If you’ve never heard of the Great Allegheny Passage, you’re not alone. I hadn’t until my childhood friend Ellen told me that a bicycle trip from her home in Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., on the trail was on her bucket list.

A good friend. A bucket-list worthy adventure. A bike trip? Sign me up.

Besides, the Great Allegheny Passage has a lovely, rugged, historic sort of name.

The GAP, as it’s called, is a 150-mile hard-pack dirt/crushed limestone trail on an old railroad line. (That means that although it travels through mountains and hillsides, there’s nothing steeper than what a train engine could handle.) It starts at Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh and ends in Cumberland, Md. From there it’s 180 miles on the C&O Canal Towpath to D.C.

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Delta to block middle seats, raise capacity to 75% starting in October Of course, this epic two-wheeled adventure needed a crew. Marianne (another elementary school chum from Fairfax, Minn. — Go, Golden Eagles!), Carla (a friend of Ellen’s from Pittsburgh), and Lynn (a biking pal of mine from D.C.) filled out the group. And, since six decades was the average age, we opted for B&Bs and hotels on the route and had our luggage shuttled from stop to stop. But there are also campsites along the way for those who want to haul their gear and desire a more rugged experience.

Ellen set up the trip with Golden Triangle Bike in downtown Pittsburgh. We chose a weeklong package that would average 50 miles a day. We met cyclists doing fewer daily miles over 10 days and young bikers doing the trip in just three days.

Golden Triangle provided bike rentals for Marianne and me; Lynn brought her bike on the Amtrak from D.C.’s Union Station; and Ellen and Carla had bikes in Pittsburgh. The trip itinerary included suggestions for lunch stops and historic sites on the way, as well as ideas for dinner in our overnight towns.

Nothing to do all day long but ride a bike for a glorious warm week the end of September. And what a ride it was.

The trail started just a few blocks from Golden Triangle, and the first part of the journey took us through Pittsburgh on a paved trail, over bridges, along railroad tracks and through industrial areas with brick factory buildings. Outside the city, the trail became crushed limestone. Other than a few paved detours, this was the surface beneath our wheels for the rest of the week.

With a canopy of trees overhead, the Youghiogheny River on one side and the friendly crunch of wheels on gravel and fallen leaves, we were on our way.

Trestle bridges with amazing views. Rock walls that hugged the side of the trail. Deer, snakes, turtles sunning themselves on mossy logs. And almost always a river: Sometimes wide and tranquil, sometimes rushing over rocks with the occasional canoeists or rafters.

This was coal and steel country, and many of the towns we passed through had seen better days. Grand days, in fact, with elegant post offices and banks, ornate four- and five-story buildings on main streets that now had plenty of vacant storefronts. But locals told us the bike trail is helping bring tourists to the area.

Bike traffic was light during the week and a bit more crowded on weekends (though nothing like the weekend crush around Minneapolis lakes). Sometimes we went hours without seeing any other cyclists.

Since your mileage may vary, here are a few highlights from our week on the GAP and C&O.

Day 1: Pittsburgh to Connellsville, Pa., 59 miles

Leaving Pittsburgh was trains, bridges, trains, bridges and, um, trains. Once we were on the GAP, a slight uphill was with us for the first and second days.

A morning stop for ice cream (today in Boston, Pa.,) became a daily occurrence for most days the rest of the week. We had lunch in West Newton and got into Connellsville late afternoon, just as Carla’s front tire was starting to lose air.

The bike shop was open until 6, so we waited for the repair across the street at a tavern.

Our overnight was the Connellsville B&B, a classic bed and breakfast, with the best beds of the week. The rooms were named for European countries. Lynn and I were in the German room and the B&B owner told us the lovely antique furniture had come from a buying trip to Germany. There was tea and snacks in a cozy sitting room and a balcony that would have been awesome on a warmer night. And you’ve gotta love a place that has “loads of fun” stenciled on the laundry room wall.

We found a little Italian restaurant, Ruvo’s, down the street. The chef/owner and a server were the only staff and the meatballs were exceptional.

Day 2: Connellsville to Meyersdale, Pa. 58 miles

Over a lovely eggs benedict breakfast, we chatted with cyclists from Colorado who were doing a shorter day and catching a bus to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house in nearby Mill Run, Pa. We pumped up our bike tires, left our luggage and were back on the road.

This morning’s ice cream stop was in Ohiopyle, a charming river town worth checking out for the rushing river, shops and restaurants. We lunched in Confluence (named for the meeting of the Youghiogheny, Casselman and Laurel Hill Creek) and may have lingered too long over our meal, because we still had 30 miles to go and it was a long, slow uphill. Singing helped. (Who knew we remembered so many TV theme songs?)

An amazing crossing on the Salisbury Viaduct (1,908 feet long and 101 feet high) brought us into Meyersdale.

Tonight’s lodging was the strangest of the week (or any week, for that matter). Morguen Toole Company was once a furniture factory and funeral home. The massive old building had high-ceilinged rooms, stairways that seemed to lead to different places than expected, doors that went nowhere and a vibe that fell just short of its intended funky. But, hey, it’s all part of the adventure. We ate at the Morguen Toole restaurant, where a band was setting up to welcome the townsfolk after the Friday night football game, but we didn’t stick around to dance. After 119 miles in two days, we were happy to turn in early. “I’m too tired to chew my way through a salad,” Marianne said as she ordered dinner.

Day 3: Meyersdale to Cumberland, Md., 32 miles

We were ready for a shorter day. Just seven more miles of uphill and we reached the Eastern Continental Divide and the Mason-Dixon Line. We paused for photos at the markers and our first major tunnel, 3,294 feet. Though it was lighted, we flipped on our bike lights and pedaled through. A breathtaking vista of the Laurel Highlands opened up on the other side.

And then, one of the most glorious bicycle rides I’ve ever experienced. Twenty-four miles of downhill, steep enough to coast with just a few turns of the pedals, but not too steep. It was 24 miles of pretty much sitting and watching the splendid woods on either side. Truly a bike ride. Sitting and grinning. And grinning.

We spent the night at the Fairfield Inn in Cumberland. Not quaint or mystifying like the previous nights, but a soak in the pool was lovely, along with other familiar chain hotel amenities like a big old TV in the room to catch up on news of the outside world. End-of-ride drinks and snacks at the Crabby Pig next to the hotel and pizza at Uncle Jack’s wrapped up another day.

Day 4: Cumberland to Hancock, Md., 60 miles

The GAP was behind us and we were on the C&O Canal Towpath. The trail is much rougher than the GAP, so there was less time to take in the woods and view, as roots and rocks and a rutted trail required all eyes ahead. The abandoned canal was on one side, the Potomac on the other. Locks and the houses where their caretakers lived came at regular intervals, with a deep feeling of history all around.

The famous Paw Paw Tunnel was supposed to be a highlight of the day, more than 3,000 feet long and an attraction for cyclists from around the world. But it had been closed all summer for repairs. Ellen had arranged a shuttle around the hill, run by owners of a B&B in Paw Paw, W.Va., that had struggled this summer due to the tunnel shutdown. Lynn opted to hike and bike up and around the tunnel, the rest of us had ice cream while we waited for the shuttle and found one of the few remaining paw paw trees in Paw Paw (according to the servers in the ice cream shop). Marianne was the only one brave enough to give the fruit a taste. Her review? “Meh.”

The shuttle turned out to be a great idea (and not just because we had ice cream and cut 12 miles off our biking mileage that day). The shuttle crew took us through a state park to a scenic overlook and told us that the area had once been famous for its apple orchards, but corporate owners in the 1980s had wrung all they could out of it and shut it down. The shuttle dropped us near Bill’s Place in Little Orleans and we regretted not stopping. It’s famous for dollar bills visitors tack to the walls and ceiling. Thousands of dollars were lost in a fire a few years ago, we were told.

As we biked through the woods, we could smell ripe, rotting apples and paw paws. We saw evidence that bears had also noticed the fallen fruit. The shuttle drivers had told us about the Western Maryland Trail, a paved trail we could take for the last 12 miles into Hancock. After a day on the bumpy C&O, it was welcome.

Our overnight accommodations had switched us from Hancock to nearby Berkeley Springs. Ellen and Carla were happy to have a massage at the hotel spa, while the rest of us checked out the nearby springs and the “Berkeley Castle,” which was closed for tours, but had some impressive gargoyles at the gate.

Though most nights were too late (after showers and dinner) or too tired to do much sight-seeing, we did learn that George Washington’s bathtub, “the only outdoor monument to presidential bathing,” is in Berkeley Springs.

Day 5: Hancock, Md., to Shepardstown, W.Va., 51 miles

The previous day’s paved trail detour continued for another blissfully smooth 10 miles, and then we were bumping along the C&O again. The trail ran close to Fort Frederick, a stone fort that had been built in 1756 to protect the Western frontier during the French and Indian War. It was a prison camp for captured British troops during the Revolutionary War and the site of battles during the Civil War. The interpretive sites were closed, but it was worth a stop.

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Delta to block middle seats, raise capacity to 75% starting in October Cyclists on the trail and our tour outfitter recommended a lunch stop at Desert Rose Café in Williamsport. The staff was happy to fill water bottles and scooped up a fine root beer float (daily ice cream quota met). Ellen pulled a flat just outside town and her pit crew (the rest of us), jumped in to help her change it.

A wide stretch of the Potomac called the Big Slackwater had a cool raised concrete section of the trail along a rock wall. Vacation homes and boats on the docks dotted the far side like a lakeshore in northern Minnesota.

Shepherdstown, the oldest town in West Virginia, was our favorite overnight stop of the week. It’s quaint at every turn, with lots of shops and restaurants in this college town. While Ellen’s bike got a couple of new tires, we found a tavern called the Mecklenberg Inn that’s worth checking out for the back patio where frisky squirrels dropped acorn bombs on the customers. Excellent fish tacos at Maria Taqueria capped off our day as we returned to our lodgings, the Thomas Shepherd Inn. It’s a classic B&B, with a couple of standout parrots who entertained us from the inn owners’ shoulders.

Day 6: Shepherdstown to White’s Ferry, W.Va., 37 miles

After an amazing breakfast at the inn that included a tiny paw paw smoothie, we checked the air in our tires and were back out to bump through the woods on the C&O. The highlight of this shorter day was a stop at Harpers Ferry. Most of us had been there before, but this town tucked into the side of a mountain (beware, weary cyclists, you have to leave your bikes and climb many stairs and cross a bridge to get into town) is worth every step up to the top of Jefferson’s Lookout for amazing views of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers and big fat wallops of Civil War history. Oh, and we found some fine ice cream, too.

Our lunch stop in Brunswick at Beans in the Belfry was delightful. It’s an old church that’s now one heckuva funky coffee shop/restaurant.

More time on the trail before we put our bikes on the ferry ($2 per bicycle on the last remaining ferry on the Potomac) at White’s Ferry. On the other side at Leesburg, we had to wait a much longer time than expected for a shuttle to our overnight at the Comfort Suites. (But heck, how many times do you get to ferry your bike across a historic river?)

The week was wearing down, and we were, too. We had a quick meal at a nearby Mexican restaurant and planned our final day. Since Lynn lives in D.C. and is familiar with the bike trails in the area, she knew of a paved trail that would give us a smooth cruise into Our Nation’s Capital. The vote was unanimous.

Day 7: White’s Ferry to Washington, D.C.

Our ride on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail was much like a day on most city/suburban trails. Some open spaces, but eventually a lot of stops and starts at intersections as we neared D.C. (But did I mention it was paved?)

We scored a bag of cookies at one of Lynn’s favorite bakeries and took them to Gravelly Point Park to counteract all the communing with nature by munching as airplanes took off right over our heads from Reagan International Airport.

You know a ride is near the end when you spot familiar sights in the distance. On a road ride, it’s the water tower in the next town. On a trail ride, it’s that last water stop or fave spot for a burger and a beer. On this ride, just around the curve with our pal the Potomac flowing to the right … the Washington Monument! Oh, and there’s the Capitol dome! Amazing.

We crossed the river and celebrated our destination with photos outside the Jefferson Memorial. Since there was time before Ellen and Carla had to meet their train back to Pittsburgh, we biked around the Washington Memorial, the World War II memorial, down the mall to the Lincoln Memorial. It’s a great way to see those amazing landmarks.

And just like that, it was over. The rental bikes were returned, our luggage was rolled to taxis or the train. Two wheels had taken us away from this world — and brought us back.

Cross one off the bucket list, Ellen.

IF YOU GO

Our tour was set up by Golden Triangle in Pittsburgh. Tom Demagall and his wife, Britt Keefer, started the shop in spring 2007 as a local bike rental and tour company. Demagall says they began to develop services for multi-day bike trips on the GAP as the trail was being completed and connected to downtown Pittsburgh.

“We started out renting bikes,” Demagall says. “Then, bikes with racks, panniers and gear. Then advice on planning the trip. Followed by transportation services, then luggage transfer. Finally we packaged it all together in full-trip plans which take care of all the logistics involved in self-guided adventures on the GAP.”

Spring and fall are the most popular times of the year for trips on the GAP. Demagall says the trail gets more popular every year and services are limited, so it’s never too early to start setting up a trip. Four-plus months in advance is a pretty good timeline, he says. (We began in January 2017 for the trip in September.)

Pittsburgh to Cumberland in four days and Pittsburgh to D.C. in eight days are the most popular trips, Demagall says.

For more information: goldentrianglebike.com or 412-600-0675