PA Bike Route A
 

Is anyone aware of a good resource for PA Bike Route A written directions? I would like to ride it, but the online resources of maps seem paper intensive and perhaps a bit cumbersome for navigation.

I found a route at ridewithgps.com: Route A But the first 30 miles have some repeated sections, going out and back, then out again. You could set up a free account there, and use this route to make a fresh one. Or just copy this cue to a spreadsheet, and do the first 30 miles yourself--easy.

Here's a bikely.com route to use to check the ridewithgps route.


The automatic cue sheet will usually have some extra entries. For instance, maybe the road turns and there's a short dead end road ahead, so it may list a right turn.

This user clicked away from the correct route at mile 32.5, so there's a short right turn, then a 180 turn. At mile 60.0, the road merges with another, so it doesn't need that cue entry. You need to zoom in and follow the route to make sure it's correct.

For a cue sheet to use on the bike, I click 'Print' on the cue sheet at the left side, which pulls up a better formatted one in a new window. Then I copy it and paste it into a spreadsheet program. I can edit out the unneeded entries, clean up the format, and bold the critical turns to watch for. I usually add cues for towns where I might stop, too.

I got all excited, until I saw that was reversed from my first leg. I'll have to play around with that because that's the best I've found so far. Thanks.

I'd found the bikely.com route, but I couldn't figure out how to print cue sheets.. but between the two that's a huge help. I guess it was too simple to hope the state would have published something in addition to the maps.

On a related note, has anyone ridden this route? I know in Erie County it's not great, but I'm hoping it gets better further south.

This purports to have cues for A under "directions," but it doesn't:

http://www.pahighways.com/other/bicyclepa.html

They do have cues for G and Z, but that's it.

I am planning to ride S from Bedford to Morgantown this spring as part of a PGH to PHL trip. I printed each map section, mapped the route on Bikely and will type my own cue sheet in the format I like. It doesn't take that long.

In general, I have looked at a couple of the PA routes and found them lacking to down right dumb in several places. Route J north of Harrisburgh is a great example. No way would I want to ride on that part of U.S. 322. I will also modify Route S for my trip. I know much nicer roads than SR 23. And my modification will also take me to French Creek State Park, where I can camp.

I was afraid of that after my experience on Route A in Erie County.. if I can't find someone with experience riding it to get some feedback, I may scrap this and just make my own route.

I can give some tips at this end. Be careful of Route 51 near Aliquippa. My suggestion would be to cross the Ambridge Bridge and take Route 65 to the Sewickley Bridge.

When you cross the Ambridge Bridge, proceed into town. Take the streets. This will eliminate much of the busy section of Route 65.

I've done Routes J, G and L, I use the state's maps and just hand-enter it into ridewithgps, then print out a cue sheet -- after double checking.

J is my least favorite of these routes, as indyfabz notes it goes along pretty busy highways for a good chunk north of Harrisburg, though very flat. I tried to come up with alternate routes but that's a very mountainous area. Also the northern end of J is now unbikeable because of very heavy fracking truck traffic.

Would love to hear about A, how the route is, the roads, etc, if/when you do this ride.