Where to Stay When Biking the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O

Where to Stay When Biking the GAP and C&O?

When planning a 335-mile bike ride from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC, it is better to determine how many miles you’re comfortable riding each day first, and then think about where to stay on the GAP and C&O trails second.

The simple truth here is that there is no one-size-fits-all route for this ride. Some have done the entire distance in under 24 hours (straight through, and no, we’re not kidding!), whereas others may take a week or more. We met riders who were doing just the GAP in two days and skipping the C&O. We met riders who were taking nine days with a few rest days in between. Most were taking five to six days, and we were also tackling the ride over the course of six days ourselves.

A common trend emerged amongst everyone we talked to- every itinerary was built around how much they were willing to ride daily.

Can you tolerate 100+ mile days? Or do you prefer 40 to 60-mile days? Or perhaps even less? Take your tolerance for long-distance rides, add 10-20 miles, and that’s probably a reasonable ceiling for how far you can push yourself on a ride like this, insofar as you’re okay doing that several days in a row while also factoring in conventional riding risks (e.g., flat tires and rain delays).

• Note: The C&O Canal Towpath has longer stretches without towns. If you are biking and hoping to stay overnight in a proper B&B, you may have to commit to a couple of 60+ mile days, particularly between Cumberland and Hancock as well as Harpers Ferry and Washington DC. It is because of this, and also generally poorer trail conditions, that some riders may opt to only ride the Great Allegheny Passage instead.

For those who are camping, figuring out where to stay after that is somewhat easy. Both trails have many hiker-biker campsites you could consider (some free, some paid), we saw some bikers camping alongside the trail outright, and the C&O Canal even has historic lock houses that are available for rent as well (note that these often provide no amenities, you need to bring your own sheets, and some do not even have running water or power- so they’re effectively just a step above camping with a roof overhead). 

We aren’t campers, and the thought of carrying extra weight on long rides was just a bit too much for us- so we opted to stay in B&Bs along the route.

For those who want to stay in proper accommodations in a town, you’ll want to build your itinerary around towns that have amenities that are quickly accessible from a trail. We didn’t want to bike on questionable back roads miles away to a nearby town (rural backroads tend not to have biker infrastructure, after all), so that really led us to only looking at places where we could safely access a B&B within a short ride off-trail.

In our research, we found that the following towns along the GAP and C&O Canal were some of the best for these requirements. This may not be complete, but it is a good start for those who are planning (organized from west to east): Pittsburgh, West Newton, Connellsville, Ohiopyle, Confluence, Rockwood, Meyersdale, Frostburg, Cumberland, Hancock, Williamsport, Shepherdstown, Harpers Ferry, and Washington DC.

The trails pass straight through most of these towns, and for our own itinerary (shared below), we were at our accommodation in mere moments.

A few notable exceptions to this would be Frostburg, Maryland, where you would have to walk your bikes up a fairly steep hill (we did this for lunch), Shepherdstown, West Virginia, which is across a bridge (we did not cross this bridge to check feasibility), and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, which you’ll have to walk your bike over a bridge and likely up a steep hill to reach most accommodations (we did this as well).

With the above options to consider, you could easily build segments for stopping with daily rides as short as 25-35 miles, with the sky as the limit for how far you’d want to go from there. Just remember the longer distances on the C&O that would likely require a couple of 60-mile days regardless.

Our six-day segment had us biking between Pittsburgh, Connellsville, Rockwood, Cumberland, Hancock, Harpers Ferry, and Washington, D.C., which let us ride about 40-66 miles each day (we met other riders doing this same route as well). We could’ve likely dropped that down to a five-day ride, where we would’ve stacked two larger days at the front, such as Pittsburgh to Ohiopyle, Ohiopyle to Cumberland; however, as we’re not used to 70+ mile days, we could’ve entertained an extra day in Ohiopyle just to check out the attractions (we visit regularly, so didn’t need to on this ride).

• Note: When planning your route, keep the 22-mile hill between the Eastern Continental Divide and Cumberland in mind. If you’re heading east, this is an easy downhill. If you’re heading west, it is a particularly intense climb. For us heading towards DC, this segment really did feel like having a break, so that day was quite the easy one that almost felt like a rest day before a longer ride!

From there, wherever you choose to stop is truly up to you. Just defer back to your comfort level for long-distance biking at all times and go from there!

Watch Out for Trail Closures

One final note when planning on where to stay when biking the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O is to watch out for trail closures that may require detours, such as biking on surface streets or even taking a shuttle.

On our ride in 2025, an 8-mile stretch was closed between Markleton and Rockwood, and we had to pay for a shuttle to take us into town. This was another contributing factor to our decision to end in Rockwood, simply because we didn’t know how long we’d have to wait for a shuttle. Thankfully, it was only 15 minutes, but had the shuttle been an hour or more, or not been there at all, we would’ve likely had different opinions on choosing to continue on or not.

So be sure to keep an eye out for issues that may be outside of your control, too, as they may help dictate your plans as well.

We will also take a moment here to point out that the Western Maryland Rail Trail runs parallel alongside the C&O outside of Hancock, and the Capital Crescent Trail runs alongside for a few miles in the heart of Washington DC. We recommend jumping on both of these trails for much, much better conditions for these segments. Just plot your entry and exits accordingly! (These are unlikely to change your planning on where to stay- we just wanted to note the objectively much nicer trail conditions here.)

Overall, there is no right or wrong way to tackle the GAP and C&O Trails, other than pushing yourself too hard. Yes, everyone can likely go a bit further than they are normally comfortable with, but we caution adding too much on any given day, multiple days in a row. We broke our own distance record by about ten miles on day one, and then again by four more miles on day five, and that was plenty enough for us.

From there, take your time and enjoy the ride!

What route did you take when biking the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Towpath? Comment below to share!

For more resources on these two trails, we recommend checking out the GAP and C&O websites. These are excellent resources for current trail closures, camping options, and more. If you need more clothing, toiletries, or other packing list items than you are able to carry, look into hiring a courier service to drop your bags off at your B&Bs each day, too. We used Sunshine Luggage Shuttle and had a great experience. Be sure to message all accommodations and ask them about their biking infrastructure (storage, etc.) and their ability to work with a courier for your bags.