Better trip for nice roads and camping...?

[Jolo]

Me and a friend are planning on doing our first extended ride sometime in june. It will be from a Thursday to Monday. I ride a Monster and he has a SV so we do not have a lot of room for luggage, but we will make do. My question is, We are in North Jersey, and we cant decide on if we should head out west into PA towards the Allegheny National forest or wherever the good roads are out there. Or if we should head up North into the Adirondacks. We will be camping every night. So which place has the nicer scenery/roads/camping areas?

Thanks guys.
P.S this forum is awesome, some sick ride reports in here.

[pnoman]

I'm more than a little biased toward West Virginia.

Try my site for ideas: www.RidingWV.com I started it last year, and it is slowly growing. Some sections are small or even empty, but it is filling up as readers submit material (photos and ride reports welcome!)

Lot of great roads, especially in the mountains south and east of Elkins. Check out the Ride #1, which "home bases" at Seneca Rocks and goes out from there. It's a good central location for all kinds of riding.

Hope you enjoy your ride, wherever you end up.

[MikeBike4]

Originally Posted by pnoman

I'm more than a little biased toward West Virginia.

.

+1

[Jolo]

WV definately looks awesome, but would it be realistic without having to be rushed for a couple a sportbike riders coming from Northern NJ who only have about 4 days to do the hole trip?

[Jolo]

But between heading out west into PA or up north into ADK. Which would you guys recommend.

[Jolo]

pnoman, Im trying to pull up your site but its giving me a page not found error everytime?

[pnoman]

Originally Posted by Jolo

pnoman, Im trying to pull up your site but its giving me a page not found error everytime?

I was doing some updates and screwed up the link to the landing page - sorry. Fixed now. There are also some minor spacing/layout issues I'm working on. Funny how stuff looks different "live" than it does when editing on the computer.

My sister lives near Easton PA, on the PA / NJ line. They drive out here and arrive by mid-afternoon, and we are 2 hours west of Seneca Rocks. Of course, her husband is a jet pilot.

[bush pilot]

Originally Posted by Jolo

WV definately looks awesome, but would it be realistic without having to be rushed for a couple a sportbike riders coming from Northern NJ who only have about 4 days to do the hole trip?

Yea just superslab it to Berkeley Springs. Spend a couple of days wandering around the national forests, then superslab it home. WV is indeed some awesome countryside and some.great roads. Great places to camp in the GW NF and the Monongahela forest.


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[MapMaster]

While I'm never hesitant to sing West Virginia's praises, having the OP spending the better part of 2 days slabbing to the area and back is not the best way to begin developing m/c camping habits.

Given a choice between the Adirondacks and northern PA, I'd say go with PA on this mission, though the second option could be the Catskills, it's closer than the Adirondacks and there are more side road options. All three areas have some pretty spectacular scenery, but overall the better mountain views are in the two NY regions.

My point being that from north NJ, you can be into the back road travel mode almost immediately, and not have to be pushing to do miles to get somewhere further afield.

Get a PA map (free at welcome centers and a lot of Interstate rest areas. As state road maps go, it's a very good one) and consider the following:

US 6 - This is more of a cruiser road with more traffic and towns to deal with, but still a pleasant ride with lots of roadside diversions. Tons of good back road options off of it and north central PA has plenty of great swervery available.
A good e/w travel road is PA 87 and 973
Roads to play on:
120 through Renovo,
555 through elk country
872
44
144
Wycoff Ron
many others.

Don't miss Hyner View State Park just east of Renovo for a great vista (no camping there, but it is available at very nearby Hyner Run State Park
lots of other camping options through the region.

The back roads NE of Scranton have been taking a beating from gas well trucks.
The Pocono region can be hit or miss on the traffic front.

Have fun,
Greg