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Gettysburg and Lancaster, PA

beckgr

New member
Does anyone have any recommendations on some good riding roads in those 2 areas or even advice on which roads to stay away from? I am visiting a friend in the area and am going to take 2.5 days additional to get in some riding time. I will be starting from and ending up in the Pittsburg/Greensburg PA area. My interest is in good riding and taking is some sights. I'm not familiar with the area at all. Thanks in advance.
 
If you have time for a ride thru the battlefields at Gettysburg (and like that history stuff) it is an awesome place.
 
Can't beat the Gettysburg battlefield, it's really something too see.
Just to the east of Lancaster is Amish country. The towns of Bird in Hand, Intercourse, Blue Ball, Paradise, are just of a few of the villages that dot the Landscape. Route 30 (runs east to west) runs right through the area and it's a road to stay off of. Lot's of traffic. Just turn to the north or south and within a few hundred yards your in another world. Great roads........all of them, just be careful, these are not roads you can go speeding on ( lots of horse buggies), nor would you want to as there is much to see. If your hungry look for one of the Amish restaurants in the area, it's some of the best food you'll ever eat!
 
I would avoid Route 30 as it's some highway and city traffic depending on the area. The nicer roads would take you directly east out of Gettysburg over towards the Susquehanna River, then north to Lancaster. (as opposed to travelling northeast directly) Route 372 will take you across the river and there are nice back roads all through that area. On the western side of the river is the Indian Steps Museum right on the river which is a nice twisty road to get to. Susquehanna State Park on the eastern side of the is a nice stopping point with a great overlook and picnic areas.

If you have a GPS, just poke around the area until you are ready to bee-line to Lancaster. Lots of nice roads to explore.
 
I agree with avoiding Rt 30, although, depending on what you want to see, you'll probably be on it at some point. From Gettysburg, Rt 30 is ok most of the way to York, then cut over to 462, as 30 becomes 4 lane. In Wrightsville, head South on Long Level Rd., which follows the river, then take 624, then 425, (becomes Furnace Rd.) to 74 S, to 372 East across the river, then River Rd. heading north becomes 441 and will take you to Columbia, PA. 462 runs through columbia and will take you to Lancater, (through a bunch of towns on the way). In Columbia, if you are hungry, Prudhommes Lost Cajun Kitchen is a good bet, if you like Cajun food. Or you could run up 441 to 772, to Mount Joy, and check out Bube's Brewery, a micro brewer that is one of the oldest in the area, with an interesting past. Rt. 897 takes you up and arouind Lancaster County, some nice farm land without too many buggies to slow down for.

We did a covered bridge ride last summer, got to 8 bridges (I think) through some Amish farm land. PM me as to when you will be in the area, maybe I can show you around some, or if you rather explore on your own, give you some more routes to try.
 
Gettysburg and east to York and less so toward Lancaster are my "backyard." I can give you more specific advice on roads (west of Lancaster) coming east towards Gettysburg and York when I have a bit more time. When is your trip through the area?
 
Thanks for the advice so far. It is very helpful and appreciated. My trip is June 3rd, 4th and half of the 5th. the goal is to do some nice riding and see some sights and history. Battlefields at Gettysburg are of keen interest for sure.
 
Thanks for the advice so far. It is very helpful and appreciated. My trip is June 3rd, 4th and half of the 5th. the goal is to do some nice riding and see some sights and history. Battlefields at Gettysburg are of keen interest for sure.

The battlefield is a land of its own. It's mainly south and west of the borough of Gettysburg. There are about 30+ miles off road in the park and its all slow going, but decent riding particularly if you're touring it earlier in the a.m. before the buses and tourists clog it up. :cry

I'll look in the local paper to see if there will be anything of interest in the area about that time.

I'll also look at a map tonight to see if you'll want to explore the area as you're coming east. The suggestion to take Rt. 30 is a good one. Rt. 30 from Bedford, Pa. east has some nice riding, but it does get congested in a few spots (Chambersburg, Gettysburg, and York), but there are ways to avoid all that.

:wave
 
gettysburg etc

If you are into Civil War history, take a ride south on Rt 15 to the Anteitem battlefield. Also in that same vicinity is the site of John Brown's raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. A neat town, great walking tour if you are really in shape (HILLS). If you have time, you can visit the Harley Factory in York. A good tour.
 
Harpers Ferry... great walking tour if you are really in shape (HILLS).

That's for sure. Especially up that walk way to the cemetery. :hungover

As a point of reference Antietam is about 50 minutes southwest of Gettysburg and Harper's Ferry is probably another 20 minutes south of Antietam. Nice detour if you enjoy history. Decent riding from Gettysburg to those areas, too.
 
HD Factory Tour

If you are into Civil War history, take a ride south on Rt 15 to the Anteitem battlefield. Also in that same vicinity is the site of John Brown's raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. A neat town, great walking tour if you are really in shape (HILLS). If you have time, you can visit the Harley Factory in York. A good tour.

If doing the HD factory tour in York call ahead and reserve. I went to Gettysburg (highly recommended) a few years back in July and tried to get in on the tour. Back then there was a waiting list about 3 days long.

Good luck & safe riding.
 
...and if you've got a little extra time, head down Route 97 from Gettysburg and come see us in Our Nation's Capital. It's just two hours each way and 97 (Georgia Avenue) is nice (until you hit the 'burbs).
 
So how did it go? I got swamped with work, and lost track of when you were going to be in the area, now I see it was last week........

Any pictures of the trip? How did the Harleys behave? Hopefully you were able to see what you had wanted to and more.
 
Trip went very well. Advice in this post was helpful as well so thank you to all for your help. A friend and myself meet each year somewhere different to ride in conjunction with other meetings we have. Every other year or two our different locations require us to do a "fly and ride." HD does a really nice job on making the bikes available for rental. I really wish BMW made it that easy. I'm sure HD sells a lot of bikes after someone gets off one of their new models. Bet BMW would have success there if they would commit the money. The HD's were a lot of fun. Rented a roadking and street glide. Much prefer my RT but still riding the HDs was different, fun and did well.

We headed out of Greensburg PA on Rt 30. Just as described by some of you we found it very busy with a lot of truck traffic. At McConnellsburg he headed north and finally once we hit Rt 75 and headed north of Spring Run it seemed like traffic let up and the country opened up and beauty of PA really came through. From there we headed up to Landisburg, then down 233 and made our way to Gettysburg. Ended up riding the last 15 miles in rain so not too bad.

Woke up Wed to rain and 90% chance of continued rain so we altered plans away from Lancaster and headed south to MD as it looked like a lesser chance of rain all day. That worked well as we found PA more crowded than we expected. MD felt less congested as we weaved our way down and around past Hagerstown and back up to LaVale, MD. Found some nice roads and met some great people with some great food. Heavy storms slowed our pace that day quite a bit as one storm we holed up in a diner for about 2 hours.

Thurs was the day we needed to be back to Greensburg, PA so we left early and headed down into WV and found that our favorite part of the trip. Pretty scenery and really good roads and few people. there were some coals trucks that were annoying, but not enough to bother the whole ride that day. We headed down through Keyser and were pleasantly surpised by the nice curves and little traffic on Rt 50. Made our way down into the tip of the Monogahela Nat'l Forest around Parsons and took Rt 72 and 26 back up to PA. Went through Ohiopyle and up Rt 381.

So a short trip but very enjoyable. I have a few pics but will have to look at the picture area here to see how to post them.
 
pennsylvania riding

hi beckgrcgb....

sounds like you had a nice ride...the area in pa. along rt.75 and up into the south mountain on 233 is some of my home turf...too bad i didn't see this earlier...but it sounds like you had an overall good couple days here.

the area around ohiopyle is pretty nice riding. i was just out in that part of the state, and posted a story about my weekend in this forum: "tour de frank" with pix...we rode right up and down 381...we took rt. 31 in and out of the area, off of rt. 30.

if you thought the parts of pennsylvania you rode in were crowded, you can be glad you didn't get down to lancaster and the surrounding areas...along rt. 75, from rt. 30 to rt. 233, there are just as many amish, BTW...i'd be surprised to hear that you didn't pass any buggies on that road.

thanks for posting your final "report". sounds like the whole loop was a good one!

tom
 
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