lennon_68

OK, that title is an understatement... I actually need a lot of help

I've done a couple tours over the last two years and have really loved the experience. For the first my brother flew to Minnesota from Oregon to do a tour here and for the second my wife and I drove out to Oregon to do a tour out there. Having survived (and possibly even enjoyed) the 3500 mile round trip drive to Oregon and back we determined that if we can drive to Oregon we can drive pretty much anywhere in the continental US For basically no reason whatsoever (other than the fact that we'd just driven to the West coast I suppose) we decided we want to do a tour this summer on the East coast. The problem is I really don't know where to start with something like this.

The other two tours were relatively easy to plan. For the timeline we worked around my brother's school/travel schedule. For the tour location we used our homes as starting/ending points (for the most part, in Oregon we did take a bus out of Eugene ~1 hour). We planned the routes around roads we're familiar with. We didn't have to worry about where to leave our car... we were familiar with camping locations, etc.

For this tour everything is wide open. We can pretty much do the tour whenever we want as long as we plan it enough in advance. The start/stop location is completely open. We have no clue what kind of options we'll have for camping, etc. or what routes will work well for riding.



As far as what we'd be looking to get out of a tour here's some random notes:

- 4-5 light days (say 35-40 miles/day). On the Oregon tour we shot for 40 miles/day. I think that would have been OK if we hadn't been climbing mountain passes lol.
- Loaded touring - we'd be hauling camping gear and at least some food. It would be nice to be able to eat at a restaurant at least once a day but that's not a must (on the flip side we could eat all our meals "out" if that's an option)
- We like outdoorsy stuff. In my mind we'd be riding rolling hills and winding roads (with no traffic and 20' shoulders lol - just kidding). We'd like to camp every night but preferably not at a campground (that might be necessary to plan this though since we can't just go drive the route and find camping places).
- Paved roads/paths - in Oregon we did some gravel, we'd prefer to avoid that if at all possible (maybe a mile or two of gravel sprinkled in would be doable if a route couldn't work any other way)
- Prefer to do a round tour starting where we parked the car and ending there.
- We'd probably want to stay in a hotel the day before and day after. Maybe we could leave the car at the hotel?
- It would be nice to get to the ocean. When we did Oregon we did a day trip (by car) to the ocean after the tour was done - that might be the best option here as I suspect roads near the ocean will not be ideal for biking.


For some reason I have New Hampshire in mind but that's based on pretty much nothing lol (never been there, don't have family there, never researched it, etc.)


Any input would be greatly appreciated.

indyfabz

Look at Adventure Cycling Association's Adirondak Loop (New York State) and their Green Mountains Loop (Vermont), although I would not call them "light." You could use them as starting places and possibly cut them down.

Here is another resource to look into:

https://www.champlainbikeways.org/index.htm

Burlington, VT is a nice place to start and end. It's sort of like the Ashland, OR of Vermont. And there is a campground in town right near the lake.

SuperTrouper

I'm not familiar with good tour routes on the east coast of the States, but I've heard from friends and family of some great tours in the Canadian Maritimes, if you're willing to drive a little farther afield to start your trip (and it sounds like you might be):

1. Cabot Trail in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Though I haven't personally been, I've heard from friends that it's a beautiful place that's great for doing anything outdoorsy. It definitely fulfills your criterion for being near the Ocean. (https://www.freewheeling.ca/adventure...abotTrail.html for an idea of the trail)

2. Biking around (parts of) PEI, Prince Edward Island. Canada's smallest province! My Dad did this tour a few years ago and had a great time. Every restaurant you stop in will probably claim to have the "best seafood chowder on the Island". Plus, you can see Green Gables, in case that's something you've ever wanted to do. Again, definitely fulfills your Ocean criterion. Be warned: you'll face a headwind no matter what direction you ride in -- one of the climate-related charms of the Island (https://www.tourismpei.com/pei-cycling)

Fullcount

Go to Adventure Cycling's website and order section 4 of the Atlantic Coast route. Also, go online and download the East Coast Greenway PDF for the state of VA Start your trip at Williamsburg, Va, looking at the ECG map heading south at the Jamestown ferry crossing to pick up the ACA map heading towards NC. You can follow the interior route towards Willimgton and then loop back east and north to the Outer Banks of NC and enjoy a couple days of riding through coastal NC and some of the nicest beaches on the east coast. Make sure you are heading north through the Outer Banks as the bridges have a wider shoulder northbound.

Your trip will take you back just south of the NC / VA border where you will retrace your last day back to Williamsburg, Va. Total trip of about 350 miles and a nine day tour. Of course you will see all that Williamsburg and Jamestown, Va historical sites have to offer, some of the best BBQ in Carolina, the beaches of Cape Hatteras and the famed lighthouse and finally, the Wright brothers National Memorial at Kill Devils Hill. There will be four ferry rides (all free) and the potential to detour to Virginia Beach if you have not gotten your fill of the Atlantic.

The ACA map has all the campgrounds, hotels and resupply spots listed. If you decide to go off the beaten path, get yourself a copy of AllStays Camp app for your iPhone or Droid. This app uses your GPS location to give a list of all RV and Tent Campsites thaare within a 50 mile radius.

Good luck on your trip and if you decide to take this route and visit Va Beach, PM me for better directions.

lennon_68

Thanks for the input so far guys, very much appreciated!

indyfabz - that looks very promising. Peaking at the ACA summary maps it looks like there's several options to shorten the routes. These options look very promising - I'll have to do a little more research. I have to say I'm a bit hesitant to purchase another ACA map though, I bought the maps for the North Tier segments that go either direction out of my town (Grand Rapids, MN) and to be honest I was a bit underwhelmed with them. That may not be a fair assessment though as there's probably not much better options to get through the region than what they suggest.

SuperTrouper - I took a peak at this and although the added distance as compared to the VT/NH area isn't an automatic deal breaker (~31 hr vs ~21hr) it's definitely a consideration that's causing me to hesitate. These look like beautiful options though.

Fullcount - It seems like this route might go through a bit more populous area than I'd like but I honestly don't know really. Also 9 days is definitely more than we'll be able to pull off (I'm sure it could be shortened though).


I'm leaning toward the VT/upstate NY options right now but that could be just because I already had that region in mind...

michaelb05

I just came back from a quick ride to the mountains in Vermont after work, and Vt is gorgeous, but I would send you to Quebec as the first choice, to do some loop on the Route Verte.

https://www.routeverte.com

Quebec gets you rail to trails and designated roads, very scenic, beer, and absolutely great food, including poutine. The main issue with biking Vermont is that it is really hard to find any long loops that don't involve some serious climbs. A loop around Lake Champlain though is relatively flat, and would be very nice, and has to be one of the best 3-5 day loops anywhere. If you are from Minn, it would seem a bit like Lake Superior, only warmer. I have never biked in NH,, and I am sure there could be some possibilities, but my guess is that it would not be anywhere near as nice as Vermont or Maine. I love hiking in NH. Going further east to Nova Scotia would be great too, but I haven't done that.

michaelb05

That's practically code for doing the Lake Champlain loop, so great choice. I haven't biked the NY side, but do ride the islands in Vt, and they are beautiful for riding and get tons of tours going through every week, often several a day in the summer. As you map out your options and your mileage, it is at least worth thinking of extending into Quebec up to Chambly since that bike trail is very nice along the canal. The southern lake area though on the Vt side is also very nice for riding, so worth looking at extending your ride into that area of Vt. Burlington would be the great and obvious center of the loop.

lennon_68

Well, that was mostly just out of the options here so far...

This option sounds promising as well. Any specific route recommendation? For the Vermont mountains what kind of climbs are we talking about? I would like to avoid as much climbing as we did in Oregon for sure - that included 3500 feet of elevation gained in the first 20 miles...


It sounds like you're familiar with this area, how's the campgrounds? Here in MN it's expensive to stay at a campground but out in Oregon they had designated hiker/biker camp that was only ~$5-10 a night. Also here I feel like we would have to make reservations but in OR if you biked in they'd find room for you somewhere.

lennon_68

I probably wrote this off too soon. Are you familiar with the campsites in the area? If so are they more bike friendly (like what we experienced in OR) or not so much (like we experienced here)?

lennon_68

Any other suggestions or comments on the camping situation in these areas?

indyfabz

The climbs in VT are not going to give you the elevation gains you see in places like OR. You will probably have less that 2,000' of elevation gain on any given climb. However, if you tackle any of the "gaps" you can get sustained grades of 20% or more. The ACA route incoporates Rochester and Middleburry Gaps. We did them back-to back going west. Rochester was really hard, especially the later miles. Middleburry was easier but still very hard for the last mile or so. Keep in mind that we were not carrying gear.

Grades out west tend to be much kinder. I did the entire Nothern Tier W-E fully-loaded in '99. The only time I thought I would have to walk was near the top of Brandon Gap in VT. My computer actually read 2 mph at one point. I turned around, went back down hil a bi,t got my momentum back and finished without walking.

BTW...We camped in the city park in Grand Rapids, MN. Nice park. The showers, not so much.

Camping in the east can get expensive. The northeast can be rediculous. Last month I did the portion of ACA's Atlantic Coast route between Port Jervis, NY and Philly. The night before I started I paid something like $34 for a site at a private campground. The next night was around $28. The last night the guy gave me a cyclists discount. $15 for the site. I stayed there last year so he knew me. Even state parks in PA and NJ are somewhat pricey. I think PA is $20/night. NJ is $25 for out of stateers. No hiker/biker discounts.

lennon_68

Nice! I'd love to do an extended tour some day. We've still got young kids so it's hard to even get away for 7-10 days a year but some day in the not too distant future hopefully


Sounds like camping prices are more in line with what we're used to in MN (not a deal breaker or anything I just want to be mentally... and financially... prepared). Would it be safe to assume I could just ride in and get a campsite or would I want to call in advance? Here in MN you can pretty much camp anywhere in a state forest (it's not ideal as you're basically bush whacking but we did so on a couple nights of our tour here), does anyone know if there's anything like that in VT/NY?

The more I research the more I'm drawn to something out of Burlington, VT in some way shape or form lol. I ran my wife through the list of suggestions so far and she said she's always wanted to go to New York.

Now to plan a specific route...

lennon_68

Nevermind... Google is your friend lol

https://www.vtstateparks.com/htm/primitive.htm

(sounds like it's the same as here in MN - OK just don't leave any trace)