Allegheny Gap

[Pat]

Hi - My wife and I are preparing to do the Allegheny Gap, probably from Pittsburgh to DC in the late spring, or early fall.

We live in California, and are ramping up our research.  Any thoughts on books or websites beyond the obvious would be appreciated.

We would like to use our Truckers for the ride.  We are used to them, they have sturdy racks, and we can haul all of our camping stuff.

QUESTION:  What are the trail surfaces like.  Can we use 35C wide tires?  Or should we be thinking about using our mountain bikes?

Thanks,

Pat

[nthabiseng]

We rode from DC to Pittsburgh in April on loaded touring bikes with 700x32 tires with no problem.  GAP is excellent surface; the C&O is rougher but we still had no problems.

[FredHiltz]

Hi - My wife and I are preparing to do the Allegheny Gap, probably from Pittsburgh to DC in the late spring, or early fall...

QUESTION:  What are the trail surfaces like.  Can we use 35C wide tires?  Or should we be thinking about using our mountain bikes?
Pat.

Hi Pat. Asked and answered many times here. 35C willl suffice most of the time, excepting an all-day downpour.

Try the  search box at the top of the topics list on the Routes page for a lot of opinions

Fred

[irc]

I used the C&O  and GAP as my route at the start of a longer tour in 2011. I had 700x35s on my Trucker and had no problems. That said it was dry conditions.  If I was doing the C&O and GAP as a standalone tour  I might fit wider tyres as a bit of insurance. I currently have 700x42s on my Trucker and still plenty room for mudguards.

THere is a pic of one of the  poorer bits of the trail surface at

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/pic/?o=CT&pic_id=1002544&size=large

[Pat]

Thank you - I'm sure I'll have more questions later - Pat

[BrianW]

I wrote up my tours on the GAP and the C&O on CrazyGuyonaBike site if you are interested. See http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/briwasson

I used the equivalent of 35mm tires and had no problems. (26x1.25).

[CMajernik]

If you go to atatrail.org there's a lot of info, trail maps, etc.