Originally Posted by
BigUgly
Thanks for the tips. I will check out Bikely. My total plan is to ride from State College, PA to Skippack, PA. I have a route mapped out from State College to Pottsville. The missing link is Pottsville to Leesport. Once I get to Leesport, I know enough of the area to get to Skippack without using 73. My concern is Route 61 as I didn't think it was bikable between Pottsville and Hamburg from memory. Isn't it mostly a 4 lane highway from Pottsville to Hamburg? And very high traffic wise? This is the 2nd tip I had to avoid 901 and I thank you for that as I was eyeing that road up as a potential route.
In the past few years they have done a lot of work to Route 61. Most sections have fairly wide shoulders.
Your problem from Pottsville and South is that Route 61 is really the only direct route through the mountains. If you look to the West of Route 61 you see Route 183 and then further West is Route 501. Neither of these would be acceptable. Some sections have shoulders while others have the traffic lane almost against the guard. Traffic speeds right up there with Route 61.
If you look to the East of Route 61 you see nothing over the second mountain until you are out above Allentown. With the first mountain you would have to use the narrow rough road up over Hawk Mountain.
Other than Route 61 there is no direct connection to Hamburg. Using small roads would run you all over lower Schuylkill and Northern Berks counties. The real old road from Reading to Pottstville now exists only in somewhat isolated sections. The Bartram Trail would save you the long hard pull up and over Deer Lake Hill and then the wild ride down to Molino where 895 intersects with 61.
I once lived in Auburn,PA did a lot of fishing in the river around Hamburg. I think you are stuck with having to deal with sections of Route 61 as to where it would have to be used and where you could use sections of the old original road. You might try something like MapQuest and the aerial views to look at close roads you could use while still staying close to Route 61.
The Schuylkill River Greenway Assoc. calculated that it would cost about $20 million to connect Reading and Hamburg with a trail with road riding. Schuylkill County is really dragging their feet on finishing the trail from Schuylkill Haven down through Auburn.
As I pointed out. Some riders do Schuylkill Haven to Hamburg on bikes and must cross over private property owned by the Auburn Fish and Game Club. I have not heard of anyone being arrested for crossing the private property. I think they are using Bear Creek Road to get into Auburn from the Bartram Trail. Then across the river at Auburn on 895 and then up the river to Landingville and into Schuylkill Haven by old roads along the river.