Northeast - Montreal to Cape Cod =)

Hello,
I am a newbie here. I will be biking from Montreal to Cape Cod during the Month of June and am looking for some tips on roads to take and places to visit. I have an idea of the itinerary but no set trajectory yet.

I will go from Montreal, to Plattsburgh NY, across Lake Champlain to Burlington VT, to Rutland VT, to New Lebanon NY, to Sprinfield MA, to Manchester CT, to the Cape!

Which route do you recommend? Which one do you think I really should not take?

Thanks for your help =)

Véro à Vélo

Wow - you rock! Have no idea about routes - but that sounds awesome!

There are plenty of different routes you can take, so I am not going to recommend any single one. With that said there is a bicycling map for a route completely around Lake Champlain. Check out http://www.champlainbikeways.org/

Near Lake Champlain is at least on your list to start. The Grand Isle Ferry (Plattsburgh) is nice, but also consider Port Kent to Burlington or Essex to Charlotte. In Vermont Route 100 is also a fun ride. Have fun!
Wells

That will be a nice ride.
I live in Burlington and have lived in southern VT.
I'll throw some ideas out later... (got to get out the door to work)

sounds like a great ride and a fun route. I've ridden through most of the areas you're going through and there are plenty of scenic back road routes to choose from. As far as which roads to pick get some really good maps (for Massachusetts these are a must: Rubels Bike Maps (http://www.bikemaps.com/regmaps.htm)) and spend a night or two going over the possibilities. You can then combine your research with Google Earth and actually check out the roads by satellite- I recently avoided a particularly nasty rotary on a tour I planned by doing that.

NY, VT, CT and RI all have state info on bicycling on line. For example RI offers a downloadable PDF bike map. (http://www.dot.state.ri.us/bikeri/)

Keep in mind as you aim for the Cape from CT that you cannot bike across either the Jamestown or Newport Bridges in RI and that Newport and Aquidneck Island, though good for some local cycling and a fun tourist destination, are heavily travelled by autos in the summer months and do not have the best through roads Your route might be better to cut through Providence (early on a Sunday morning?) and take the beautiful back roads of Rehoboth, Dighton, Rochester, through Wareham, Onset pick up old Bay Road to the rotary before the Bourne Bridge loop around the rotary halfway and cut up through the parking lot for the hotel find the short path that leads to the sidewalk on the Bourne Bridge.

rough out a possible route and if you have questions- particularly regarding the Mass/RI portions I can give you pretty detailed feedback. The NY, VT CT parts I would be going more on long term memory- a little less reliable:rolleyes:

Lots of options...

If you want to ferry to Burlington (1 hour on the boat) I'd follow the lake down through Plattsburgh, eventually ending up in Port Kent. Take the ferry over and you land right downtown. If you make Montreal to Burlington your first day (long) you can camp at North Beach, about 2 miles north of the ferry terminal. City owned campground with amenities on the lake. Beautiful.

Getting out of town can be a bear, depending on where you want to go and what direction you want to head. You can follow Rt. 7 south a bit then cut east towards Bristol and the mountains, or you can follow Rt. 2 and a mix of backroads east to Richmond and then head into the mountains, or even onto Moretown and then south on Rt. 100 to Warren and Waitsfield. You can follow 100 the length of the state - and this would be a pretty ride. Or, if you stayed at North Beach you can head further north and head east by way of 127 and 117 and eventually Rt. 2 in Richmond.

You could also stay on the New York side and cross at Essex / Charlotte (1/2 hour ferry). There are some quiet roads on the Charlotte side - and there is some great cycling through that area. Getting to Middlebury for a mountain crossing would be easy from this point, but you can also head to Bristol and cross at App Gap - but its grades top out at 18-22%.


If I were coming from the north and didn't mind skipping Burlington I'd cross at the Islands and head east towards the mountains and Rt. 100. You can ride 100 for the length of the state... it follows the mountains from Mt. Mansfield in the north all the way to Stratton Mt. in the south. There used to be a 200/100 ride that did a double century on the route in a day... if you want to get to Brattleboro just follow Rt. 30 off of Rt. 100. Camping at Jamaica St park is wonderful...

You can also pick up some of the BMB route and stitch together a route that stays on the west side of the mountains until Middlebury, then crosses and heads east. This route is designed to be a challenge.

Once in S. Vt you have some options depending on which side of the state you are on. I'd try to be on the east side of the state at that point - makes dealing with the Berkshires a bit easier - and you can follow the CT river valley into Mass. Try to get to Brattleboro in VT or Greenfield, Northfield in Ma and then head south. You'll pass through Amherst and Northampton - both college towns and depending on time of day the cycling can be great or the traffic bad. Check out the Rubel maps for heading through MA.

You can also check out the Boston Brevet Series site and the Berkshire Brevet series for more route concepts... (Boston and Western MA rides)

If I were coming from the north and didn't mind skipping Burlington I'd cross at the Islands and head east towards the mountains and Rt. 100. You can ride 100 for the length of the state... it follows the mountains from Mt. Mansfield in the north all the way to Stratton Mt. in the south. There used to be a 200/100 ride that did a double century on the route in a day... if you want to get to Brattleboro just follow Rt. 30 off of Rt. 100. Camping at Jamaica St park is wonderful...

You can also pick up some of the BMB route and stitch together a route that stays on the west side of the mountains until Middlebury, then crosses and heads east. This route is designed to be a challenge.

Once in S. Vt you have some options depending on which side of the state you are on. I'd try to be on the east side of the state at that point - makes dealing with the Berkshires a bit easier - and you can follow the CT river valley into Mass. Try to get to Brattleboro in VT or Greenfield, Northfield in Ma and then head south. You'll pass through Amherst and Northampton - both college towns and depending on time of day the cycling can be great or the traffic bad. Check out the Rubel maps for heading through MA.

You can also check out the Boston Brevet Series site and the Berkshire Brevet series for more route concepts... (Boston and Western MA rides)

one of the best rides literally anywhere.

bmike hase given some great suggestions.

Hey guys,
Thanks a lot for the tips. I only got them now, which is too bad because I am in Rupert, VT (Merck Forest is soooo beautiful), but I did get your suggestions by telepathy ;)
I came down from Montreal on the 223 and that becomes route 9 (or 9A) in NY, followed the lake all the way to Plattsburgh. The next morning I took the Grande Isle ferry and biked to Burlington. I HAD to go to Burlington because its such a fascinating town. I didn't mention it in my first log, but I am visiting environmental initiatives along the way, and burlington is full of them.
Then I took route 7 down to 22A crossing over to NY then route 30 towards Poultney VT (Green Mountain College), then 30 down to Rupert. Very hilly at the end... I was exhausted at 6pm when I finally got there, 100 km of hilly roads in one day is too much for me still.

Anyway, now I am going down to New Lebanon in NY, so I am debating whether to cross over into NY to do it or go down to Bennington VT. Maybe you guys have some suggestions. I am not into the hilly roads after yesterday (although the scenery was beautiful, lots of birds and plants I have never seen before).

Anyway, thanks for your help =)
V