D.C to Pittsburg and Back

[Sniffingdog]

In a few days I'm venturing on my first long haul. I'm riding 350 miles from my door near Annapolis Maryland to the C&O Canal and connecting to the Great Allegheny Passage to Pittsburg. I haven't got the light packing thing down yet, so I'm pulling a Bob with some city creature comforts like my mini espresso maker and extra clean socks. My question is rather then doing a straight up to Pittsburg and back, are there any other interesting routes that would bring me back down to the mouth of the Chesapeake? I want to make this between a twelve day and two week ride. My projected milage is between 800 and 1000 miles of mixed trail/ road surfaces and I wouldn't mind seeing some single track along the way. I'm testing my rig before I head back to Colorado to ditch the Bob and finally score soft bags.

[bikewright]

Can't answer your question, but what is in a couple of days? I was heading to the C&O this morning but last night I pushed it back 24hrs and will head out in the morning to let the rain pass. Starting from the airport then up the Mount Vernon to Key St Bridge

[Chunt]

Hope you're watching the weather forecast for Today and Monday. Looks like a heavy wet snow headed that way with some impressive accumulation potential. Be safe. Should be back to balmy conditions later in the week though. 

[bikewright]

I am repacking now for the weather. Looks like I might need to take a trip to REI later today. I would like to go later but I am on duty next weekend

[Sniffingdog]

Thanks for all of your responses, but I didn't manage to your read posts before the trip. You were right about the weather it was a week of saturation. I did the trip in eight days because I was tired of feeling wet. I learned a few lessons on the way, the first was to never start a trip in torrential  rains with temperatures dropping in the twenties at night. Also, don't opt to leave the tent at home for a twenty year old bivy sack. I got saturated three of the eight nights and had to spend a lot time in laundry mats drying out my winter sleeping bag and clothes. I rode ten to twelve hours a day because there wasn't a warm nest to look forward to each night. The upside to this trip was that there were hardly anyone on the trail. Until the weekend and the sun rolled in I only saw only a hand full of day hikers and two other bikepackers who said that were checking into hotels until the large storm system blew over. I would like to do this again when the weather isn't as unfriendly. However if I do this during peak season I would time it so that on the weekend that I am no where between D.C. and Harper's Ferry. Could be that because the weather broke on those days but the trail felt a little like riding in Central Park on weekends.
In a few days my soft bags should be in, so I'll be ditching the Bob for the summer. The travel Gods have determined that I will spend the next few months on the East Coast so I think a big Virginia-West Virginia loop will be my next bounce in the woods.
pax

[jhl99]

I guess the weather was your main nemesis.

Back in college, my buds and I road from State College to Cumberland on back roads and then from Cumberland to D.C. on the C&O…. the eternal flatness, and anticipation of each milepost on the C & O cured me.  To this day, I always try to self impose a limit of no more than 40 rail trail miles per day (even that seems like too much).

[bikewright]

Sniffingdog- Was that you on a Fargo pulling a BOB?