Getting back to the end of our epic bike ride on the GAP Trail, we’ll bring you a quick post tonight about our favorite food & lodging stops between Rockwood and Cumberland.
We enjoyed a filling breakfast at the Gingerbread House before hitting the road out of Rockwood on Tuesday morning. Our hosts made blueberry-stuffed French toast with fresh honeydew and sausage links! It seemed a little heavy at first, but we needed the meal to keep us powered up on the ride.
As we were packing up our paniers, I noticed this way cute little fox statue in the hallway of the upstairs, and I just loved it! A laughing fox!
We fueled up on some Gu and nuts throughout our trip, but finally stopped for lunch in Frostburg, MD (and you may recall the agony of the climb into Frostburg). We stopped into Zen-Shi Sushi not because we thought sushi was a good idea whatsoever on a bike ride, but because it was the least-uphill place we could eat.
Let me just say this: sushi is actually a really good idea on the bike trail.
We started with an order of avocado balls, which mightaswell have been called amazeballs. They basically melt in your mouth, but have this delicious sauce, and crispy tempura flakes, and the salt is JUST what your body wants after a long uphill ride.
Splitting the appetizer and two rolls of sushi between the both of us was a pretty perfect serving size. We got the shrimp tempura and a million dollar roll (the exact contents of which I can’t honestly remember, but trust when I say it was all GOOD STUFF).
When we arrived in Cumberland, we stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites, which is literally just steps away from the C&O Towpath.
This was definitely the biggest room we had along the GAP Trail, and it was very clean and comfy as well.
And the best? Since they didn’t have any separate bike parking, the rooms have extra-long hallways for you to store your bike in your room! (There’s also free laundry, which is a big perk!)
Cumberland’s one of the biggest towns you’ll stay in, so they have a lot of food options. We settled on Geatz’s Restaurant which was a bit of a walk from our hotel, but definitely worth it.
We started with an order of their creamy crab bisque and some glasses of Pinot Grigio.
And then we saw crab mushroom melts on the menu and couldn’t resist! These are like mini crab cakes stuffed inside mushroom caps and covered in melted cheese. Kind of like the appetizer to end all appetizers!
We each got seafood salads for our entrees. All the salads come in edible tortilla bowls, but you’ll be lucky if you can get far enough through to eat the bowl because the salad is STUFFED. My salad was the seafood salad, which came with grilled shrimp and clams, and Michael got the beer-battered shrimp salad. We both went with their house salad dressing, which was kind of like a sticky sweet & sour sauce and just the right flavor balance for the seafood. Such a great blend of fresh ingredients and yummy seafood!
The service was also really excellent at Geatz’s, and the restaurant overall had a homey, welcoming feel to it. We would definitely stop back here again on the trail!
On the walk back to our hotel, we passed an antique shop that was selling three outhouses in front of their store. This was one of those ‘if we don’t take a picture, no one is going to believe us’ moments.
Later this week, we’ll recap the next leg of our journey, when we started riding along the C&O Towpath en route to Hancock, MD!
I want that outhouse.
There were three of them; there might still be one left! 🙂