Day 4, Thursday, April 24

Irons Mountain campsite, C&O Canal Towpath to Rockwood, Pennsylvania, 54 miles

This was a day of milestones. We reached the end of the C&O Canal Towpath in Cumberland, Maryland, crossed the Mason-Dixon line from Maryland to Pennsylvania, and climbed over the Eastern Continental Divide.

We had camped about ten miles from Cumberland, so it was an easy ride to complete the C&O and have breakfast. That fueled us to begin the Great Allegheny Passage, the 150-mile rail trail that will take us all the way to Pittsburgh.


The GAP begins with a 22-mile climb to the Continental Divide. The maximum grade is about 2%, which is not steep at all, but the length is the climb makes it a grueling affair. The mileposts seem to get further apart the higher you climb.

At some point on the climb we crossed the Mason Dixon Line into Pennsylvania.


A few miles after that we reached the high point of the day, the Eastern Continental Divide. 

From the Divide it is almost all downhill to Pittsburgh. However, the grade for the rest of the day was less than 1%. Instead of the long easy coast we expected (and felt we deserved), we still had to put effort into pedalling. We just went a little faster.

We had some hope of getting to Confluence, a town with some camping and amenities. But around 4:00 we were still 18 miles away. We ended up stopping in Rockwood, Pennsylvania, a town obviously passed over by today's economy. We are splurging on a night in a hostel that caters to cyclists, Hostel On Main. There is nowhere to camp, plus we just didn't feel like setting up camp 

The second greatest thing about the hostel is that we are the only guests. The greatest thing about the hostel is it's proximity to the local brewpub.

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