Northeast - Anybody familiar with the roads in & around Weiser State Forest (Lykens, PA)?

My in-laws live in Williamstown, PA and I'd like to start bringing my bike up when I visit. My ultimate goal is to conquer Goldmine Rd, but things are so flat where I live here in MD I know I'm not ready for it yet. In order to build up, I was thinking about taking Clarks Valley Rd/325 out of Tower City to Carsonville Road and cut across Powell Valley Rd to Lykens and then follow 209 back to Williamstown. Is anybody here familiar with the Powell Valley Rd area? I've never actually driven/ridden on it, so I just want to make sure I'm not getting in over my head.

My in-laws live in Williamstown, PA and I'd like to start bringing my bike up when I visit. My ultimate goal is to conquer Goldmine Rd, but things are so flat where I live here in MD I know I'm not ready for it yet. In order to build up, I was thinking about taking Clarks Valley Rd/325 out of Tower City to Carsonville Road and cut across Powell Valley Rd to Lykens and then follow 209 back to Williamstown. Is anybody here familiar with the Powell Valley Rd area? I've never actually driven/ridden on it, so I just want to make sure I'm not getting in over my head.

Cool - my in-laws live in Williamstown as well. I've often thought about riding up over Goldmine - but haven't gotten farther than just thinking about it. A couple of groups I ride with do it a few times during the summer as part of their "hell ride" (from Hershey out thru the Gap, up over Moonshine, up over Goldmine, out Clarks, up over Carsonville - then they turn around and do it all backwards). Maybe next year . . .

Clarks is a great ride, and going from TC west to Carsonville, you'll have a very slight downhill most of the way. You might want to check the feet of climbing over Carsonville Road - not sure how significant it is. I can get more specifics for you if you'd like a first-hand account.

My brothers-in-law are both cyclists, and know the roads up there far better than I do. I'm sure they can suggest a couple of good routes as well.

Beth

PS Watch out for the deer in Clarks Valley . . .

Thanks for the information! It sounds like the Clarks Valley portion should be OK. If you happen to find out how steep the road around Crasonville is (relative to Goldmine), that would be great.

And wow - that does sound like a hell ride that those guys run!

Well, I got to try this loop over the holidays & it rocked! The route ended up being about 36 miles long with close to 2000ft total elevation gain. There was ~1 mile 14% grade on Carsonville that crushed me since I've never come close to riding anything that rough. I'll definitely hit it again when I'm up there next. :)

Glad to hear you got up here with your bike. . . and actually got some riding time! Particularly good with the less-than-great weather we've had. Hope you dodged all the ice patches.

Sorry I missed getting back to you about the elevations before you actually tackled it!

Beth