grall1126

I was thinking of doing a 5-6 day ride from NY to perhaps the Asheville/Hendersonville North Carolina area. It looks like I could for the most part take Route 11 almost all the way South. Not sure of what road for over the mountains. However, can someone possibly point me in the right direction on other sources for this kind of ride? Thanks for any help

unterhausen

Is this a touring question?

Ride with gps has a heat map as part of their ride planning feature. Strava has a heatmap. The touring forum would probably know more.

pdlamb

Personally, I'd prefer Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway from northern Virginia to get into Asheville. Lots of climbing, lots of scenery, not much in the way of services, though.

The situation is that US 11 was largely built up before I-81 was finished. So long stretches of 11 are fine for cycling, such as, for example, Marion to Glade Spring, or Natural Bridge through Buchanan to the north side of Roanoke. Mostly 4 lane, often divided highway, only local traffic which is generally light. But then you've got to get through Roanoke. And that neglects the chance there's an accident on the interstate, and most everyone driving the interstate knows 11 parallels it, so suddenly light local traffic is a nightmare of frustrated drivers in trucks and cars driving on infrastructure from the 50s and 60s.

If you're determined, you can take 11E to outside Johnson City, TN, and take 19E (if you're suicidal) or 19W (through Johnson City). 19W is now paralleled by I-26, but it was never built up like 11 mostly was. Alternately, you could go further south and take US 25/70; the section from Newport to Marshall, NC is surprisingly lightly trafficed (unless there's problems on I-40, which is like saying unless there's a traffic jam in NYC).

unterhausen

I didn't realize I knew the answer to this. I used to ride on 460/11 a lot and wouldn't recommend it in general. I second the recommendation of the BRP. Skyline is $20 to ride on, but it's worth it.

jlippinbike

I'm not sure I understand your question. You mention "other sources," but nowhere in your question do you mention an "initial source." And you also seem to assume that the route you would design would involve "riding over the mountains?" I just sketched a basic route from NY 2 Asheville, and it did not involve riding over any mountains. See https://ridewithgps.com/routes/35846578.


If I were to design a cycling route from NY to Asheville, then I would use RWGPS after signing up as a paid member. You have to be a paid member to use all the tools that are meaningful when designing routes. Do the following while working in RWGPS -


1. Set click action to ADD TO ROUTE and DRAW LINES. Click on the map where you want to start. Then click on the map where you want to finish.

2. Set click action to CONTROL POINT and DRAW LINES. Click on the route line you've created and drag the line so it follows the path you want to take between the start and finish points. Repeat the process until you have a general route. When I created the route in the link I provide you above I avoided as many hills as possible.

3. Set click action to DROP POI and DRAW LINES. Click on the towns along the route that you would like to pass through. Also, click on the bridges you want to cross when getting across various rivers. When done you will have a series of points that you use in creating a series of mini routes. After you create the mini routes, you then connect them (RWGPS allows you to do this) and you will have you "big route" that starts in NY and finishes in Ashville.

4. Create the mini routes by clicking on "Add New" in the upper left corner of the RWGPS edit screen. This will give you an overlay to your original map. When creating the mini routes set the click action to ADD TO ROUTE and CYCLING. By choosing CYCLING the program will search out the best roads on which to ride a bike. I like to fine tune the RWGPS route suggestion using wego.here.com which is a great free online map service that rates the roads according to traffic volume: red, bright yellow, dull yellow, and white. You'll want to avoid red and bright yellow roads. But the dull yellow an white roads are fine to use.


Typically main roads are not good options for an ultradistance cycling route. So saying you might just take 611 from NY to Asheville more than likely won't provide an enjoyable scenic ride. And if you check out 611 between NY and NC using wego.here.com you will see that it is bright yellow or red more often than not.


I hope my comments above prove helpful. My latest route creation using the methodology described above is a 1200k route in South Carolina that I finished designing about a week ago. See https://ridewithgps.com/routes/35751259.