The following is a first-person account from Armstrong County Commissioner Anthony Shea regarding his recent bike trip from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh:
Shortly after I took office as Armstrong County Commissioner on Jan 2, 2024, I received the news of Armstrong Trails Executive Director Chris Ziegler’s plans to inaugurate a new 10-mile section of the Armstrong Trails from Schenley to Rosston on April 1st.
Moreover, Armstrong Trails had an old railroad bridge refurbished that crossed the Kiskiminetas River was also included in the project.
These two new additions (trail & bridge) now provide a contiguous trail corridor that stretches the entire length of Armstrong County (35 miles).
The northern end of Armstrong Trails in turn, connects to the Redbank Valley Trails which terminates another 42 miles further in Brookville creating a 91 contiguous mile bike trail corridor from Schenley to Brookville, with another 9 miles of trail added to it with the Sligo Spur.
Plans are currently in the works to add a five mile connector trail from the Hyde Park Walking Bridge in Leechburg to Schenley.
A flyover project in Westmoreland County will connect the Kiskiminetas River bridge in Schenley to the Tredway Trail adding an 8 mile trail corridor to Lower Burrell.
Furthermore, a trail corridor from the Tredway Trail to the Rt. 356 Bridge in Freeport will connect Armstrong Trails to the existing 22-mile Freeport to Butler Trail.
These interconnections from Schenley to Freeport will create a 126 mile trail corridor from Butler to Brookville via the Armstrong Trails.
The ultimate plan is to connect Pittsburgh to Lake Erie via Armstrong Trails.
I will talk more about these various efforts at the end this article series.
I then got to thinking, watch out now.
Pittsburgh has a bike trail that runs to Cumberland, MD, the Great Allegheny Passage or GAP Trail.
I further saw there was another bike trail that connected Cumberland, MD to Washington DC, the Chesapeake and Ohio (C & O) Canal Towpath Trail (a.k.a. C & O Trail).
To learn more, I researched my go to source for info of all things — YouTube.
I watched numerous videos of different folks who biked these trails; this looked like a lot of fun.
With that, I made the decision to bike from Washington DC back to Pittsburgh (334.1 miles).
I told my wife, Kerry, of my idea and she was not quite as enthusiastic as I was about it.
When I floated the idea by my 16 year old daughter, Abby, she looked at me like I had three heads, and asked “why we could not go to Myrtle Beach or somewhere else like normal families”.
The day, April 1st, came for the inauguration of the new Armstrong Trails segment.
On hand for the event were numerous dignitaries to include former Allegheny County Executive and current Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) CEO, Rich Fitzgerald.
I told Rich what I was thinking of doing, bike backing the C & O and GAP Trails; he said, “it was a good idea, and that he had done it four times already”.
Rich said “if I did the trek, he’d meet me on the last day to bike into Pittsburgh”.
After the formal ribbon cutting, Rich Fitzgerald, Chris Ziegler, my daughter, Abby and I did a short 10-mile bike ride up the new section of Armstrong Trails.
After seeing how well Rich and Chris moved on their bikes, I knew I needed to get in better shape, and quick, before taking on such an endeavor myself.
Fast forward to late July, the day had come to embark on our journey.
Kerry, Abby and I had done many practice runs up and down Armstrong Trails and were ready, at least we thought we were.
Also, my wife and daughter only wanted to do half of the trip.
Our plan had us driving to Cumberland, MD and staging our car for Kerry and Abby to do the C & O Trail only, and then drive back home to Leechburg.
I in turn, would do both trails (C & O & GAP Trails).
Day one
July 22 — We started our trek in earnest, having arrived in Cumberland, MD the night before to stage our car.
We took an AMTRAK Train from Cumberland, MD to Washington DC.
Our attendant at the Cumberland train station said we were lucky with the train being on time for 9:30 a.m.
The gentleman said he had a connection to Ford City after seeing my Divine Redeemer 5K Ford City t-shirt; he said his Dad had worked in Ford City at PPG for a while after being laid off from another plant – small world.
Even in coach, the seats on the train were nice and roomy.
Riding on the train gave a backyard view to America. Every so often, I could see snippets of C & O Trail across the Potomac River as we progressed toward Washington DC.
After the four hour train ride, we entered Union Station in Washington DC about 1:30 p.m.
We emerged from track level of the train station to the terminal level and were thrust into a sea of humanity; the place was packed with baggage laden passengers scurrying about.
After eating a quick lunch, we exited the nicely air conditioned Union Rail Station and thrust into the 90 plus degree oven outside.
From here, it did not take too long to get oriented and bike toward the Capitol Building.
We then went along the Washington Mall making our way to our next waypoint, the Lincoln Memorial.
The mall grounds were packed full of people.
Every practical open spot along the mall seemed to have a food truck, or some vendor of some type in it selling their wares.
I am amazed every time I see the Washington Monument and White House.
We stopped by the Lincoln Memorial, and got ice cream floats.
The Coca Cola float I had was absolutely amazing, though we all suffered brain freeze multiple times.
I think the extreme heat exasperated this condition a bit.
Numerous folks played volleyball just beside us as we ate, oblivious to the heat.
We then followed the Rock Creek Trail along the Tidal Basin to get the C & O Trail southern terminus.
Finding Mile Marker 0 of the C & O Trail was a challenge in and of itself.
After a few false leads, we finally found the infamous C & O Trail Mile 0 granite marker in Georgetown; the marker was well hidden behind the Thompson Boat Center.
The marker already had several folks queued up for their ceremonial pictures. We talked to a couple just ahead of us from Morgantown, WV; they said they had just finished a trip from Pittsburgh to Washington DC and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We finally got our turn for the money shot at the Mile 0 Marker and were on our way.
We then found out the C & O Trail was detoured shortly after getting under way.
The trip out Georgetown quickly turned from city sprawl to desolate countryside.
We did make a slight mistake in our navigational efforts and got off the C & O Trail inadvertently staying too long on the Capitol Crescent Trail.
Two miles off course, we finally realized we were on the wrong trail! We were lost and had to backtrack.
After our detour, we got back on track on the C & O Trail at about Mile Marker 6. The next 10.7 miles of the trail followed the actual C & O Canal Tow Path.
The canal in this section was in various states of repair/dis-repair.
Along the trail in this section was a replica canal boat.
On a bridge, close to the replica, I came upon a young couple standing face to face.
They had not noticed me as I biked toward them.
I watched as the young man dropped to his knee and handed something to the girl, presumably an engagement ring.
She hugged him, I can only assume she said “yes”. I just biked by — the thought did cross my mind of offering to take a picture, but I did not want to spoil the moment for them.
I suspect if the answer was “no” someone may have got pushed off of the bridge into the canal water.
Further up the trail at Mile Marker 14.1, we came upon the Great Falls.
This spectacular landmark was easily accessible from the C & O Trail.
I was amazed at the pure power of the Potomac River as it roared through Mather Gorge. Many tourists also enjoyed this remarkable view as well.
At about 8:30 p.m., way later than planned, we arrived at Lockhouse 21; I had reserved the Lockhouse ahead of time as our lodging arrangement for the night.
The two bedroom lockhouse was furnished in a circa 1910 time period; it had many historic pictures. The one picture that stood out was of a young woman in a bridal dress.
The lockhouse did not provide bedding or towels, so we planned ahead and brought them with us.
Day two
July 23 — We got up early to head out to our next destination, Brunswick, MD.
The C & O Trail continued to follow the canal.
Some of the canal pools contained water, others just mowed grass and others were just filled with debris and green algae filled water.
We stopped at White’s Ferry, MD excited to get a good meal about 20 miles into our day at Mile Marker 35.5.
Unfortunately, the eating establishment was closed on Sunday and Mondays; we ate salami sandwiches.
White’s Ferry was one of the last remaining cable operated ferries in the country when it recently went out of operation in 2020.
When in operation, the ferry connected the nearby Maryland towns along the Potomac River to Leesburg, VA.
Plans are currently in the works to reconstitute the old ferry at some point in the future.
We later rode across the Monocracy Aqueduct at Mile Marker 42.2.
This impressive stone structure was 516 feet long and carried the C & O Canal over a large stream.
We arrived at the town of Point of Rocks, MD, Mile Marker, 48.8 at about 2:00 p.m.
We walked our bikes up to the first eating establishment we saw, actually the only one, Big Belly’s restaurant. Luckily, it was open.
As we walked in, we must have looked like a bunch of poor souls because the young man behind the counter said for us each to “grab a bottle of water on the house”.
Maybe he was just afraid one of us would pass out right there.
The food, gyros and cheese fries, were very good.
The last 6 miles into Brunswick, MD were a breeze.
The hardest part of that day however, was the 1.7 mile hike up the steepest hill I have ever seen to the Travelodge Also, a key lesson we learned on the trail that day was the C & O Canal Trail management had discontinued its purification of the water wells on the trail. We had to ration water all day that day.
Day three
Tuesday, July 24, 2024. We started the day in Brunswick, MD eating at an oldies themed diner co-located with the Travelodge.
The old time diner played Elvis songs, had nostalgic furnishings and pictures but required one to scan in a QR code to both order and pay for the meals on line; only then was the food delivered by a waitress in a poodle skirt.
The use of QR codes and ordering on the internet sort of took away some of the old time nostalgia.
After breakfast, we went back down the hill back through Brunswick to the C & O Canal and proceeded northward.
Six miles into the trip, Mile Marker 60.7, we saw the sign for Harpers Ferry. We locked up our bikes and walked across the Potomac River on a foot bridge to the small West Virginia village.
Being the location for the Appalachian Trail headquarters, the town had a very good outdoor gear outfitter in it.
We were able to purchase a camel back for my daughter, as well as water purification tablets, if we needed them.
Being on bikes, we could not get too many souvenirs with space very limited.
I hope to pass back through Harpers Ferry again to learn more about the John Brown Rebellion, and also someday possibly as an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker.
After buying supplies, we then crossed back over the foot bridge into Maryland and kept heading north to our destination for the day, Williamsport, MD.
As before, the trail followed the canal towpath. At Mile Marker 69.4, we crossed the Antietam Creek aqueduct, not too far from this location was the famous Antietam Civil War battlefield.
At Mile Marker 85.6, we came upon the Big Slackwater. This piece of the trail followed a dammed up section of the Potomac River.
Back in the day, C & O Canal goers used the Potomac River proper versus a separate canal for this portion of their journey.
The elevated trail was paved and easy to traverse, though it was a bit toasty mid-day with no shade. This area of the C & O trail was completely refurbished to its current state in 2012 eliminating a long off-trail detour.
We arrived at Williamsport, MD, Mile Marker 99.4 about 4:00 p.m.
Again, we had to walk up hill over a mile to get to our hotel, the Red Roof Inn; what is so easy to get to in a car becomes much more daunting via bike after 44 miles of trail riding.
This is where we will end this installment of the three article series. The next installment will detail the C&O Trail from Williamsport, MD to Cumberland, MD plus a KDKA interview on the trail.
For additional info regarding Armstrong Trails, see their website: armstrongtrails.org/.
For questions or comments regarding this series of articles, feel free to reach out to Armstrong County Commissioner Anthony Shea (Major – AF – Ret) at agshea@co.armstrong.pa.us.
Vie the full article at leadertimes.com.