Great Allegheny Passage Business Network

It's nice that we have non-profits like the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.
It's vital that we get a certain level of government support for building trails.
It's important that individuals just like you and me get involved in the purchase and preservation of trail lands.

But it's also essential that we get help from businesses from the mom & pop grocery store all the way up to the mega corporations. And it seems like that's one of the goals of the Great Allegheny Passage Sustainable Business Network. It's like a group of businesses banding together to support a local trail.

Great Allegheny Passage trail

It makes perfect sense. The GAP trail is good for business and business is good for the GAP trail. The trail brings customers to bed & breakfasts, hotels, stores, restaurants, bike shops, and so on. And when those businesses band together to support the trail, it's a perfect symbiotic relationship.

I hope to see other great rail trails adopt this same model of support, encouragement, and cooperation. It's good for trails and the people who use them.

Great Allegheny Passage Business Network

C & O Canal Towpath trail guide published

Bike trails are a dime-a-dozen, right? I mean they're all over the place; this one's three miles long, that one's five miles long. If you've seen one, you've seen them all.

bike rider on the
C & O Canal Towpath trail in Maryland

I dare you to ride the C & O Canal Towpath trail and say that. This one is truly unique:

1. It's over 180 miles long.
2. It has more historical significance than your average trail.
3. It starts in a big town, ends in our nation's capital, and has some surprisingly remote countryside in between.
4. The C & O trail probably has more campgrounds than any other trail in the world.
5. C & O Canal trail users can connect with numerous other major trails including the Appalachian Trail, the Billy Goat Trail, the Western Maryland Rail Trail, and the Great Allegheny Passage trail.

Now, to make it even better, there's a guide for section one of the C  & O trail(Georgetown, D.C. to Brunswick, MD) that you can download onto your smartphone (iphone or Android for example). The guide supplies users with a trail map, photos, points-of-interest, camping/lodging suggestions, and lots of great advise for negotiating the trail. And it's a lot easier than lugging around a big old guidebook. I mean, admit it, you were going to bring your cell phone with you anyway. You might as well splurge for the $1.99 and get the guide. Where else could you buy such an awesome, helpful guide for less?

C & O Canal Towpath trail guide published

Bicycle Touring Provides Economic Boost

The following information about bicycle touring and bike trails confirms what most of us already knew:

Bikers enjoy the fall colors on the
Great Allegheny Passage trail.

There is growing evidence that touring cyclists spend more time in the towns that they visit, lingering (and spending) more than the average tourist. Wisconsin released a report earlier this year that out-of-state cyclists generate more than $530 million in economic development annually. And according to a 2008 study done along the Great Allegheny Passage (a nearly 150-mile bike trail situated between Cumberland, Maryland, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), bicycle tourism has become a major economic force. Business owners reported that a quarter of their gross income comes from trail users and two-thirds of the businesses saw an increase in their revenue due to their location on the trail. Despite the economic downturn in 2008, businesses saw an increase in gross revenue attributable to the trail (from $32.6 million in 2007 to $40.6 million in 2008) and paid nearly 20% more wages as a result.


This information is especially pertinent in light of the recent attacks on bike trail funding from organizations such as AAA. This shows that an investment in bike trails will be repaid many times over in health benefits, decreased pollution, stronger families and economic benefits.


For more information about the Route 66 Adventure Cycle Route, check out Adventure Cycling's press release.

Bicycle Touring Provides Economic Boost

Hitting the trail may help prevent dementia.

According to a recent long-term University of Pittsburgh study, daily hikes may significantly decrease your risk for dementia. The study, reported in the AARP online journal, showed that those who walked on a daily basis, had a nearly 40% decreased risk of developing dementia.

The Colorado Trail provides
as little or as much hiking as
you could possibly want.

So what does this have to do with trails and trailsnet?

It seems to imply that if you are a trail junky, you are probably decreasing the likelihood of developing dementia in your later years. Although the study was limited to measuring the walking habits of its participants, it is likely that exercise in general, and specifically a regular habit of low-impact exercise is going to pay big benefits in the long run.

So if you're in the south, jump on the Longleaf Trace trail. If you happen to reside in the northeast, bike on over to the Great Allegheny Passage trail. Those of you in Colorado, hoof it to the Platte River Trail and ... well you get the picture. Exercising doesn't have to be boring or difficult. Find a beautiful trail and get lost in your thoughts and the glory of nature.

Have fun and protect your memory at the same time.

Hitting the trail may help prevent dementia.

fall foliage quote for the day

“Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.”  - Elizabeth Lawrence


I thought this quote was appropriate for the season as long as Ms. Lawrence meant sitting on a bicycle seat.  (-:

My fall treat for you is a list of good autumn leaf viewing trails:

late September on the Great Allegheny 
Passage trail (GAP) in Pennsylvania

Ammonoosuc Rail Trail in New Hampshire

Great Allegheny Passage Trail in Pennsylvania

Long Leaf Trace in Mississippi

Pikes Peak Greenway in Colorado

Trail of the Coeur d' alenes in Idaho

Spokane Centennial Trail in Washington

Of course there are many more great fall foliage trails so grab your bike and enjoy the autumn colors.

fall foliage quote for the day

Sorry for the long delay...

... I just returned from my bike ride on the Great Allegheny Passage, the C & O Canal Towpath trail, and the Mount Vernon Trail.
I look forward to including information and pictures from that trip on this site.

In the meantime, I finally figured out how to offer my readers a chance to subscribe to my blog updates via email, so you can find that new gadget on the right hand side of this post as the second item down.

Please take a moment to subscribe to email updates.

Thanks.

Sorry for the long delay...

Renting a bike is still the way to go on trips

I just finished paying $134 to ship my bike to Connellsville, PA to ride the Great Allegheny Passage Trail.

I much prefer to rent bikes on my trips, but the logistics of renting a bike on one end of the trail, then getting it back to the rental shop after reaching my destination on the other end of the trail just wasn't working for me.

I'm hoping that someone will start renting bikes on the longer rail-trails that will allow users to drop the bike-rentals off at either end of the trail, sort of like U-Haul does w/ their rental trucks.

In the meantime, I just took a look at the RentaBikeNow.com website. It offers rental locations in numerous locations in the U. S. and Canada. It looks like an excellent business and one that could be very helpful on future rail-trail trips. The idea of a one-stop bike rental process is very appealing and would save lots of time on the planning stages of a trail excursion.

I'll keep you posted on future rental experiences, but for now, I'm recommending bike rentals over bike shipping. Bike rentals, as I've pointed out in a previous blog, allows you to meet locals, save money over shipping, and pack lighter. It also allows you to try new bikes such as hybrids, mountain bikes, cruisers, and recumbents.

Renting a bike is still the way to go on trips

Take your bike or rent?

So you're going on a bike trip across the country and you face one of the dilemmas:

Bike trips are fun but take some planning.

Do you rent a bike or ship your bike there?

Of course that depends on numerous factors:

• Are you inexorably attached to your bike?
• Is your bike custom fitted?
• Are you a bike snob?
• Do you like trying out new bikes?
• What are the financial advantages/disadvantages?
• How do you get your bike from point A to point B?

Normally, I enjoy renting bikes on my many biking trips. I like trying out new ones, meeting the rental company owners, and helping out the local biking economy. Besides, in many cases, renting is cheaper and way less of a hassle than shipping your bike or taking it on the plane/train. Let's take a look at the pros & cons of each option:

renting		shipping		taking on plane/train
pros	cons	pros	cons	pros	cons
sometimes cheaper	sometimes expensive	sometimes cheaper	sometimes expensive	sometimes cheaper	sometimes ex-pensive
meet locals	shop not available	use your own custom fit bike	can be a hassle	use your own custom fit bike	can be a hassle
service	your bike style not available		possible bike damage		possible bike damage
try new bikes & styles	bike not custom fit				ability to get bike from point A to B if it’s a one way trip
convenience	ability to get bike from point A to B if it’s a one way trip				Getting bike and/or box to airport
					Some airlines/trains won’t take bikes

On my upcoming trip to ride the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Towpath trails, I decided to ship my bike rather than rent one. Since my ride will be over 300 miles one way, renting just wouldn't work. Here are the factors that went into my decision:

1. If I rented a bike in Pennsylvania, it would have cost me more than the rental charge to get the bike back to Pennsylvania from Washington D.C.
2. Taking the bike on the plane was a hassle because I would have had to get the box to the airport both here in Colorado and at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. That would have been really hard in D.C.
3. I'm taking an Amtrak train from D.C. to Connellsville, PA, and Amtrak wouldn't allow me to take a bike off the train at Connellsville.
4. Once my trail trip is over, I'll spend another five days in D.C. I'd like to have a bike available to try out some of the D.C. paths, but it would cost a lot to rent a bike for ten days.
5. The (little bit of) money I could save on shipping rather than renting would allow me to buy bike luggage for the trip.

So I made the decision to ship my bike. Then I researched the cheapest way to do that. For shipping alone, UPS would charge $133 with only $100 worth of insurance. For $100, I found out the REI will box my bike and ship it; and they include $1000 worth of insurance in that price.  In addition, if I shipped it to another REI store, they would reassemble my bike for free. (I won't be taking that option on the trip there, since I assume there's no REI store in Connellsville, PA. But I may choose that option on the way back and have them ship my bike to the Boulder, CO REI.)

I know, that's a lot of information, but I hope it will help you make an informed decision for your next bike trip. The bottom line is, sometimes it's better to rent and sometimes it's better to ship. If you've got an expensive bike and a hard case for it, the airplane/train method may be best for you. I was able to save over $100 by checking around, so carefully weigh the options, then have a great bike trip.

Take your bike or rent?

Great Allegheny Passage & C & O Canal Towpath trails

I'm starting to prepare for my September bike trip from Connellsville, PA to Washington D.C. This trip is going to be longer and more complicated than previous ones. It will entail about 300 miles on the Great Allegheny Passage and C & O Canal Towpath trails. It will also involve four states and the District of Columbia.

Great Allegheny Passage & C & O Canal Towpath trails

Great Allegheny Passage & C & O Trail tours

I am in the middle of planning a trip on the Great Allegheny Passage and C & O Canal Towpath trails. 

And it's a lot of work (and time). 

For those of you who want to save the time and hassle of doing all the trip planning yourself, there's a company called Mountainside Bike Tours that will take care of most of the planning for you. They can arrange shuttles, lodging, and dining as well as give advice for each leg of the tour.

It takes a lot of the guess-work out of a trip when you can rely on the locals/professionals to take care of the important details. It leaves you time to relax and enjoy the ride.

Great Allegheny Passage & C & O Trail tours