Day Riding in Harpers Ferry

[ren]

Looking for a day ride on back roads to start and end in harpers ferry. Thinking about 30-50miles, again prefer more scenic back roads, paved is best but can also include well maintained dirt roads. Looking to add historic sights or other point of interest if avail. once outside of harpers ferry. Thanks so much- bike tourist from PA.

Rena

Topic

[WillStewart]

Have you biked the C&O canal yet? There is a lot of history along the way, as well as contemporary sites, like the US Olympic white water team’s training site.

http://bikewashington.org/canal/

[ren]

Yes, will be riding the C&O to Harpers Ferry, then staying overnight in town, and hoping to do an interesting and scenic day ride loop around Harpers Ferry. Thanks for the thought.

[JimF22003]

Harpers Ferry up to Shepardstown and Sharpsburg (Antietam Battlefield) is nice. I did that a couple of weeks ago. This ride started at Point of Rocks, but you can zoom in to the part that goes past Harpers Ferry:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154540256

You could skip Shepardstown and just take Harpers Ferry Rd on into Sharpsburg. On the same route going the other direction you can see how to get to Gathland Park (South Mountain) that is also very pretty. This is all pretty hilly stuff, but I don’t think you can avoid that in this area.

You could also head into Virginia and ride around Hillsboro, Round Hill, Purcellville, Lovettsville etc.

[ren]

Great help, thank Jim, will look into both options in two states. Looking forward to my trip.

rena

[americancyclo]

I haven’t been out there myself, but I found 5 routes on mapmyride.com using their ‘search routes’ feature for rides around Harper’s Ferry between 25 and 60 miles.

[ren]

excellent idea, didnt even think of this option. Great!

[Author]

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