If you enjoy long distance bike riding and are looking for unique places to do it, I can recommend two trails that I have been on recently. Both have camping sites on the trail, but are also close enough to civilization that you can find hotels near the trail.

The first is the C&O canal trail, which starts near the Watergate hotel in Washington DC. It is a gorgeous, wooded trail that runs about 160 miles along the old C&O canal.

C&O Canal Bicycling Guide

I have only covered the first 70 miles of it (we rode from DC up to Harper’s Ferry, spent the night at a hotel and then rode back the next day – it’s a very nice weekend ride). Down near Washington it can get a bit crowded on weekends, but once you get past the touristy sections in town it can be quite secluded. The touristy sections are really interesting though, with a museum, working locks, working boats and a lot of history.

A canal trail like this is funny because it is a steady, very shallow uphill in one direction and then downhill in the other direction. Riding 70 miles “down” the trail (toward DC) is faster than riding those miles “up” the trail (away from DC). So the ideal way to do this trail might be to have someone drop you off up in Cumberland and then ride all the way down to DC.

This video gives you a look at several parts of the trail:

The other trail is called the New River trail, which is part of a “57-mile long state park”:

New River Trail State Park

This trail is also gorgeous, running along an abandoned rail line that follows the New River. It has some history as well, including an old shot tower. Here’s what the terrain looks like:

The big advantage of these trails, besides being beautiful, is that there are no cars to run you over. You could spend a very nice day or weekend on either one.

One reason for writing this post is to ask if you know of other long trails like these two. If you have been on a long trail you would recommend, please say something about it in the comments.