I brought my son-in-law here for the day. With the recent geocache hides, we enjoyed our experience. Our ride and find trek also included posing for a discovered game cam pic, staying off a split rail fence decorated with a emphatic warning, swerving around a orange piling to miss a trail washout, jumping over a green and black snake and turning around at Cypher Station for the return gradual ascending route to Tatesville. Don’t know if we will return to finish the rest to Riddlesburg but appreciate the different parking waypoint accesses. Not our best rail trail but sufficient for “our time”.

I have been enjoying the C&O Canal towpath since I was a boy -- but I went for a bike ride yesterday (May 10, 2020) at the Monocacy Aqueduct and the path is now paved (I assume it's considered crushed stone). Yep, it's now "new and improved" -- not. One problem is that the trail now has a lower shoulder than the paved road. If you happen to get too close to the edge or pull off, you've got a bit of a dropoff which could be problematic. Another problem is that some of my fellow bicyclers seem to love the new surface as they now go flying even faster than before. Hiking on the paved trail is certainly not as nice as the previous dirt path. The feeling of getting away from it all has diminished and the trail has lost some of its charm. It no longer appears to be a path in the woods from a bygone era, but simply another bike trail. Pedestrians beware.

Even on a COLD WINDY May day, there were lots of walkers, joggers, and some bikers. Steep on either end of the trail and I’m guessing 6-8’ wide so 2 bikers can safely but SLOWLY pass. Lots of smooth, elevated trail & bridges (lots of warning signs “Slippery When Wet”) Would be very nice in heat of summer since it’s shaded the entire route & alongside the stream. Trail is in the floodplain so would not be advisable when streams are up.

We biked round trip from the Newville area to Shippensburg University. It’s a gravel path and well traveled by cyclists, runners, and horseback riders. A gem of a route connecting two very quaint PA towns.

We rode 38 miles out and back from New Freedom to York. I’d highly recommend this trail. Excellently maintained and well packed. There are not a lot of crossings so the ride is very nice. Very picturesque with many farms and streams. This trail is best ridden with a hybrid or gravel tire but could probably be ridden on 700x28 in a pinch. Don’t miss this great trail.

Got on part of this trail, while on western Maryland trail

We love coming down and riding on this trail, sign the book at the bike shop....

After reaching the eastern terminus of the Great Allegheny Passage, I picked up the C&O Towpath in Cumberland, MD back in 2018 (perhaps the Towpath has improved since then). Unfortunately, rainy conditions really seem to impact this path/trail more than other trails. Its gravel surface (which rides nothing like the crushed limestone of the GAP) was a mess back in July 2018. Rain aside, this trail is really, really bumpy which really had a negative impact on progress (I usually tour around 15mph, and struggled to make 9mph on this path). As soon as I had the opportunity, I departed this path for the Western Maryland Rail Trail without any regrets. In my touring experiences, the conditions on the C&O Towpath were some of the worst that I've ever encountered. It's truly a shame: this path would be so much more enjoyable if it were better maintained.

It’s mostly crushed stone. More like 90% crushed stone. Only asphalt when you are at the parking areas and much closer to town of Shippingsburg.