Great Allegheny Passage

McKeesport, PA

The ride from Erie, PA, to Pittsburgh was entirely on the Long Black Ribbon.  Lots of traffic, between cities there were lots of farms, and it got hillier and hillier the farther south I went.  I walked my bike almost as much as I did in Vermont.  But I made it to Pittsburgh alive and in record time.  I did some errands, crossed the rivers, and finally got myself onto a genuine rail-trail, the Great Allegheny Passage.  This dedicated bike path goes from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD, where it connects to the C&O Canal towpath that goes to Washington, DC and home.

I rode that route from DC to Pittsburgh and back in 2010 and enjoyed it thoroughly.  But the last four miles into Pittsburgh wasn't finished yet, so there was some awful road riding with no shoulders and winding through railroad yards.  But now, four years later, that last bit of the GAP is paved and fenced all the way to downtown.  What a tremendous improvement.  My thanks go out to all those fine people involved in finishing that project.