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Route Help NY & PA North to South

wkottd

New member
IÔÇÖm looking for route suggestions through New York & Pennsylvania.
I plan to enter NY. At Thousand Island Bridge, spend a couple of days in the Adirondacks, ride through the finger lakes region, then on to Gettysburg, Skyline drive, BRP to the smokies, then Dubuque, and home to Isanti, MN.

IÔÇÖve only traveled NY. & PA east to west and IÔÇÖm hoping for suggestions for the North-South route. Also looking for good places to stop and enjoy the area. IÔÇÖll be camping most of the time.

Thanks
Bill
 
IÔÇÖm looking for route suggestions through New York & Pennsylvania.
I plan to enter NY. At Thousand Island Bridge, spend a couple of days in the Adirondacks, ride through the finger lakes region, then on to Gettysburg, Skyline drive, BRP to the smokies, then Dubuque, and home to Isanti, MN.

IÔÇÖve only traveled NY. & PA east to west and IÔÇÖm hoping for suggestions for the North-South route. Also looking for good places to stop and enjoy the area. IÔÇÖll be camping most of the time.

Thanks
Bill

How much time you planning in NY/PA and what type of roads do you like? I can put you on some really twisty stuff, but it will kill time fast
 
The Skyline Drive and BRP are 500 miles of redundancy. Parts of one or another but doing the whole thing is boring IMHO. Went from MA to GA and back this spring. Suggest you consider a parallel to that. I rode through Fort Valley from Winchester, VA and then up over Massanutten Mountain to the south fork of the Shenandoah River. Lovely.

On the trip north I spent a lot of miles on Rt 42 in VA and there are roads going off west and east over the hills that are amazing.

Here is a ride report. http://www.i-bmw.com/showthread.php?t=39225

You can figure out where I went and see what it looks like. I had ridden the BRP from Cherokee to Boone, NC in 2009 and when I got on the northern terminus in Waynesboro it did not take me long to think that even though I had not seen it before I had seen it.
 
I'm not sure how far east you plan to be, but NY 30 from the Adirondacks down through the Catskills and into Hancock is a really nice road and you probably have the option of heading west towards the Finger Lakes region somewhere along the route.

NY30

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Here's a link to a trip report I did a few years ago through parts of PA you may be heading with a couple of state parks where I camped.

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=21396

Enjoy your trip!
 
North South thourgh PA, consider

219

144 (best road in the state)

287 (coming south from the finger lakes)

220

Jason
 
more suggests

+1 on gsjay

If you are headed further east, I would not miss 94 only the NY/PA border thru Port Jervis. down into Milford and rt 6 west to wellsboro, down 15 to Gettysburg.

Have a great trip.
 
I'm going the opposite way in September from Gettysburg up to Niagra through NW PA. Any recommendations there that might work for both of us?

If you've never done Skyline/BRP before it's a very scenic and beautiful ride but it's not the ideal solution if your interest is a real romp through some twisties. It's marked 35 - 45 mph and there are sometimes a LEO infestation there. Stay farther west through W. Virginia, Rt 219 down to 250 over to Green Bank, and 66 back over to 219, then work your way over the New River Gorge and down to 16 (Back of the Dragon) and eventually that'll dump you onto the BRP above Asheville. There's some pretty amazing roads down in Western NC/Tenn/N. Georgia that aren't the Dragon or the Cherahala too.

If your interest is more relaxed touring, then forget all that and take the BRP.
 
Route 15 in PA

I went from The Finger Lakes Rally in Watkins Glen, NY to the beginning of the BRP a couple of years ago and I took Route 15 south along the Susquehanna River to Harrisburg and then up onto 81 to get me to Front Royal, VA. Route 15 is scenic and a very nice ride, 81 is superslab and not all that interesting but it gets you there in a reasonable amount of time. I went from Watkins Glen to Big Meadows Campground on Skyline Drive in an easy day on the road, I was at Big Meadows in the late afternoon with enough time to leisurely set up camp and make dinner.
 
Thanks for all the input. I think it will really make this a great trip!

IÔÇÖd like to spend as much time as possible in the twistes, and also like riding through deep woods. IÔÇÖll be on an R1200RT but not afraid of taking gravel/dirt roads to get to a good view or campsite.

I plan on leaving the day after Labor Day, and be gone 10-12 days, but since IÔÇÖm mostly retired, if IÔÇÖm out a little longer my wife will probably consider that a bonus.

IÔÇÖve never ridden Skyline Drive and only parts of BRP, but would have no problem with alternate routes.

Thank again for all the suggestions

Bill
 
BRP After Labor Day

I did the BRP right after Labor Day and it was great, virtually empty, no tourists and no getting stuck behind people that are going really, really slow. You do want to keep an eye on your speed though because they will ticket you in a heartbeat, also in VA it's very common to see deer and wild turkeys in the road, I had a heart stopping encounter with a flock of wild turkeys myself. If you really want to enjoy the views, pull over..........the curves come up on you fast on BRP and if you're not attentive you could run into trouble fast. Have a great trip!
 
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