Originally Posted by
hartlean
Question, please, for those who have biked around PA quite a bit. I am planning a trip from North Carolina up to the Buffalo NY area this Fall, & PA will likely be the major challenge of the entire trip. I'm quite a bit older now, age 50, than I was when I did my last major tour. So, I was wondering if you could suggest a safe route, without too many killer hills, from Gettysburg or Harrisburg (I'm flexible there) up to the Olean NY or Salamanca NY areas. Once I cross into NY I'm very familiar with the routes.
Thanks in advance for your consideration.
I cannot give you much route advice unfortunately, but I can tell you that what ever the route you will not be able to avoid PA's endless rolling hills. Traveling north/south is not as bad as traveling east/west, but still you will have seemingly endless hills.
There are a couple of general rules about PA hills -
(1) you can never guess how long the hill will be from the bottom looking up because there are so many bends that you cannot see more than a hundred yards.
(2) the hills get steeper as you approach the top
(3) what looks like the top is never the top, just a big bend and more hill
(4) every big downhill has a busy intersection at the bottom so you cannot use your momentum to start up the next hill
(5) you will have to use your brakes a lot going down because the turns are sharp and you cannot see very far ahead for safety
(6) the downhill side always seems a lot shorter than the uphill side
(7) there are potholes and poor shoulders everywhere in PA
(8) PA is a real pretty state though!
Enjoy your trip!