Wanders on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) From Cumberland, Maryland, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Cumberland to Frostburg, including the GAP Towns of Cumberland, Mount Savage, and Frostburg

By: Don Croner

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

In Cumberland, Maryland, the Spring, or Vernal, Equinox occurred at 11:06 p.m. on March 19. The Equinox marks the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s often said that the Spring Equinox is when day and night are of equal length. Actually, due to an astronomical quirk, the date when day and night are equal, known as the Equilux, is usually a few days before the Equinox. This year March 15 has eleven hours, fifty-nine minutes, and fifty-five seconds of daylight. The next day has twelve hours, two minutes, and thirty-one seconds of daylight, so the pendulum has already swung toward longer days. The day of the Equinox has twelve hours, ten minutes, and twenty-four seconds of daylight. The next day has twelve hours, thirteen minutes, and zero seconds, making it two minutes and thirty-six seconds longer than the day before. The procession is on to the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, on June 20. I have decided that between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice I will wander on the Great Alleghany Passage, a bike and hiking trail built on the roadbeds of now-abandoned railroads that extends 150 miles from Cumberland to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Another trail, the C&O Canal Towpath, runs 184.5 from Cumberland to Washington, D.C, making it possible, in season, to ride a bike—or hike, if you are so inclined—334.5 miles from Pittsburgh to Washington. No motorized vehicles (except for electric bikes) are allowed on the entire path . . .

Included here are accounts of Cumberland, Maryland, the Queen City that once served as the gateway to the West; the GAP from Cumberland to Frostburg, including the town of Mount Savage, once the cutting edge of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, and Frostburg, the Mountain City, home of Frostburg State University.

Included are 157 photographs (color, on devices that support color).