C&O Canal Towpath – Late July/Early Aug

Don't let going solo put you off doing the JMT. If you go in July/August, you'll have plenty of company, and it's easy to hike along with folks, or do your own thing. Get off the trail a bit and have tons of solitude. I'd say go for it!

+1 to what Dave said.

Unfortunately plans are already set, and it was probably going to be impossible without my partner anyway. He lives in Las Vegas, and I was going to catch a cheap plane to Vegas and carpool with him to the sierras. Even if I wanted to drive myself, my car really isn't dependable enough to make it.

It's all good though. I graduate next May and will hopefully have some time before graduate school to section hike a large chunk of the PCT. I can pick up the JMT then. :) I'd love to do the entire PCT, but I'm not sure that's feasible unless a miraculous series of events play out.

no weight listed for shoes.

you're really not going to need a compass.

you may want a head net – skeeters and other flying infidels are plentiful in the summer.

I would re-think the S2S Poncho/Tarp unless you have logged some nights under it in the rain and under bug pressure are OK with it. July/August can bring heavy rain at times and thunderstorms and serious bugs at night. I have logged some rainy nights under a Golite Poncho Tarp and found the coverage to pretty tight for me at 6'tall and 210lbs. There are also more limited bug options, primarily either going with a head net or a bivy. I have switched over to the SMD Gatewood Cape and found the coverage and storm worthiness to be far superior then a traditional poncho/tarp and I will hang a S2S nano bug net from the peak that provides excellent skeeter protection.

Re: Shoes/Compass – Since I'm wearing them, I admit I've been rather lazy weighing my shoes (and my socks, for that matter), and I know I don't need the compass, but I don't wear a watch, and it's doesn't hurt to take it, so, eh.

Re: Poncho Tarp – This will indeed be my first foray into poncho tarping, but I have ordered a Borah Bug Bivy with argon caps on either end to test it out. I'm also 6ft, and while I'm unsure of how exactly it will play out, I figure it's worth risking. It's a very low-risk trip, and I'll be within a few hours of family on readily accessible routes. If I become seriously uncomfortable, I'll just have them run me a better piece of kit. At least that's my theory so far.

I figure if I'm going to test out poncho tarping, it might as well be on a trail that's as low-risk as this one.

Thanks for the comments thus far!

Edit: Typos!

The go lite poncho tarp is very minimal but also not a great choice. First of all bad coverage, you will have 10x better protection with a cuben hexamid solo. Also the 15d poncho is a very very very weak fabric. The tie outs rip away easily. I would not trust that for anything more than a night. Get something else .

1+ to what Doug said. Lots of skeeters there because it follows the river. I have biked it a few years ago, and found that the campsites were nice but also lots of scouting groups use the path as well, so you won't be alone.

Hi Jonathon- it's really unfortunate that you won't be able to make it to the JMT!

The C&O certainly has a subtle charm but I personally feel that its particular subtleties can be a bit underwhelming when hiking the canal. For a 180 mile stretch of trail, the scenery can be a bit homogenous.

However, for all of its faults as a walking trail, it makes for some fantastic cycling. Have you considered doing some bike touring along it? The C&O makes for a great intro to bike touring since it's flat, away from vehicle traffic, has lots of camp sites, and easy access to small (and interesting, especially if you like history!) towns along the way.

The other nice thing about cycling it is that you could also tack the Grand Allegheny Passage (another 180-ish miles) which is a rails-to-trails path which connects Pittsburgh to Cumberland. If you're a history buff, the C&O canal is a story not only of the canal but also the railroads it competed against (the railroad and the canal each broke ground on the same day!) and by doing the GAP section to Pittsburgh, it's kind of interesting to contrast the history of the canal and railroads and travel along their respective legacies.

"The average highs/lows along the towpath for the time I'm going is typically in the high 80s to high 50s, and there isn't a history of exceptional rainfall either. "

I imagine you might have gotten your weather data from something official, but no one who lives in this area would ever agree with the above statement about our July/August weather, simply due to how humid and unstable it is here.

Even now, the weather here is oppressively hot and humid, with chances of severe thunderstorms almost every other day. Most of us would believe the "average" temp in the summer is in the low 90's, with 1000% humidity.

Even the evenings almost never dip under the 60's, so plan to sleep in a base layer, and nothing else. Most folks bike the towpath during the summer, just to give them some airflow. If you don't believe me, look up the weather outlook for Harper Ferry, WVA for this week. Late July is even worse.

Plan to enjoy many days of walking in a wet sauna. Bring a Towel, or two.

Matt: I appreciate the first-hand feedback! And I imagined the weather I found (which was official-ish) might be somewhat optimistic. Even so, it's already about in those temperature ranges here in Oklahoma, so I'm not overly surprised. Also, considering how weird our weather has been (over 25 inches of rain in May alone), I have to imagine any historic averages are probably not going to completely align with this year.

One quick question I'd have, which might seem odd, but do is there much of a breeze around there? My inlaws live more in the mountains of WV, and it's quite often windless (which makes the humidity seem way worse). I wasn't sure if that carried true further east.

Thanks!

From my experience, it's usually only windy when it's raining like mad! I use lots of fans in my house to try and get the air moving.

Doug said it. Wind is a memorable yet sporadic occurrence.

If there is any chance you can bike ride the trail (as others have mentioned it), I believe you will have a much more enjoyable journey – even if you aren't a bike rider. Infact, doing both the Great Allegheny Trail and the C&O trail by bike might be worth looking at.

Fwiw: I found this: http://bikewashington.org/canal/

hope this helps

I've biked the C&O and connected with the GAP and what a great trip! It can be a bit rough ride, but the GAP was my favorite. Lots of history along the way. The worst weather was near Ohiopyle area. Heavy rain, flooded the trail, I had a flat and fixed it duing that storm. I came across a nice cafe and asked if anyone had a pickup truck and would be willing to take me to the next planned location where I could get a room and dry out. Sure enough, some kayaker tossed my bike in the back and off we went.
Adventure Cycling has all the info you need as well.

List updated a bit.

http://lighterpack.com/r/3f9uws

Going to go sans tarp and trekking poles. Decided I didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to get them through my baggage, and, to be honest, my interest in them is slowly declining. For this trip I'm seeing if I can carry all of my gear via carry-on.

Yes, all I have right now is a bivy, but I'll probably be either a) sleeping in the bivy with no bag, or b) sleeping on top of the bivy with the bag and cowboy camping (probably with a headnet not on this list).

We'll see how it goes. If nothing else, it'll be a colorful post-trip report afterwards.