rumrunn6

Daughter recently took a road trip w/ her boyfriend, from central CT to outside of Philadelphia. I plotted a route on google maps & sent it to her, gave her paper maps so she could see "the big picture". my advice was to take bigger highways & avoid NYC by crossing the Hudson further North than a GPS would lead you. she only has a phone for guidance. I use the iPhone "find my friends" app to keep track of her in situations like this. she didn't go the way I advised & wound up wandering on back roads as they struggled to find their way. coming home was even worse. it would have been so much easier for me who grew up w/o a GPS

friday1970

The Cardinal Greeway in Indiana is a very nice trail. I think it is about 50 miles of paved trails, Gaston to Richmond and back. I think it goes another 10 miles north of Gaston, for a total of 61 miles, but not paved. I've only rode it once, but I really liked it and plan on going back again next year.

friday1970

I'd love to know where the longest continuous paved trail is in America. I've rode most of Michigan's paved trails, so I could use a nice adventure someplace else.

UniChris

At some point it's necessary to ask what "continuous" means. ie, what sort of unpaved or road gaps are allowed before disqualification.

A mile on roads with no bike facilities at all?

Two and half miles on a wide highway shoulder signed as a bike route and with few intersections?

Bassmanbob

If you want a break from the cold in October, the Rails to Trails Century organized ride is in Inverness, FL on the Withlacoochee Trail. The trail is about 45 miles long, and the century ride has only a few miles on roads.

I've not done the century ride, but I did a little two day tour with my dog on the Withlacoochee Trail a couple of years ago.

John_V 

I was also going to suggest the Withlacoochee Trail. Besides the Rails to Trails ride in October, they also host the Clean Air Ride in March. This year it's on March 21st.I try and do both these rides on an annual basis. Another good place for a century in Florida is the Suncoast Trail. The only problems I have with the Suncoast Trail is that water and bathrooms are scarce and much of the trial has no shade.

fishboat

Bike Four Trails in Wisconsin.

Bike 4 Trails

Did it a few years ago. 101 miles start to finish. They're all nice trails, though the Sparta-Elroy is the best. Speeds Bike Shop in Sparta does shuttles to-from any portion of the trail.

Digger Goreman

One day....

https://www.adventurecycling.org/rou...-route-system/

257 roberts

now the Good neighbor trail connects with the Withlachoochee trail...it would well over a century there and back

257 roberts

also the Pinellas trail...49 miles

pennpaul

I just moved to Arlington, VA and this is a ride I want to do. Do you just take the 15 from the W&OD to the ferry or is there a safer route? What's your crossing point between the two trails once you're back in DC?

Thanks,
Paul

Rajflyboy

southeast

u235

Yes, you have to take both 15 Business and 15 from Leesburg to the ferry. Roughly 2 miles on each. There is no other way but it's not bad at all. 15B out of Leesburg is a residential/town road with a lower speed limit and some berm and MUP to ride on. 15 itself is very busy but it has a 10+ ft paved berm beyond the white line to Whites Ferry road so you are "off" the road and not sharing an actual lane. https://goo.gl/maps/CzZyxSX6SQ4FU79U9 White Ferry road is just light ferry traffic.

I go counterclockwise and start at Ashburn but the same either way. I take the W&OD, Four Mile Run trail, Mount Vernon Trail up past DCA and then across the Key Bridge and drop down right there on the C&O. Sounds trickier than it is, everything is marked. The pure circle is about 85 miles. When in Leesburg at the W&OD, you can take it north/west to the end in Purcellville and backtrack to Leesburg then finish for a total round trip of about 102 ish? There is some elevation if you do that. Not much but more relative to the rest of the ride. You can knock off maybe 8-10 miles by taking the Curtis Trail to the Key Bridge instead of Four Mile Run/Mount Vernon Trail. I don't like the Curtis Trail for casual riding but it's an option, it's more of a get from point A to point B type of trail. Depending on where in Arlington you are at that might make sense.
Great Falls about mid way up the C&O has regular water fountains (at least they do during 3 seasons) and a restroom. A few other spots have outhouses and iodine pump water. The ferry is $2 cash for a biker collected on the ride over. It's a fun mixed ride. I do it maybe 10 times a year solo.

CliffordK

In progress on the East Coast.

https://www.greenway.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Coast_Greenway

It looks like they regularly have fund raising rides. So this would be a fun thing to do with the younger generation.

https://www.greenway.org/new-york-to...-greenway-ride

Gresp15C

Just a quick note that portions of the Elroy-Sparta trail may be closed due to being washed out by a major spring rainstorm that did a lot of damage in the region. There's a review here from October:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...Wisconsin.html

It's too bad because I want to do this ride.

fishboat

Good point. There was a lot of damage a year+ back(see link below) and much of it has been repaired, but more needs to be done.. The trails in that area are very popular and important for Wisconsin tourism. The DNR will get it fixed..I'd guess this year it'll all be open. Thanks to @Focus1 for the pic update below:

https://www.bikeforums.net/great-lak...l-closure.html

John_V 

The Pinellas Trail is a great trail. My wife and I ride it a few times a year. However, because of the trail having so many stops to cross roads, I would not recommend it for a century ride unless you’re willing to spend the entire day on the ride. I’m sure there are people that have done century rides on the Pinellas Trail but, personality, I would never attempt it.

pennpaul

Excellent information. Thanks for putting it all together. I do remember that section of the 15 having a huge shoulder. No problem for me at all.
​​

friday1970

I guess I don't have an answer for that. For instance, the Pere Marquette trail from Midland really end in down Clare Michigan. But if you take the highway 2 miles West from town, it picks up again at the Moose lodge. So, I guess that is not continuous. But, it is the PM trail. In any case, I got curious for an answer. Apparently, the Paul Bunyan Trail in Minnesota, at 112 miles long.

UniChris

Unfortunately large portions of the ECG are on roads, including many parts of that ride. The main contiguous offroad portion on that ride's route - the D&R Canal - does have some possibilities. Met someone finishing up a roundtrip gravel metric on it last summer. But to go much further you have to either do a substantial repeat (vs simple round trip) or really go through Trenton and up the feeder canal.

Closest I've come to a century on the ECG was when I used the upper portion of the Farmington Canal, but really only overlapped with the ECG for a few miles between the fork in Farmington and the point in Simsbury where the ECG heads east on roads towards Hartford and Boston. The lower section that the ECG uses from New Haven up to Southington is nice (once you get past all the mid block intersections in Newhallville) but then there's a 10 mile road gap before the trail resumes. There seem to be plans to fill one half of that, but none for the other. If willing to ride through that gap and then somehow the 12 miles from Westfield to Springfield it could be a one way century 3/4 on nicely paved trail, with $12 rail return.

Looking at a satellite view, apart from the Westfield and West Springfield rail yards there actually looks to be a fair amount of space alongside the tracks between Westfield and Springfield, so it's tempting to imagine a trail someday being built. Of course on the ground reality is probably that in a lot of places the terrain alongside wouldn't readily support one - railbeds are often built up, may cross wetlands in ways you can't build on today except as a boardwalk, etc. Connection up to the historic end in Northampton (which has its own extensive rail trail network) would be great too, but that that portion of the original line is in active rail use.

wle

yes
[img]data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAQCAMAAAAoLQ9TAAAAZlBMVEX///9emDP9/vxWlCdTkh1ZlSpbly/0+PJZlin5+/efv4vi69zB1bXi7Nvo7+NHjABOkBXO3cOoxZaOtHV8ql10pVJsoUd3plabvoONtHFimzmVuH7A1rHO38GArGKVunzZ5dG0zaS04X RXAAAAgklEQVQYlZ2PwRLCIAxEEwiBprVSW1Ap2Pb/f1LKxfGoe9nMm83MLsDv6mW4fIHxSh5l/ADlkLUmmW7zEkKs6WDuj2cypA0zewuwzrm8vMFTHOtPTtvR76sjRjRbBbvXy9CBKsEj5QosoeGpq1dxvjVI2lE8AVjX7BCR1apW6 o9lAG/ymwWfbnIkKAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==[/img]www.railstotrails.org › trailblog › june › georgias-silver-comet-trail-a...

Georgia's Silver Comet Trail and Alabama's Chief Ladiga Trail ...

Georgia's Silver Comet Trail and Alabama's Chief Ladiga Trail. Posted 06/01/09 by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in America's Trails. AddThis Sharing Buttons. Share to ... The seamless hook-up creates a continuous 95-mile corridor of rail-trail—making the combined trails one of the longest paved stretches in the country.

iambent

MCT Trails in Madison County, IL which is 15 miles east of St. Louis. There are 130 miles of interconnected trails of which 95% are paved. The section of Nickel Plate trail not paved is crushed limestone. Trails vary from suburban to small town to rural Illinois farm country. They are mostly flat with a few minor inclines. MCT Trails Map

coffeesnob

Virginia Capitol trail. Richmond to Jamestown and return. Lots of history and a fairly nice trail.

jays35

The Katy Trail is a great path and a little over 200 miles, one way.

Might check with the Missouri DNR on the conditions. Some of the trail was out due to flooding last year.

Dave

u235

After driving on 15 a over the years I was wondering about biking that section too, the road is a madhouse for cars and no way I'd ride a bike on it but the section to Whites Ferry is bike friendly unlike the rest of it that goes on into MD.