From Montour Trail to Lafayette, IN
 

Hi, I'm looking for suggestions for a route from the Montour Trail, to the west of Pittsburgh, PA, to Lafayette, IN. This is for a stage of a cross country tour in 2009. I'll be camping, and if possible I want to avoid busy roads.

From Richmond, Indiana, you can take the Cardinal Greenway to Muncie, and I'll plan out a route from Muncie to here. If you look at Ohio BIke Routes Maps, on the Ohio State site, there will be a good bit of info as well.

While on the subject, any advice on the rest of the route? I want to wind up in Orange County, CA. I could drop down from Indiana to the Trans-America, and then turn south when I hit the ocean, I suppose.

I think I can help you out. I'm in the middle of riding from Richmond indianna to wheeling wv. I'll let you how my proposed route works out tomorrow night.

Stay tuned!

Here is the route that should work for you from Weirton,WV to Richmond,IN from the Montour Run Trail you can catch the Panhandle trail all the way into Weirton. I've ridden the section from the Montour Run Trail to Morristown, OH and the sections from Cambridge, OH to Richmond, IN (except downtown Columbus). I've driven the rest many time in a car.

The only sketchy parts of this route are about 5 miles of Rt. 2 in West Virginia and the city part of Columbus. I think you could work out a route through Columbus on one of the commuting forums.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sadd...99&ie=UTF8&z=8

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

monkd

Thanks, it looks great. And as an admirer of James Thurber, visiting Columbus has a certain appeal to it.

I'm in st. clairsville, oh and on the warmshowers.org network so if you need a place to camp in st. c. Look me up.

monkd

Unfortunately the Cardinal Greenway is not paved all the way to Richmond, the pavement ends outside Losantville. I live 1.5 miles trail head near Prairie Creek Reservoir.

Thank you. You are very kind. I'll put you on the list. So far it's you, Tom Stormcrowe, and the fellow in LA who said he'd put me up. Since I'm probably going to be doing the ride on a shoestring budget, I'm grateful for the offer.

Is the remainder gravel?

Yes, but most of it is un-rideable. You could take US 35 which runs next to the Greenway, and pick the Greeway back up in Losantville.