I am looking at the Salsa Vaya 3 to do some short touring on. I am wanting to Ride from Washington DC to Pittsburg on the C&O and Allegheny Passage and also do some rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I like the disk brakes. Any pros or cons on this bike vs some others? Thanks

Seems to me like a bike more than suitable for your plans. 450mm chainstay is nice. It looks overall like a really good bike as spec'd by the manufacturer. A few upgrades could happen to my liking (e.g., Avid BB7 mechanicals instead of BB5, a different set of wheels.) Now, just don't attempt to compare it with a Co-Motion touring bike.

A friend of mine built a Vaya up and it is a very nice bike. Overall, it kind of splits the difference between by first generation Fargo and the new Casseroll. I like the ride of my Casseroll slightly better, but the lighter weight of the Vaya over the Fargo is nice. Overall, a very nice bike for what you want to do.

Here is a link to a discussion of various Vaya builds folks have done:

https://forums.mtbr.com/salsa/vaya-builds-595223.html

My Co-Motion is a tandem. I would love to have a Co-Motion single but the bike I want is Almost $6000.00 Their bike that is like the Salsa Vayo would be almost $2000, that can pay for some trips and a couple of upgrades. I was thinking that the Vaya is a good starting platform and if its does not work out I can sell without to much of a loss or if I like it I can slowly upgrade different parts.

The $2000 for the Co-Motion is just for the frame, vs about $600 for the Salsa Vaya. Agreed that the $1400 delta would pay for some nice trips

So far I've done two loaded tours on my Vaya 2 and found it to be a pretty nice place to sit and spin and watch the miles roll by. The changes I made to mine were addressed when Salsa added the triple and downsized the tires. The stock saddle would be about all I"d change out now.

If something happened to my gen 1 Fargo, I would replace it with a Vaya. Great for touring, excellent tire clearance and with the right tires, a capable road bike as well. If you want disks, for the money you probably couldn't do much better. The stainless steel dropouts are also a nice touch.

I absolutely love my Vaya. I have done 1 short tour, beach rides, gravel grinders, fire roads and many, many road miles. It's a fantastic all-round bike. I purchased the frame and built my own bike, but stock it doesn't look to shabby either. If you get it, you will love it.