Hey, I'm planning on biking from NY to colorado. Does anyone have any advice on routes I should take? I want to try to avoid bad areas as much as possible. That is the main thing. I appreciate it.

What are "bad areas?"

Have you looked into Adventure Cycling Association's route maps? Their TransAmerica route (among others) goes through CO.

https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/RouteNetwork.pdf

If you can get to somewhere like Erie, PA you could pick up their Underground Railroad route to tha TransAm route. Or take the Northern Tier route to the Great Rivers route to the TransAm.

The maps are handy as they show the locations of things like campgrounds, motels, grocery stores, bike shops, etc. Helps with the planning if that suits you.

Bad Areas are areas with a relatively high crime rate. I will definitely have a look at that link. Thanks for your input.

I suspect by the time you're done you'll have redefined "bad areas" as "Trip segments with more than ten miles between ice-cream stores".

If you are starting from New York City, you'll probably ride across the George Washington Bridge... and then?

Here's a website where you might get some clues:

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/l...octype=journal

Mostly you'll be riding through the big white spaces on the map. The biggest challenge riding is probably avoiding narrow roads with too much traffic. Monster hills aren't much fun either!

Sounds like a great trip!

Don't mess with the girls from Muncie, Indiana.
They are tough sisters.

Bad areas? I'd think if you can safely extricate yourself from NYC, all else will seem very tame indeed.

Yeah, the ACA maps will relieve you of most preplanning, and likely save you their cost by pointing out low cost overnight spots. OTOH, a diy routing is good too as it would be truly "your" route on a road less traveled, thus unjaded by thousands of previous bike tourist.

A reasonble diy routing can be cobbled together with Google maps, bicycle mode, and state maps.

The Saddle River Pathway could help you get through Bergen County:

https://www.nynjtc.org/hike/saddle-river-pathway

What is the terrain like on the Northern Route between New York and North Dakota?

You have the Adirondaks and surrounding areas. Other than that, it's not that difficult. OH, IN and IL are easy terrain-wise. There are some big rollers in IA, but no mountains. MN is relatively tame, too. The real challenge in OH, IN and IL can be the heat and humidity. Corn does not provide shade.

I haven't done the new routing in ND. (AC changed the old route due to the oil boom in the NW part of the state.) However, I did do the old route and a supported tour in ND that went through Bismarck. Generally, you get relatively flat to sweeping rollers with not much that is too steep. Again you have the lack of shade to deal with. And if you get a nasty ND headwind, you can get worn down quickly. During the supported trip we rode for two hours at a 9 mph average over gently rolling terrain. In a tuck going down hill it was hard to get over 13 mph.

Note that the NT goes through Cleveland. Don't be scared. I found it enjoyable. The optional tour of the Emerald Necklace was well worth it. The houses in Cleveland and Shaker Heights were pretty cool.

If you want to avoid the hills and mountains you could ride south thru NJ to MD's Eastern shore and on to Washington DC. There pick up the C&O/GAP Trail which will land you in Pittsburgh on the other side of the most serious terrain. It's round about but depending on your conditioning it beats walking up hills for days on end.

Be aware that no place is really flat. And places we think of as flat could be anything but. SE Ohio for instance. It's got some killer hills.

Staying away from bad areas is going to take some research. Once you've pinned down your route take a look at the major cities and towns on the route. Something as easy as a google search could get you what you need to know. Or, a call to the local PD. It all goes into the trip planning folder.

Thank You!

hi! I'm thinking of making a similar bike packing trip next summer!

Curious if you ever made this trip and if so can you share your route (if you liked it) or maybe give some pointers on what you would change?

I would start here;

https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/

New York is a state as well as a city. You don’t say where you are contemplating starting (or finishing), what time of year, etc.

There are likely hundreds of journals from people who've taken that trip here:

​​​​​​https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/

Awesome, thanks ill check it out!

From NYC, generally due west is thru the difficult hills of Penn. I have seen routes that either take the southern NY route past Binghamton, which is not not hilly, or heading to Albany and west on the Erie Canal trail to south of Buffalo, then Ohio-Erie trail to Cincinnati and the farm roads west thru Indiana, Illinois, Kansas etc.

oh great
I’ll look into these
trails can be boring but safer
curious about the routes- if you have links to any more detailed rotes, even just partial lmk
for example I know the empire trail in ny, but not familiar w Erie Canal trail. PA rollers sounds super nice but again I have no idea where to start so even if you have one link to rwgps leg/ route I can get some bearings
thanks!!!!

No experience riding some of this except some on the Erie Canal. I do know of one member here -JPPE or something, did a supported cross country a few years ago, used US Rt 20 the whole way to Mass. He documented his ride with daily ride reports posted here. There’s also a YT series “Roland and Julia”, they did Kansas City to Kittery Maine, see the Erie Canal Trail from Buffalo to maybe Amsterdam then cut up to Vermont and NH. In Ohio they rode up from Cincinnati on the Erie-Ohio trail. Thru Indiana and Illinois they road local farm roads, which they very much enjoyed, The NY Erie Canal trail is flat, except that it is not complete as a trail and detours onto highways where it sometimes has rolling hills. An option to get up,to Albany is the assorted trails that start in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx, becomes the South County Trail, then the North County Trail, then the Putnam Trail to Brewster, then the Maybrook and Duchess trails to the Hudson, then to New Paltz and into the Walkill Trail to Kingston. That’s 110 miles of paved or gravel trail out of NYC to about halfway up to Albany,