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Virginia to Eau Claire WI June 2008 Route Advice?
Submitted by wickakhc on Sun, 2007-11-25 11:50.
My husband and I plan to ride our tandem self-supported from Washington DC to Eau Claire WI in June 2008. We have friends to visit in Cleveland, South Bend IN, and Evanston (Chicago IL). Any route advice? What's the best way through PA? We don't want to camp, so any advice on accommodations? We plan to do about 75 miles per day. What are the routes like through Gary, Chicago, Cleveland, South Bend? Any rail trails along the route? Any cycling maps available? (We have the Northern Tier section through Ohio and Indiana, and also the Wisconsin cycling maps.) Any advice would be welcome.
The Cookie Lady
Not sure if you ever heard of the Cookie Lady, June Curry, who lives on the 76 bicycle trail in Afton, VA. Great place to go to get motivated for a long cross country tour. Her house is a bicycle museum and has couches to sleep on. Plan to spend a full day looking at all the postcards on the wall. If you go there it is on the Afton side of Waynesboro, VA just below scenic drive. Steep hill but well worth the stop. June is really nice. It is congenial to help her out with some money while you are there. She will not ask. And enjoy the cookies! :)
Route advice
Sounds like you've gotten some good advice already. I just completed a ride from New York (Highland Falls) to Grand Rapids, Mi.,also stopping to visit friends in Cleveland(Cleveland Heights). I picked up the Northern Tier Route In Lake City,PA. and did take the Cleveland Heights alternate. It is very hilly, and also a little complicated route to follow, but went through some nice areas. At Sandusky, I left that route and made my own route that stayed North. I live in Suburban Chicago and have made a couple trips to Michigan City, going different ways through Gary. It's very doable. Once you enter Illinois/Chicago, there are bike routes that will take you to Evanston. Time of day & day of week can make huge differences in traffic conditions and that may be difficult to plan for. Wisconsin has great roads, especially most of the rural county roads. You just need a detailed map (such as DeLorme)and some time to plan your own route. Feel free to look me up on WarmShowers and give me a call if you'd like to get more details/thoughts.
Best of luck, sounds like a great trip!
Phil Carlson
itinerary
Hallo Carlsons,
As I plan to tour in the area in summer I found a story somewhere (...but where excactly I can't find back) on crazyguyonabike.com, about people who took the ferry Ludington - Manitivoc, going to Minneapolis.
So heading north from South Bend and avoiding Chicago...? And making a trip to Holland (near Grand Rapids).
Sorry I can't find back the story, so you'll miss the link.
I rememer they were pretty happy about the Manitivoc Minneapolis stage.
Have nice trip,
Arie, Netherlands (Holland)
Arlington to Eau Claire
Thanks to Phil Carlson and all the others who responded. I did get the Cleveland maps and they are great. Still looking for some advice on the prettiest route through PA. Should we go through central PA (such as through Johnstown and diagonal to Erie), or should we head for Pittsburgh, and then north (I got the Underground Railway Pittsburgh Spur, and it looks pretty good too, but I know central PA is very pretty). I'd appreciate advice from anyone who has done those routes. I looked up Pedal PA, but couldn't really find much there in the way of route advice. Thanks again.
Rail Trail
If you want to take trails, you can follow the C&O canal towpath out of DC and then the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail all the way from DC to Pittsburgh. There you can catch the Adventure Cycling routes. The rail trail has a web page at http://www.atatrail.org/. Good luck on your tour!
The Route Advice
Through Pennsylvania try this web site http://www.bikepa.com . There are four to five routes through PA and get the ACA route map Underground Railway Pittsburgh to Erie connector to reach the Northern Tier. When in Cleveland Ohio area the Northern Tier as you see is divided into two routes Regular Route and Heights Alternative. Heights Alternative is awfully hilly and goes through heavy traffic especially on MLK. For a city overview of Cleveland try http://www.Noaca.org best bicycle route maps made. Chicago has their own cycling department and maps which can obtained from Chicago's cycling coordinator(Great Maps). When going through Indiana try The Indiana Bicycle Federation for Routes Maps and cycling advice. These are what I use and what I know. Good luck on your ride and my web site is http;//wwww.divebombertravel.com and I am full service Travel Agent that specializes in Adventure Travel.
F Leutz
Dive Bomber Travel