stayfed

Hey.

I am thinking of doing a quick little 4 day bike tour starting in Brooklyn. I am going to camp and will have to travel as light as possible.

I was thinking about maybe riding to Maine? Though that may be a little too ambitious.

Would love to do it somewhere along the coast.

Any ideas?

40 Cent

I've done Portland, ME to Brooklyn, by way of New London->Orient Point, LI ferry. My wife and I did it in 4 days, and that was about 400 miles. We did not camp; we stayed in motels and B&Bs.

I'm not sure what kind of mileage you were thinking about but looking back, I couldn't imagine setting up much of a campsite after any of those days.

As for that route, the really pretty coastal parts were from Portland down into northern MA and then along the North Fork of Long Island. Other than that, trying to get around the outskirts of Boston and Providence in any direct way is really a challenge and mostly not pretty.

As far as I know, going up along the CT coast is nice, but I think you'll add miles. You should ask Papa Tom on BF -- he seems to know that area really well.

When I've head out to LI from Brooklyn, I've always started really early and taken a southerly route along Montauk Highway so by the time traffic picks up in Nassau County, I'm already well past it. Last year, a friend of mine and I did Brooklyn to Orient Point on Saturday, by 3:45 pm and then took the 4:00 pm ferry to New London; and then Sunday we rode Rt. 12 to Worcester, MA, which was a nice road to bike on all in all.

Another idea is to head up toward Vermont. A couple years ago my wife and I generally followed velonomad's suggestions here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-101352.html
where he takes you up the South and North County rail trails and then Rt. 22 to Salem, NY, and then heading into Vermont. BTW, since he wrote that, Rt. 30 between Castleton Corners and Middlebury has become a really beautiful road to bike on -- one of the most memorable of our trip.

Papa Tom

My favorite tour in the Tri-State region used the Pt. Jefferson/Bridgeport Ferry to get across the Sound to Connecticut, where I headed mostly along the water up to Narragansett, Rhode Island. There are some awesome little towns along the way and some great scenery, too. I think I made this a 4-day trip, but my days were only about 50 miles or less, with the exception of one that was about 75. Also, I stayed in hotels along the way, so I don't know anything about the camping that's available.

Highlights for me were places like Branford, Guilford, Clinton, Old Saybrook, Waterford, and of course, Mystic, which I'm heading back to (by bike) this weekend, as I do every summer. Northeast of there, you've got Stonington, Westerly, Misquamicut Beach, and finally, Narragansett itself.

I'm not sure if this ride is just special to me, or whether it's something others would enjoy, as well. If you're interested in trying it, just Google Map all the waterside roads and you're good to go. I can also help with getting you over the Gold Star Bridge in New London. Let me know if this route interests you at all. If you take it, I'd like to hear what you thought of it afterwards.

cafzali

I like the Vermont suggestion, personally. I've not ridden there from my metro NY area home, but I've cycled a lot in Middlebury and surrounding areas and it's some of the best biking in the East, I think. If you want hills, you've got 'em, if you want to avoid them, you can. You can mix in ferry rides and other things for variety. And if you're looking to "scale up" your vacation a bit, Vermont has some great places to stay like the Basin Harbor Club in Vergennes, which is a short trip from Middlebury by either a bike or car.

One additional nice thing is once you get out of metro NY, you'll find the traffic conditions to be pretty nice, especially in Vermont. People who have to put up with that a lot like being able to ride with as few horn honks as possible.