Originally Posted by
freemti
Excellent, this fits with my guesstimates of the time it will take to cross one away across the state. 5 days to Pittsburgh, 2-3 days up to Erie (looks kind of flat, so I'm hoping for even better distance per day, so this might be two days even) and 6-7 days across the top of the state (looks kind of hilly) and another 2-3 days down the Susquehanna and across Lancaster county to home. I told my boss I'm taking 3 weeks of vacation, so we'll see if I can do it in 21 days - that will leave me 3-4 days as rest/rain/sightseeing days. If I can make some good daily distance on some of the flatter regions, I'm hoping I can have a couple more days in the bank for sightseeing.
I went to school at Penn State Erie. I grew up in Harrisburg. I've also done a fair bit of traveling up to Toronto, so I'm pretty familiar with portions of your route.
Erie itself is relatively flat (for PA). Erie to Pittsburgh isn't all that exciting on the interstate, but I wouldn't take bets on smaller roads. It is still Western PA, and even the interstate is not flat. You may not have a lot of route choice through here... there is a *lot* of marshland for a good 50 miles south of Erie.
Going across the top probably varies in terms of elevation gain. I would *not* recommend aiming for Mansfield to Williamsport and then points south. The map makes it look like US 15 is a regular road through there. It's not. Portions of it are normal, and portions are actually I-99 under construction. Figuring out which bits are which from a map is nontrivial. There are probably still active blast zones. I was last through there about 4 years ago, and I know I-99 isn't officially open yet. Past Williamsport, 15 goes back to somewhat normal.
Routing down the Susquehanna makes me nervous. It is not flat. At all (and that's *after* a huge amount of blasting). And for large sections of Perry and Dauphin county, the roads will be... unique. Trying to shoehorn a 4 lane highway (US 11/15 and 322/22) into either side of the river valley had more than a few odd results. I know the maps make them *look* like a regular little US highway, but through there they're more like a limited access superhighway. With surprises. There is very limited bridge selection down the entire valley, and I would not bank on there being bikeable crossings in any given town. And given your proposed route, I can't think of any way to avoid the mess around Harrisburg without a major detour.
It *might* be saner to go from Erie to State College to Carlisle to York to Lancaster. (The topo map doesn't thrill me, but words can't express how exciting it would be to try to cross the Susquehanna at Harrisburg)
If there are PA bike routes that head the way you want to go, I'd pay close attention to them.