planning my next adventure...

Hi ladies!
alrighty.... i'm attempting to plan a low-budget bike tour for next summer (with my mom :)) and am gathering as much info as i can on already-established bike routes. as wonderful as websites are for this sort of thing, nothing beats first-hand advice.

our plan is to start in NYC and head up to Montreal (yes, i know, HILLS), loop around to Quebec City using La Route Verte, and then (time and energy permitting) come back through New Brunswick and Maine towards Boston (maybe even all the way to NY, to make it a nice loop :)). this is, of course, preliminary planning... (aka: dreaming!)

my question is (actually, there are several):

- has anyone ridden part(s) of the East Coast Greenway? Is it an official route yet? ie: are there signs for the directionally impaired? does it force bikers to compete with semis? their website was pretty vague... it seemed like it is very much "under construction"...

- are there other established routes through Maine, NH, and Mass... preferably avoiding the White Mtns?

-does anyone have experience with the Adventure Cycling maps from ME to CT?

- has anyone ridden Bike Route 9 in NYS? it looked like it cut straight thru the Adirondacks, judging by the map on the DOT website

- i noticed that as of 2002 there was a "proposed" route north thru Vermont... does that actually exist? (it didn't have a name according to the map i saw)

- any other suggestions (other than seeking immediate professional help :p ;))?

i've hit the DOT websites for these states (I'm totally impressed by Vermont and Maine's sections on biking! wow!!) and googled specific trail names... any advice or first-hand knowledge would be awesome!

thanks much!! :D

The Greenway is still in the proposal stage, as far as I can tell. I'm new to this forum, but there seem to be several people who live in the regions you want to travel through. I'm sure if you use your maps, the Greenway site (I just looked at the UMass site http://www.umass.edu/greenway/) and resources on this forum, you'll put together an awesome trip!

How long do you think the trip will take?

I would also recommend contacting some of the local bike clubs.

The Charles River Wheelmen (boston and metro area) http://www.crw.org have cue sheets galore on their site and are very helpful with inquiries.

North Shore Cyclists (northern MA) http://www.astseals.com/nsc/ might be able to give you some route info as well (they host the Blazing Saddles Century).

Fast & Fab in NYC (a gay cycling club) has cue sheets on their site as well. They ride all over the place. http://www.fastnfab.org.

That covers NY, MA and a bit of New HAmpshire. Any clubs in Maine and Vermont?

You might want to read some of the journals from Adventure Cycling's web page. They are listed by region and you can get an idea of the terrain. The folks who write the journals also usually list their e-mails. Just a thought.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

the club websites are great!! I was debating buying Adventure Cycling's map for ME-CT, particularly since NH's DOT website was a bit lacking on bike info, but the club websites had tons of info on routes through that area :D

the greenway looks like it will be incredible when it's finished... someday maybe i'll get to ride that ;)

has anyone ridden north through VT? a friend of mine said that he had heard of some great road biking routes, but didn't know the names... i'm thinking of it as an alternative to NY.

thanks so much!

Fultzie,

I'm not sure if my husband and I rode on bike route 9 or not (perhaps a little of it?) through New York state, but if you want to read a bit (and see maps of) our recent tour through upstate NY, check out my website. We have Mapquest maps posted for each day of the tour, though some don't show our exact route but just what Mapquest recommended.

This was my first self-supported bike tour, and it was a blast. Yours sounds amazing too! Route Verte is definitely on our list for a future tour. Did you read the article on it in Bicycling Magazine recently? I bet it attracts a lot more cyclists now that the word is out!

Keep us all posted ~ I'd love to hear how your plans progress. Oh, and by the way; the Adirondacks are not impossible! They're more gradual than the NC mountains, and if I (hill slug) can make it up them, so can you. Just make sure to have really low gears on your bike! ;)

Emily

New Hampshire produces a wonderful set of cycling maps for the site. They are available for viewing on the New Hampshire DOT web site, but I'd highly recommend calling and requesting the paper maps. I got mine in one of those side of the highway information places.

Maine also has a good web site listing directions for tours in the state. Well, really more day trips, but you could link them together.

I rode across New York during my cross-country tour - the journal has headings by state, so you should be able to find the information you're interested in easily. But feel free to come back to me if you have any questions.