These Knees Were Made For Walking

Over the next few weeks I am going to profile the trails that I will be walking. The Great American Rail Trail is a trail being built by Rails to Trails Conservancy. Here is the link to Rails to Trails and to the Great American Rail Trail.

https://www.railstotrails.org

https://www.railstotrails.org/site/greatamericanrailtrail/

And here is the link to the list of trails that make up the Great American Rail Trail in order.

https://www.railstotrails.org/site/greatamericanrailtrail/content/route#trails

Although the Great American Rail Trail starts at the steps of the Capital Building I am going to start at Rehoboth Beach Delaware. I want to walk from coast to coast so I will put my feet in the Atlantic ocean and walk to the Pacific ocean and put my feet in there. FYI, the Pacific ocean is going to be much colder than the Atlantic ocean.

I don’t have the exact route from Rehoboth to Washington, DC, but it is around 180 miles. As this is the first part of the trip I won’t be walking at “full speed ahead”. I will start out at around 60 miles a week and work up to 80-90 miles a week over the first few weeks. That means it will take me about 2 and half to 3 weeks to walk this 180 miles. I think I am going to set up camp somewhere in the middle of Delaware and just stay there until I get to Washington, DC.

• National Mall Trails
• Rock Creek Park Trails
• K Street/Water Street Cycle Track
• Capital Crescent Trail

These are the trails that move me through Washington, DC. All of them are relatively short and lead to the beginning of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Park. This is the first really long trail, 184 miles through the C&O Canal National Park. It starts in Washington, DC goes through Maryland and connects to the Great Allegheny Passage, the GAP trail.

Here is the link to the trail description from Rails to Trails:

https://www.traillink.com/trail/chesapeake–ohio-canal-national-historical-park/?utm_source=railstotrails.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=GRT

This is what Trail Link has to say as an introduction to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Trail:

“Following the Potomac River, the C&O Canal Towpath traverses the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park for 184.2 miles between Cumberland, Maryland, and the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington D.C.”

This trail is a National Park. That is COOL. And there is A LOT to do there. I am going to be walking but there is boating, hiking, camping. You name it, it’s there.

Here is one picture from the park.

FYI:
Trail Link is the APP developed by Rails to Trails and has all the trails built by them.