C&O Canal Trail, MD - Cumberland to Evitts Creek Aqueduct with Knobley Tunnel Trail

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park - National Park Service

Carpendale Trail (also known as the Knobley Tunnel Trail) - West Virginia Rails-to-Trails Council

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS:  15 Howard Street, Cumberland, MD

The address works.  Parking is under I-68 so coordinates might put you on I-68 instead of under.

Parking under I-68 right off of exit 43B for both the end of the C&O Canal Trail and the start of the Great Allegheny Passage.

TRAIL MAP: 

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Map - National Park Service

DISTANCES: 

This was part of a hiking and biking weekend in Maryland.

Gambrill State Park Hike - 9.2 miles

C&O Trail Bike - 8.6 miles

Great Allegheny Passage Bike Shuttle - 35.7 miles

THE BIKE: 

Being an early riser, adding on an extra hour with the time change and being only 10 minutes away from where I needed to park for my shuttle for the GAP bike ride at 9:00 AM, I was out at the crack of dawn to ride a section of the C&O Canal Trail.

Walking out of the parking lot and to the right under the SHOPS AT CANAL PLACE sign, the C&O Canal Trail is to the left and the GAP Trail is to the right.

Heading left on the C&O Canal Trail.

At Evitts Creek Aqueduct ...

... looping around and heading back.

Straight ahead is the Knobley Tunnel Trail.  Just under that bridge ...

... a trail to the left leads up to it.

A bridge over ...

North Branch Potomac River

Knobley Tunnel just after the bridge.  Unfortunately, it has been closed since 2019.

I would have ridden through it.  Bummer that it was closed.

Heading back.

Coming back into downtown Cumberland.

The last mile marker of the C&O Canal Trail.  It starts in Washington DC.

Parking is just the other side of that large brown brick building.

Heading back to my car over there on the right to grab some things then back here and straight ahead a short distance to catch the shuttle bus for my GAP ride.

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