BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

There's a trail from Pittsburgh to Weirton, WV, at the Ohio border. Looks like trails are pretty scarce beyond there:

http://www.ohiobikeways.net/gmap.htm

Also, that trail to weirton is from "walkers mill" which is along Noblestown road. It doesnt actually go to the city.

You can take the northside trail to the west end

bridge then main stueben st, left then right up noblestown.

It is not a trail and is hardly traffic free, but

is the best way to to trail short of taking a bus

or something.

Also be very weary of 3 digit state roads in OH,

they are generally highways as opposed to PA where

they are sometimes cycleable with wide shoulders.

Unposted roads in Ohio are generally 55mph

+1 on the route to Weirton.

In Boston PA, near Pittsburgh there is a B&B, the Yough Shore Inn that is way cheap and gets good reviews from my friend Mike.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3Tzut&doc_id=4764&v=K

You can gets and steel yourself for the travails of getting past Pittsburgh.

Mike's route diverges completely from yours once he gets past Pittsburgh.

You can avoid Pittsburgh itself by the using the Montour trail. The Montour trail goes in smiley face fashion south of Pittsburgh(Pittsburgh is the nose of the smiley face).

You can get to the Montour from the GAP with 3 or 4 miles on roads - that get pretty ugly at rush hour.

The Montour has little gaps in it - if you chose it, you might want explicit directs from someone (else) here. It connects drectly to the )Panhandle Trail that goes to West Virginia.

I was under the impression that in Ohio, north of I-70 is flat and south of I-70 hilly. A quick look at Google maps terrain shows me to be mistaken.

But I did see some sweet stream beds flowing out of the west into the Ohio River, Like McMahan Creek out of Bellaire, or Wheeling Creek out of Bridgeport. Each valley seem to have a major highway and a lesser road (or roads, sometimes complicated). You might want to look at those. The Ohio Valley has killer bluffs.

If it were me, I would buy the Delorme Gazetteer book of maps for Ohio and cut out and carry the revelant pages. And get a good road map, too. (belt AND suspenders)

There is the Greater Wheeling Trail, which goes 10 miles along the Ohio River in West Virginia that you might find useful.

When you are done with this trip, please come back and let us know how it went - or at least point us to a blog or webpage.

Good luck

Mick

It looks like it'll be pretty tough to find a good route once you get into Ohio. Google Maps street view is almost everywhere now, including all these roads in rural Ohio. However, it looks like most of them have no shoulder and lots of up and down hills that won't make it the most enjoyable ride out there.

There's a route listed on bikely: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Pittsburgh-Columbus-Based-on-Mayor-s-Ride-2005

It's doable, but it doesn't sound like it'd be a fun ride dealing with the cars in eastern Ohio.

i've done this before and it's a pretty horrible ride... i tried to do it in one day and stopped short 60 miles outside the city to be pick up by a lovely young lady, if you search for columbus on the board you can probably find a post about my route... do not recommend, there are some pretty awesome parts... stay in the valleys as much as you can, find roads around lakes... that's really only advice i can give now.

i rode across ohio a few years ago. i took route 36 most of the way. to start the route you need to get to the town of Cadiz and head north on route 250 (gorgeous!) until route 36. tappan lake is on 250 and there's a historical marker telling how bicyclists form pittsburgh used to come out here. getting to Cadiz, i went through stubenville and route 43/22 as in the mayoral route -find a different way, this sucked (maybe cross the ohio river, head south and take 151 to Hopedale, then 22 to Cadiz). i recall it being overall a pretty good ride. it'll add a few miles to your route, but seeing how the consensus is that a more direct route isn't very pleasant, maybe that would be a doable tradeoff. 250 is flat. 36 is rolling hills, i like these it makes for a fun ride. these are nothing compared to super steep PA rolling hills which will wear a person out fast. there are small towns pretty often for pit stops. you can take 36 till sunbury and then route 3 goes right into centeral columbus -not sure how that road is though.

Wow! Thanks for all the great feedback. I had no idea the Pittsburgh cycling community was so active. This is great feedback. I have family in Chillicothe, OH which is about 50 miles south of Cbus. Perhaps I'll take a southerly route to Chilli and then north from there.

My accountant is an active member of the cycling group there (mostly MTB, I think). Perhaps some of you know him? Surname is Milan.

On on!

JP

If you mean active in the cycling community here in Pittsburgh (as opposed to Chiii or Columbus, OH), and you mean Nick, yes, many of us know him, have ridden with him, and have learned from him. Great guy, great local resource.

The souther part of Ohio is beautiful and HILLY.

From Pittsburgh, you can follow the panhandle trail,

as discussed above, to weirton/stuebenville

From there, you can meander down the ohio river

(with some trails) to marrietta (180 rolling/flat) miles.

Chillocothe is on the Sciota river and it has a nice valley is is a nice place for sure. It is really rolling between the two though. It is beaufiful and there are amish people.