Wilderness Voyageurs

Roll through picturesque beauty and tempt your palate with multiple wineries

Home to almost 100 wineries, our moderately challenging tour rides by three lakes: Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga. You'll visit several wineries, hike along stunning waterfalls and visit historic sites, including crossing the bridge featured in the classic film It's A Wonderful Life. Bring your camera and your taste buds!

Prepare yourself for a totally visceral experience of American history combined with a relaxing bike vacation. Come join us on our award-winning 4-day Civil War bike tour and pedal through Gettysburg, Antietam and the Monocacy Valley. It's one of National Geographic Traveler's 50 Tours of a Lifetime!

Experience Gettysburg as few people have, up close and personal with a battlefield guide. This award-winning vacation retraces key campaigns of the American Conflict. Cycle through the beautiful landscapes of rural Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. We pass stone barns of the 1700s, and beautiful brick homes that have witnessed the birth and struggles of a young nation. Roll past the farm fields that still feed a nation. In the evenings, kick back and reflect while relaxing on a porch from a previous era.

Spend 6-days riding along the Potomac River on a historic towpath through the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park for 184 miles between Georgetown in Washington, DC and Cumberland, MD. Our C&O Canal bike tour spans the length of one of our nation’s oldest recreation paths, and you have the chance to explore this path at a relaxed pace! You’ll experience the iconic lush, green tunnel of trees over the bike trail as it transports you back to the early 1900s. Hundreds of original features, including locks, lock houses, aqueducts and other canal structures paint the history of the park’s role during the canal era. Throughout the trip, we will visit a handful of quaint towns along the path, intimately experiencing the region’s culture.

Highlights

• Great Falls of the Potomac
• Antietam National Battlefield
• Harper's Ferry
• Paw Paw Tunnel
• National Mall

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New York's Erie Canal: Get to Know 'New York's Main Street' and experience the history and majesty of America's most storied waterway

We'll pedal by early 1800s historic commercial port cities, explore canal locks, and ride 100 miles of the Erie Canalway, a National Heritage Corridor. This rail-trail ride, on mostly limestone tow paths and a day of backcountry roads, will follow the most commercially enduring and historically significant canalway in the U.S.

Conde Naste magazine included this unique trail system in its “most beautiful rail-trail list” and you’ll quickly see why. On your way from Pittsburgh, PA, to Washington, DC, the multitude of natural, cultural and historically significant sites will astound you.

The initial 129 miles of this tour are on the Great Allegheny Passage from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD, located on abandoned railroad beds. The final 190 miles from Cumberland, MD to downtown Washington, DC, are on the C&O Canal Towpath, which is the heart of the C&O Canal National Park. You will not believe the tranquility and the beauty of this park; located in the middle of the suburban east coast. Read our in-depth blog post on the C&O Canal Towpath History here.

Talk about bucket list opportunities! Your journey will visit three states- PA, MD, WV and will visit the District of Columbia, and will pass through four national parks – C&O Canal, Antietam Battlefield, Harpers Ferry and Rock Creek Park.

Your 300+ miles of car-free rail trails begin just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. It won’t be long until the buildings are exchanged for a canopy of trees. We start at 761 feet in elevation, cross the Continental Divide at 2,932 feet and end at sea level. Along the way, we will ride past remnants of the early 1900s industrial revolution when Pittsburgh Steel was king. All of this happens with a maximum grade of 2% with only a very few exceptions.

While the grade is quite friendly, keep in mind that the daily mileage averages 50 miles a day. To maximize your enjoyment of the tour, riders will want to average 9 miles an hour.

Highlights

• Descend the Allegheny Front of the Appalachian Mountains
• Ohiopyle Falls
• Cross the Youghiogheny River on a 100'-tall railroad bridge
• Ride over the 101' high Salisbury Viaduct
• Transportation back to starting point

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The Great Allegheny Passage, is one of the crown jewels of the rails to trails movement. Begin your tour with the beautiful skyline of Pittsburgh as your backdrop. Soon the Steel City melts away and you are accompanied by the Youghiogheny River. Pedal through small towns, dip your tows in the whitewater, visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and coast down the Eastern Continental Divide.

This is an unbeatable introduction to the charm and history of the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath, as well as bike touring vacations. You'll have plenty of time to explore and enjoy the small towns and amazing cultural and historical sites, including Fallingwater, Salisbury Viaduct and the Paw Paw Tunnel.

This tour has been designed for the novice cyclist to enjoy, while intermediate cyclists will have the opportunity to ride additional miles or have extra discovery and relaxing time.

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