We left our Airbnb around 9:30 AM and rode until about 7 PM. We went through several tunnels today, crossed a long viaduct, and went over several rail bridges. Read about “rail banking” to understand how these Rails to Trails came to be. We are so grateful that they were able to make good use of the railroad right-of-way. There would have been no other way to afford to make these trails.

We had a good ride: a long, slow uphill for 20 miles, followed by 30 miles of downhill to finish the GAP. Surprisingly, downhill is neither of our favorites. The fact we are going to have to ride back up next week makes the downhill less desirable.

Here is a picture of the whole route with an elevation profile at the bottom.

The bottom of the descent was Cumberland, MD. We thought about staying in a hotel there, but wanted to get more miles as the weather was good, and we felt rested after coasting for an hour or two, so we kept going.

At Cumberland we started riding on the C&O Canal Trail. After about 20 miles we set up camp in a hiker/biker campsite off the trail. It is one of the most beautiful campsites we’ve ever stayed in. These sites have no other access than the trail, so they are quiet. We are the only people in ours.

We set up camp, pumped and filtered water, made dinner (for dinner, we had taco soup Bryan had freeze-dried before our trip—it was delicious), and headed to bed.

It was a beautiful, sunshiny day with perfect temperatures.

We are grateful.

(album opens in a new tab)