Adventure Cycling Unveils Three New Eastern Bicycle Routes

Bicycling in the East just got a whole lot better. The Adventure Cycling Association, America

The Adirondack Park Loop rambles 394 miles through upstate New York and picturesque Adirondack Park, the largest publicly protected parkland in the lower 48. Utilizing off-road bike paths and low-traffic roadways, the route starts and ends in Niskayuna, just northwest of Albany, and reaches some of the highest elevations in New York State. Highlights of the ride include awesome highland terrain, the Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway along the Mohawk River, Saratoga Springs and the Serotta Bicycle Factory, Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain, and Lake Placid, home of two Winter Olympics.

The 396-mile Allegheny Mountains Loop starts and ends in Blacksburg, VA, and weaves between Virginia and West Virginia, offering adventurous cyclists several route options along the way. Featuring a mix of roads and traffic-free rail trails, the route takes in classic Allegheny scenery as it follows gentle river valleys and tackles steep, muscle-burning climbs and thrilling descents. One route option takes riders along a gravel ridge-top in Monongahela National Forest, while three others are cut-offs from the main loop, allowing cyclists to customize the length of the loop to suit their needs.

The Pittsburgh Spur stretches for 152 miles from Pittsburgh, PA, to Erie, PA, on the shores of Lake Erie, where it connects with the Underground Railroad (UGRR) Bicycle Route (which can then be then be ridden south to Mobile, AL, or north to Owen Sound, ON). The Spur begins at the John Heinz History Center, where cyclists can view the Underground Railroad exhibit, before following the Ohio River north along rural roads through a pastoral landscape of rolling hills to the Beaver River and on to Erie. Pittsburgh is also home to the Center for Minority Health (at the University of Pittsburgh), which partnered with Adventure Cycling in creating the UGRR route, which was unveiled in its entirety in February earlier this year.
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