, it is not hard to find food or water along the trail as it runs through many small towns but it is not a bad idea to fill your water bottles each chance you get.

Day 2 for us found us headed to Ohiopyle State Park. I can say I would not recommend this for cyclists. It is a half mile rock trail with over 350 feet of elevation gain up the state park. If you are unfortunate like us on this trip and rain sets in you are isolated at the top of the hill with few services besides bathrooms and water. All the action is in Ohiopyle proper! Instead, I would say push on to the campground at Confluence with a stopover in Ohiopyle.

If you pushed on Day 1 to make Roundbottom you would find yourself in Ohiopyle right at the lunch window and you would easily make Confluence. Ohiopyle is a great little town with plenty of shops and a park running alongside the falls.

In Confluence the GAP stops following the Yockegheny River and picks up the Casselman River. Day 3 had us headed to Husky Haven Campground in Rockwood.

For those of you unfamiliar, the campground is on one side of the Casselman River and the office and bathrooms on the other. It’s really no big deal and the campground is incredibly well maintained and pleasant. Don’t forget your earplugs – the train runs all night and blows the horn passing through town. You will swear it is about to enter your tent.

Day 4 is a steady climb for the first half from Rockwood up to the Eastern Continental Divide. The rest of the trip, all 20 some odd miles, is basically downhill from there. You will pass through the Savage Tunnel so make sure to bring a light for this piece of the trail, plus a couple of smaller tunnels before you scream into Cumberland and your trip is done.