USA Today's Best Recreational Trails in the US

[charliedid]

I think they are still trying to raise funds to grade and update the C&O

I met they guy in charge of the citizen side of things when I was in Cumberland riding the trail. I too got lucky with dry weather and felt lucky as you could se that sections would be very challenging and frustrating if wet.

Love the long tours on the trails.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by pcb

Also to be fair, I'm talking like 98-deg/120% humidity. Mucho miserable.

Is that all? You had it good.

Yeah, hot and humid summers + storms (and throw in cold and messy winters too) are unfortunately par for the course around here. As I finished grad school and was interviewing for job the one full day I spent in St Louis was a gorgeous spring day, sunny, very pleasant weather. Great. I also interviewed in LA, which, of course, had the typical SoCal weather, and in the DFW area.

I sometimes wonder how different my life might have been if the weather I had experienced in St Louis had been more representative - I might have ended up like this instead:

[weisan]

Originally Posted by pcb

It might have been a seasonal/weather problem for me, but I did a day on the Katy Trail, and between the flaaaat, gravel and hot/humid summer, it wasn't much fun. There were some sections right next to a low-traffic road, so I just went on the road to get some more speed, and some relief from the gravel. I rode from St. Jeff towards St. Louis, and bailed early when some weather rolled in.

To be fair, it was almost 20yrs ago, and though I had decent wider tires on a 'cross bike, they weren't light/plush/supple/fun tires like we got nowadays.

Also to be fair, I'm talking like 98-deg/120% humidity. Mucho miserable.

And the weather I bailed on was the Tristate Hailstorm of '01, the costliest hail event in US history. My friend/coworker who picked me up and drove me to my hotel had his car totaled from about 2-3min in the hailstorm till he got beneath an overpass. It was pretty messy.

So maybe better tires, better weather, and no bajillion-dollar-damage hailstorms bearing down on me would make for a better ride?

found a video about the hailstorm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLunam0LfhA

i did a 3-day bike packing trip on Katy Trail with a buddy. we took a train to sedalia and rode back to st charles. we encountered torrential rain the first two days that almost took us out, it was quite an experience.
https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=75865

[robin3mj]

The C&O is decently maintained but has a lot of geography acting on it, which leads to the occasional slides etc. It’s built on the water, so it’ll be wet in rainy weather.
I wouldn’t drive many hours to ride it, but as a mechanism to ride on dirt with no traffic in a major metro area, it serves its purpose. I’ve done the whole thing before and it’s a nice weekend trip. Would love to Amtrak to Pittsburgh and ride both trails all the way back someday.

The new Empire State Trail - NYC to the border and /or Buffalo, looks kinda interesting.