Flandry

This is a plea for input to any New Englanders familiar with the area in northern MA and southern NH. I need to bike up to Raymond and back this weekend for a camping trip.

Google maps has a route that is fairly direct but (from looking at some street view panoramas) not incredibly bike-friendly. I'm not aware of any bike trails on that route, but there are probably better roads. What would you recommend?

Thanks in advance for your help planning the trip.

vmcrcr

To the best of my recollection, once you get north of Stoneham Rte 28 through Reading to Andover isn't bad, Rte 133 through Andover is decent, and 125 is OK. Stay on 125 through Haverhill, DO NOT GO THE WAY GOOGLE MAPS RECOMMEND THROUGH HAVERHILL!!!! Not bike (nor people) friendly area.
125 through Plaistow is congested, it's a retail district, but North of Walmart the road is not bad.
121A and 111A aren't horrible, 107 is OK.
Some of these roads I've ridden, but 15 years ago when I lived in the area.
Now living near Manchester, NH I'm not riding as much as I used to, hopefully someone else will give more current information south of Andover.

pkpsu

I grew up in North Reading just south of Andover. My advice would be to stray away from rt 28, there is no shoulder, congested 2 lanes in each direction, lots of small shopping plazas with cars always darting in and out. My suggestion would be, off of 28 in stoneham which isn't so bad, take pleasant/spring/east/forrest st (really just one straight rd but changes names) over to Main st. Take main st up through wakefield around the rotary and up haverhill st through north reading (one nasty little short/steep climb in there) up through harold parker (that part you'll enjoy, bathrooms and water here) haverhill turns into jenkins and boston rd, then a left on 114 which shares the same route with 125 before 125 makes a right turn. You'll enjoy this route much more than rt28 and its not as complicated as it sounds.

Flandry

My roommate returned from his latest bike race and i consulted him. He suggested that i get out of the Boston metro area on the Minuteman railtrail and then head more or less due north from Bedford. Because of a desire to stick to major roads to minimize the chances of getting lost, i ended up on some pretty poor biking roads at times, but nothing that was nearly as disturbing as biking around town in Boston.

One of the most interesting observations was that there really isn't a rural road in the area. Everywhere i went there were houses or at least outbuildings. It's not something i am really accustomed to in the West.

I had fun figuring out after the fact where i had actually gone vs. where i had intended to go.

https://tinyurl.com/biketocamp
https://tinyurl.com/bikefromcamp