Day riding

[Jess from VA]

I've been day riding around Northern VA for 35 years.  Besides the main busy highways and 4 lanes (which I try to avoid), like many places I suppose, it's a crazy quilt of old twisty back roads connecting old historic towns, mills, creek and river crossings.  Some of that is good riding, and some isn't (I don't do dirt roads).

It takes me around an hour to get out of my suburban traffic (generally heading West), and an hour to get back home (and try to do it before quitting time traffic really amps up).

Over these years, I've discovered about the best riding routes in and out of town, and out West in beautiful VA horse and farm country with nice rolling hills, winding roads and many old mossy stone walls which may date back to civil war era (farmers move the stones out of fields for plowing and planting, and keep their livestock from wandering off).  And by sticking to these routes, I don't get lost or have to consult maps or notes.  3 1/2 to 5 hour rides is my norm.  

But I find myself in kind of a rut where I'm seeing the same scenery, places and roads I always do (even remembering the occasional bad potholes or gravelly muddy spots).  So I've taken to sitting at my computer and studying regional maps, making a few notes, and taking alternate routes.

I did this yesterday, and found myself on roads I remembered, but hadn't been on for years.  It was a nice change, but I ended up in more traffic than I like.  Not terrible, but not as nice as my normal routes.  So I realize the old tried an true travel routes may be the best there are for a good reason.  

As things warm up, I can get earlier starts and range farther out than normal and still beat quitting time coming home (and the worst heat of the day, which is harder on me than it used to be).  I've also remembered I need to check the weather out West; it may not be raining at my house, but I've gotten a little wet out there a couple times.  So it goes.

What do you guys do?
  

[Hook#3287]

I'm lucky that I live in an area mostly rural.  Central Ma, east of the Connecticut river but west of Worcester Ma.

I go north or south and it's all New England small towns mixed in with old farms, some still operating.

That opens up to northern Connecticut or southern New Hampshire and Vermont. All great riding.

Road conditions vary from town to town, but being a New England Yankee, I'm used of it.

When I'm out just cruising w/o a real destination, I open my Garmin GPS, hit a spot on the map, hit avoid highways and shortest route and pretty much follow its suggestions.

I do check the route to make sure to miss the cities and modify the plan if needed. I hate city traffic and will go 20 miles out of the way to avoid them if possible.

I've found many excellent roads, that in the past, I've just motored by.

[Pluggy]

Google maps has introduced me to enjoyable places I never would have thought of.  Some of the small town restaurants are excellent.

[0leman]

When I first got here in Southern OR, i used google maps to find two lane roads (in fact that there are no 4 lane roads within 85 miles of my home).  Then started exploring   After 15 years of living here,  i have been on 96% of all paved roads within 100 miles of home.   Some roads are meant to be rode during the summer due to that 4 letter problem that come with winter.  I have several routes that take 6 hours of riding time to complete that I try to take a couple times a summer.  Most of my riding is in the 150 to 200 mile range.

I too try to stay off gravel roads type roads.  Due to my not looking closely at the maps, I did get to enjoy a 19 mile ride on loose gravel while having a grasshopper swarm cross my path.  Wasn't my best enjoyable ride.   And no couldn't turn around as was way past the halfway point for gas. 

[old2soon]

    I wuz NEVER fond of dirt roads on 2 wheels unless I wuz on a dirt bike! I'm on a trike now but still Not fond of them. I have Many number and letter roads here bouts. Sometimes letter roads paving ends puttin you on dirt. Or just dead end. And I do in FACT have a Lot of interesting RIDING roads here in Missouri and Arkansas. My closest larger metro area is Springfield Mo. bout 85 ish miles West of me which I now avoid as often as I can. There are places I ride I Still lose cell service though sadly not near as many as there use ta wuz. Stuff been greenin up and flowers be bloomin and just a purty time of year here in SoMo!  Jess there IS fer a FACT way too muc traffic in yer neck of the woods! Much like Houston Tx. I Never Found a GOOD Time to transit the D C area in a big truck!  RIDE SAFE.

[NewValker]

Being in central Ma., I go west, north , or south. Usually not south because they don’t trust me to carry, but working on that.
I either jump on the pike to  91, then north to the good ridin roads, or ride Rt. 20 west to 202 and points north or west.
Rt. 9 is a nice ride, but miles of construction this year, nope…
If I’m sticking close to home, there are tons of back roads to putt along, I like exploring roads I don’t know where they go.
Jess, one good thing about riding the same roads all the time, you know where the potholes are!
Oh, wait, do you got them down there??

Craig

[Pluggy]

History rides with us on the old two lane roads.  Old US1 at my house was the Pee Dee Indian Trading Road.  A common term is "places of interest".  Around here we could say "roads of interest".

[Jess from VA]

Craig and Bill, the only ride I ever took in New England was to buy my 2d Interstate.  I got on the DC Metro train to Amtrak north, with a bag of riding gear/helmet.   I can't remember where I got off, but the seller picked me up at the station and we drove to Belchertown MA where he lived.  Made the deal, and I rode home.  Not much sight seeing; I went west, then south to home.  Long day.

The seller was into racing cars, and that (permanent solo trunkless) Interstate was rigged for wet nitrous with a bottle in stainless rings in front of each saddlebag.  I had him take all that off, though the go switch is still in right side pod.

Pluggy, US Route 1 (local to me called the Richmond Highway) is one mile from my home.  I only use it North in the truck to shop for food and stuff.  I ride it South from time to time, but as it's a main artery to DC, it's always busy, and light to light, though it opens up some farther South.

Something I have never gotten used to in VA, they change the name to roads all the time (regionally).  It has a number, which is only on signs sometimes, but the road name can change multiple times riding down it, and little towns will name the road something else, just inside town limits.  It gets confusing.

I live on Keeler Street, but I've been thinking about putting up signs on each side of my property changing it to Jessville Avenue.      (The County would not like it, and probably levy a daily fine until I took them down). 

[Pluggy]

Pluggy, US Route 1 (local to me called the Richmond Highway) is one mile from my home.  I only use it North in the truck to shop for food and stuff.  I ride it South from time to time, but as it's a main artery to DC, it's always busy, and light to light, though it opens up some farther South.

Jess, I've usually lived or worked close to US1.  Years ago it was easy to drive from my place in Laurel, MD to visit my future wife in Fredericksburg, VA. Both US1 towns. Interstate 95 and the Capital Beltway were not typically congested.  Today in Raleigh NC, US1 is a 6 lane super highway. Drive South out of Rockingham, NC and it is a basic two lane road.  

A lot of guys seek those really twisty roads.  For me they are just exercise.  I'd prefer a ride through the SC Pee Dee region to Cheraw of Bennettsville for a lunch.

[Jess from VA]

Interstate 95 and the Capital Beltway were not typically congested.

Those days are long gone.  Nearly every time I pass over them, they are a parking lot, to the horizon.  That's only in daylight, I don't know about nights.

A lot of guys seek those really twisty roads. 

Our rolling hills are curvy and I enjoy them, at reasonable speeds.  My days of dragging floorboards at speed are mostly over.  I don't need that much excitement, and a grain truck or farm equipment can be right around the bend.   

[scooperhsd]

I know well of what you speak, Jess. Rt 123 changes name no less than 7 times from where it crosses I-95 down where you live to where it ends up ending at the Potomac River east of Langley....

I can also sympathize about I-95 rush hours always being a parking lot. really bothered me getting down to Raleigh on Friday nights and coming back Monday Morning. I got to know other routes as well (and this was before GPS's).

[Jess from VA]

I know well of what you speak, Jess. Rt 123 changes name no less than 7 times from where it crosses I-95 down where you live to where it ends up ending at the Potomac River east of Langley....

It's Ox Road when I'm on it.

Man that is the LONG way around to DC (from Woodbridge?).  

I've often wondered if VA gives so many different names to the same road dates back to the Civil War as a method for confusing the Yankees.  

[Jersey mike]

I’m in a similar boat with traffic and congestion.

It also takes me about an hour to get away from our tourist area. What used to be a nice trip along the coast whether heading north or south is now a slow crawl most of the time.

I can’t go east unless they pave the Atlantic and heading west for some less developed areas is time consuming and heavily ridden by people on bikes.

The farm areas which I road years and years ago are mostly strip malls and houses now, luckily there are still places one can stop at a roadside stand and get some fresh produce and when the time is right some fresh picked sweet white Jersey corn.

Seeing the same old scenery over and over again does make a ride mundane but it does make me hunt and search for some roads I’ve not yet taken…which unfortunately typically last only a mile or so before it dumps you off on a highway or county road I was trying to avoid.

[GiG]

I’m getting bored riding up n down the same old strip.
Gotta find a new place where the kids are hip.
My buddies & me, are getting…

[DIGGER]

I also pretty much run the same country side route over and over and over....about a 4 hr ride.   And like me you probly ride your loop in the same direction each time.   I have found that occassionally riding my 200 mile loop in the opposite direction helps.   You would swear it was a different ride.   

[Jess from VA]

I also pretty much run the same country side route over and over and over....about a 4 hr ride.   And like me you probably ride your loop in the same direction each time.   I have found that occasionally riding my 200 mile loop in the opposite direction helps.   You would swear it was a different ride.   

Digger I do that exact same thing too.  My route out of town (and back) stays pretty much the same, but when I get out to the countryside, there are longer and shorter loops I like, and I change up the direction I take on them and how I connect them.  And my closest non-ethanol gas station is out there (all I run in my bikes unless traveling), and so I usually swing by there and fill up just before returning home (50 miles).