The last few weeks I’ve been working hard to prepare for my upcoming bikepacking trip on the East Coast Greenway (Philadelphia to New York). I’ve been acquiring gear and planning routes. At some point, planning can only take you so far, and it was time to test my gear and myself on a couple one-night weekend beginner bikepacking trips along the scenic Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Trail (US Bicycle Route 50).
In this post I’ll share some lessons and details from the first of those trips as I inch closer to our Greenway trip on August 31.
Trip 1: Great Falls to the Monocacy River
After anxiously collecting gear for the past few weeks, it was time to put it all to the test. I gathered my panniers, compressed my tent and sleeping bag as much as possible, and added some snacks to my bag.
Packing Up
My REI Passage 2 packed down like a champ. I was worried I had overdone it by not going with a 1-person tent, but I found the tent packed down easily. Even the poles were able to fit into my panniers. Add to that the incredible easy set-up of this tent and I’m already very pleased with my choice here.
Similarly, I chose a low-weight, summer sleeping bag for my upcoming trips. The REI Helio 45 is comfortable, packs down to a very small size, and was easy to pack, unpack, and fit my sleeping needs on some warm, humid summer nights. Underlying that comfort was another REI Co-op item, the Stratus inflatable, insulated sleeping pad (more on this below).
All of my clothes, gear, food, and more fit exceptionally into my Axiom P55+ panniers, with plenty of room to spare. Even though my trips were single night adventures, I can see these easily meeting my needs an multiple night trips.
As you can see everything fit neatly and easily on my bike and I didn’t really have any need on this trip for additional baggage like the handlebar roll or a frame bag.
The importance of careful planning
Here comes my first lesson learned. In my haste to get myself packed for my first-ever overnight bikepacking trip, I managed to overlook getting myself ready with some printed readouts for parking, campsites, and food. With bike attached to my car, I got started late in the day and set out on the short ride from Northwest DC to the C&O Trail on the Potomac, selecting Great Falls as my starting point.
However, it did not occur to me that there might be more than one location named Great Falls. And it definitely didn’t occur to me that if I just told my GPS to send me to Great Falls Park I would end up on the wrong side of the Potomac River.
Upon arriving at Great Falls Park (VA), I gladly paid my $10 entry fee and asked the Ranger at the station if she could suggest a parking location for our ride on the C&O. She obviously did not understand the blunder I had made and said the front parking lot was a perfectly good place for us to begin a bike ride.
After riding around the various overlooks for about 30 minutes we finally spotted a park ranger, who gave us a laugh when I asked how to access to C&O Canal Towpath.
The actual ride
So all in all, some poor planning cost us nearly the entire day, and we didn’t hit the trail until 8:00 pm! A very slow start indeed, but eventually I was smiling again as we set out on the hard packed gravel, with no particular destination in mind except to find a campsite, eventually.
The original plan was to mimic a typical day out on our upcoming trip and attempt to clock in about 40 miles. But with the light fading fast, we were only able to get about 18 miles up the trail.
The conditions after heavy rainfall in the DC Region for really just about the entire month of July were better than I expected. There had just been a pretty dramatic storm, so we did encounter some downed trees along the way, but we were able to lift our bikes over them and keep on moving without much fuss.
There’s a nearly 10-mile gap from Great Falls (roughly MM16) to the first major campsite, and by the time we got there nigthfall had finally settled in. However, we found that first campsite to be very busy with numerous tents set up. I’m not really an antisocial person, but I couldn’t imagine setting up my tent in the dark and generally fumbling with my gear on my first real bikepacking trip with a very boisterous audience. So while they were very welcoming to us, we ended up continuing up the trail, guided (thankfully) by the full moon that was visible that evening.
Making camp
Eventually we reached the Chisel Branch Hiker / Biker campsite, and it was mercifully empty. Using our headlamps as makeshift lanterns, we managed to get coated in bug spray to ward off the mosquitoes, our tents set up, and a very meager (rain-soaked) fire started.
This is also where we learned about some other missing components from our planning. First, some paper or something very flammable to really get a fire started. Thankfully, one of our items came in some disposable cardboard packaging, or else we wouldn’t have had a fire at all. On future trips this is something I’ll make sure to bring
Also missing was a seat. While most of the C&O campsites are furnished with a picnic bench, our fumbling around in the dark left us with some pretty great distances between our tents, our fire, and our only seating option. It was too late and too dark to start over.
On our future beginner bikepacking trips, we’ll be armed with these Lectica Camping Chairs – which are compact, sturdy, and best of all about one-third the cost of the cheapest option at places like REI.
In the end we were ready for sleep and didn’t have that much of a fire to tend anyways, so we didn’t miss too much here.
The only other “gear tip” comments I can offer is on the Stratus sleeping pad. I’m 6’2″ and so naturally I got the long edition of this to keep all of me on the pad. I quickly learned, that despite not imagining I was very wide, that I was definitely in need of the Long/Wide model of the same pad. Without the extra width, I couldn’t lie flat and have room to keep my arms/elbows on the pad while I slept. Coupling that with the fact that I never really thought to bring a pillow, and I’d rate my overall sleeping accommodations as ‘just okay.’
Day two: food and more riding
To make up for the loss of time on our first day, we decided to keep traveling up the towpath, to make the whole trip something more like our upcoming Greenway trip.
Camp cooking was not something that we pre-planned for this trip, and our original hope was to end up near Harper’s Ferry, WV where there would be off-trail restaurants and food. So we woke up hungry, with no cell signal to find food, and a rough plan that we thought would take us about 15 miles or so to a small store off the trail.
At this point in our trip, I can tell you we were very, very pleasantly surprised to learn about White’s Ferry. Not only is it the last remaining Ferry operating to cross the Potomac River, but it has a wonderful diner and very nice folks running it.
A much-needed full breakfast recharge 
White’s Ferry – Right on the C&O Towpath
They also have a small general store complete with the usual lineup of bike tubes and supplies, as well as an outdoor full bathroom with running water. This is a must-stop location for anyone making the trip along the southern sections of the C&O Towpath.
In the end we made it up to the Monocacy Aqueduct (MM 42), where we visited the Dickerson Market, just about 1.5 miles off the trail, for some more afternoon food. The market isn’t far off the trail, but there is a hellish uphill to get out onto the street that it’s on. It felt better on the way back to be sure.
Wrapping up
With more food and drinks behind us, we set back out on the Towpath and reversed our path, arriving back at the correct side of the Potomac River where we had parked the day before in fairly short order.
All in all this was a very successful first bikepacking trip. I learned about the gear I still needed. I learned about gear that I thought I needed, but didn’t. And best of all we turned a rocky start into a great time and found some really great sights and food and people along the way.
If you’re thinking about making your beginner bikepacking trip on the C&O, it’s incredibly accessible and friendly to first timers.