Get Out & Go Tours offers a range of active tours for active people, from short and easy cycling tours to longer, more challenging ones, providing something for all levels of riders. For those who prefer shorter tours, we provide 3 and 4 day tours that traverse the C&O Canal National Historical Park, in the Washington DC area, and a 5 day C&O - GAP Tour. For those who prefer more liesurely tours, we offer an 8 day GAP - C&O Tour between Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC, that take you through some of the most beautiful scenery on the East Coast, free of auto traffic, and anchored by two premier cultural and key historical cities.

In 2009, we added Tour of the Virginias, a 7 day tour that covers up to 7 of Virginia and West Virginia's best Rail Trails, and rides the Cass Scenic Railway to the top of Spruce Knob, where you can bike down the mountain. In 2014, a 6 day version of this tour was run (with one shuttle and 5 riding days). The six day version omitted the Cass over-nights and scenic railroad, and stuck to riding trails. In 2015, we improved the 2014 version, adding one new trail in central Virginia on the long shuttle day, and returning the Cass scenic railroad to the itinerary one afternoon.

In 2013, we added the C&O Canal Lock house Living Tour, a 3-day, 156 mile C&O Canal tour that overnights twice in C&O Canal National Historic Park lock houses, where the locktenders lived over 100 years ago. In 2014, we created a new, shorter mileage 2-day version of this trip, that over-nights in Lockhouse 22 and covers 49 miles at the eastern end of the Canal, and in 2015, we created a new 3-day version that over-nights in Lockhouses 28 and 22 and starts at Antietam National Battlefield. For 2016, a additional versions were developed. These tours are now available for groups of up to seven for a fixed per-trip-day cost.

Select any one of our available tours to learn more about how you, too, can explore the Mid-Atlantic Rail Trails in luxury.

This flat, easy tour samples a section of Towpath between Whites Ferry and Catoctin Aqueduct, with a round trip distance of 34 miles. It is family friendly, and is intended to introduce non-cyclists to the C&O Canal and to re-unite past GoTours participants in a half-day social ride. The ride encounters varied beauty available in Washington, DC's backyard. Participants may tour a restored lock house, hold real C&O Canal Company issued currency from 1840, view a wide variety of wildlife, and see architectural wonders you never knew existed. Read more...

Riding the C&O Canal in a single day is a challenge on a good day. It can be hot, wet, or perhaps perfect, but this challenge tour is a great accomplishment, if you can do it. For the advanced distance cyclist only, this tour has qualification standards, because of the number of hours of continuous riding and the distance required. If you have dreamed of riding the whole 184.5 miles of the C&O Canal in a single day, or of covering 200 miles on dirt, this is the tour for you. Held on the Saturday nearest to the summer Solstice. Call for details.

Tour of the Virginia's is not hard. It's along rail trails, like the C&O Canal, but smoother, like the GAP trail. The trails for the Tour of the Virginias are interesting and varied, ranging from a 34 mile downhill ride off Whitetop on the Virginia Creeper Trail, the 2014 Rail Trail Hall of Fame addition which offers 2,000 feet of descent and 47 trestles in its 35 mile length, to a 60 mile traverse through West Virginia's western mountains, featuring 13 tunnels, each with its unique construction and character. Another offers over 2,000' of descent in just 10 miles! All of the trails include breathtaking vistas through rural countryside. This trip exposes you to a the best off-road riding the Virginia's have to offer. Read more...

This Tour takes you 156 miles from the Paw Paw tunnel, to Washington, DC, over three days, with the first day including shuttle from DC to Paw Paw. The tour travels to Washington, DC over three days, and includes a ride through the Paw Paw tunnel, a tour of Fort Frederick on the second day, a ride through Antietam Battlefield (optional), and a gorgeous ride through the Big Slackwater section along the Potomac River. The third day takes you across several more aqueducts, through Great Falls National Park, and into DC, where you should celebrate your accomplishment and the contribution you made to a good cuase. Read more.

--> Watch Video of the 2013 HFA Gears for Good Ride; 2012 HFA Gears for Good ride; 2011 HFA Gears for Good ride <--

Experience the culture of Pittsburgh day 1, ride, then spend some time sightseeing the nation's Capital city after the tour, for a complete vacation experience of exercise, culture, and history. Summer trips offer long daylight hours for sightseeing, and a refreshing canopy of trees along the C&O Canal. Fall trips offer cooler temperatures with stunning views of hardwood forests normally reaching peak color in the second week of October.  Beginning from Pittsburgh, PA, the tour offers participants a half-day for sightseeing before riding begins. Experience serene, peaceful moments along quiet stretches of the rivers between Pittsburgh and Washington, as well as key bridges, viaducts, wind turbines, tunnels, canal locks and lock houses, civil war battlefields, and historic towns, plus breathtaking vistas of the Great Falls of the Potomac River. Read more...

This tour is the first four days of the GAP-C&O Canal tour, except that you are picked up in Cumberland, MD between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. and taken to Pittsburgh, to ride back to Cumberland over the next 3.5 days.

This tour is the last five days of the GAP-C&O Canal tour, except that you are picked up in Washington, DC at 8:00 a.m. and taken to Deal, PA, where you will join the tour-in-progress for its final 4.5 days. This can also be run as an independent five-day trip.

This Tour takes you past many highlights of the C&O Canal and provides an opportunity like no other, offered exclusively by Get Out & Go Tours -- to over-night in lock house 22 inside the park, cross over three aqueducts, see Great Falls of the Potomac, and tour Washington, DC at the end (or before) your ride, in a shorter, two-day format available for your group of up to seven. Read more....

This Tour takes you past all the highlights of the C&O Canal and provides an opportunity like no other, offered exclusively by Get Out & Go Tours -- to over-night in two of the park lock houses (Lockhouse 49 and Lockhouse 28), during your 3-day ride. You will have the opportunity to ride through the Paw Paw tunnel, the Green Ridge State Forest, explore Fort Frederick, Antietam Battlefield, Harpers Ferry National Park, and Great Falls National Park, ride the new Big Slackwater section, see Cushwa Basin, crawl through caves, and see Washington, DC at the end (or before) your ride. Read more...

This Tour takes you past many highlights of the C&O Canal and provides an opportunity like no other, offered exclusively by Get Out & Go Tours -- to over-night in lock houses 28 and 22 inside the park, tour Antietam Battlefield, see Harpers Ferry, Monocacy Aqueduct, Whites Ferry, Great Falls of the Potomac, and tour Washington, DC at the end (or before) your ride. Read more...

Construction began on the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal in 1828, the same year as the B&O Railroad was begun.  The railroad won the race to the west, beating the canal to the Ohio Valley by 8 years.  The 184-mile canal cost $22 million, and includes 74 lift locks, and 11 stone aqueducts over Potomac tributaries.  The first canal boat to travel end-to-end along the canal did so in 1850, more than 150 years before us. Read more...

The C&O Canal Towpath travels beside the Potomac River out of metropolitan Washington, DC, then meanders quietly along the river, with few houses, towns, or people, offering scenic travel back to a time when water-powered transportation was key. The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) combines several Pennsylvania and Maryland rail trails into a spectacularly scenic route free of traffic through the Western Maryland and Pennsylvania mountains between Cumberland and Pittsburgh. Connected in 2006, this new trail extends the C&O Canal to create a 334 mile ride between Washington, DC and Pittsburgh, PA. The GAP features three tunnels, including the 3,100’ Big Savage, two viaducts, arching railroad bridges, high mountain vistas, river rapids on the Youghiogheny River, and evidence of the area's coal-mining past. Your reward for accomplishing the 1,800' ascent to the Big Savage Tunnel over the 21 mile, super-gradual 1% grade approach, is spectacular mountain views, and the eastern continental divide, which means a day and a half of downgrade riding . Read more...

Similar to the 8 day ride, this 7 day option traverses the GAP segment in four days (with shuttle on day 1), and the C&O Canal segment in three days. Experience the culture of Pittsburgh day 1, ride, the spend some time sightseeing the nation's Capital city after the tour, for a complete vacation experience of exercise, culture, and history. Summer trips offer long daylight hours for sightseeing, and a refreshing canopy of trees along the C&O Canal. Fall trips offer cooler temperatures with stunning views of hardwood forests normally reaching peak color in the second week of October.  Beginning from Pittsburgh, PA, the tour offers participants a half-day for sightseeing before riding begins. Experience serene, peaceful moments along quiet stretches of the rivers between Pittsburgh and Washington, as well as key bridges, viaducts, wind turbines, tunnels, canal locks and lock houses, civil war battlefields, and historic towns, plus breathtaking vistas of the Great Falls of the Potomac River. Read more...

Start your ride in Deal, PA, and whisk down from the Eastern Continental Divide, to Frostburg, MD, a charming town with historic homes, a beautiful brick railroad depot at the end point of the Western Maryland Scenic Railway, museums, and a small-town way of life. Sample the eastern-most section of the Great Allegheny Passage rail-trail and experience key highlights, including the Eastern Continental Divide and the Big Savage Tunnel, from which you can see the Cumberland Valley, 21 trail miles distant. During the fall, the color of the forest canopy is dramatic and colorful, and after a quick trip from Frostburg to Cumberland, participants will be enveloped in trees for the 184 mile length of the Canal.  Read more...

Similar to the four-day eastbound C&O Canal Tour, except this version spends more time off-trail exploring area history, including a side tour of the Antietam National Battlefield, with more liesurely mileage and time for sightseeing. Start in Frostburg, MD, at the end point of the Western Maryland Scenic Railway, and tour museums, or take an optional ride up the Great Allegheny Passage rail-trail, to the vista-rich Big Savage Tunnel and the Eastern Continental Divide, from which you can see the Cumberland Valley, 21 miles distant. During the fall, the color of the forest canopy is dramatic and colorful, and after a quick trip from the Eastern Continental Divide to Cumberland, participants will be enveloped in trees for the 184 mile length of the Canal.  Read more...

Tour of the Virginia's is not hard.  It's along rail trails, like the C&O Canal, but smoother, like the GAP trail. The trails for the Tour of the Virginias are interesting and varied, ranging from a 10 mile downhill ride on the Blackwater Canyon trail, to a 60 mile traverse through West Virginia's western mountains, featuring 13 tunnels, each with its unique construction and character. One trail offers 2,000 feet of descent and 47 trestles in its 35 mile length, while another offers over 2,000' descent in just 10 miles! All of the trails include breathtaking vistas through rural countryside. This new trip exposes you to a the best rail-trail riding the Virginia's have to offer. Read more...

Do you have varying interests? Are you planning a special group outing? Interested in camping instead of indoor lodging? Whatever your interests, Get Out & Go Tours can help you make your next outing a memorable event. Contact us today, and we'll help you plan the ride of your life. Read more...