Gettysburg via highways and byways

[rufusxs]

A friend of mine is in the NJ Army National Guard, and he had to do a walkthrough for his battalion commander this weekend on a few key skirmishes of the Battle of Gettysburg. In order to do a preparatory walk-through, he asked me on Wednesday to take a ride with him to Gettsyburg, which is 205 miles from my house, according to Mapquest.

We left heading West on Rt. 22 in Bridgewater at about 8:30AM. Huntderdon County is always pretty, highway or backroad. We couldn't take the backroads so early in to the trip though, because of time constraints, so we stayed on 22 until it merged on to I-78. We then took highways for about 2/3rds of the way, but when we got near the Gettysburg general area and departed from a Cracker Barrel lunch, we proceed to take Route 233 through Michaux State Park. Now I've read on-line that 233 is supposed to be the best motorcycle road in PA, and I have to say that it must be up there at least. Great curves, up and down hill, great views of a drained lake that's undergoing repairs to the dam, very few driveways or intersections, no trucks, great smooth-but-grippy road surface, and on and on. It lasts maybe 15 miles or so, but it's 15 miles of BMW TV commercial type roads.

Gettysburg National Park is itself quite a site to behold, even for non-Civil War buffs. I have to say that every American should at some point visit that place - it's very moving to see it and understand that people really did fight and die for principles - not money, not land to occupy, not natural resources, not vengence, but principles. It's really very moving. I was only able to spend about 1 hour 45 minutes there, but I'm going to take a car ride back there with my wife this Summer to spend an entire day. Anyway, we had to leave because our goal was to ride more local roads on the way back than we did on the way there. So back to the ride...

On the way back we went through his hometown near York and took several smaller, unknown back roads. Each lasted only a couple of miles, and were sort of out of the way, but they were great twisties. The only problem was that road surface conditions varied, intersections were often blind, other traffic existed, and they generally didn't feel "safe."

The weather started to turn a little wet and a lot cold, so we had to make tracks home, and eventually took local county routes which were still better than the Interstates. Eventually we had to hit the Interstates to get home at any reasonable time; even doing that I still made it home more than 13 hours after departure, with a solid 10+ hours of riding in there, after accounting for the time at the park, lunch, and fuel/bathroom stops.

The proper way to do the trip, had we more time and the luxury of choice as to when to do the ride, would have been to do it during slightly warmer weather, and make a two day trip out of it. First we would leave early one morning, take almost all back roads out there, spend the second half of day one at the park, stay overnight and go out in the town, then leave the next day after a leisurely breakfast and take all back roads on the way back.

I highly recommend Pennsylvania to the curve-enthusiast as well as the scenic rider. It has plenty of both. There are great landscapes and vistas of low, old mountain ridges, rolling farm hills, lots of trees and forests, great rivers and lakes, and wide open spaces as well as valleys. It also has beautiful curvy back roads that wind through open farm land, up and down small hills, as well as through wooded forests. The only caveats that I would add is that it's definitely a place to go when the weather is warm and dry - otherwise you'll have to stick to the highways, which defeats the purpose (although there is still great scenery off of 76, 83, and 78). Also, many of the back roads can be dangerous for very aggressive carving, so be careful if you're going go very fast.

In general, it reminds me very much of great New England rides, such as Vermont back roads - only more accessible for mid-Atlantic residents. For those of you in the area who are looking for day trips that are at the limit of what's possible in a day, try doing a loop through Pennsylvania on a nice day, with Gettysburg as the potential destination - you won't be disappointed if you take the time to map out a nice, scenic, curvy route.

[Boxer]

Rufus-Nice report. Two critiques. 1.) You should register on the board and enjoy all the benefits... 2.) Post some pics on Smugmug (or elsewhere) and let us all see some of those scenes.....with the bike in some of them of course.

I'd really like to get to Gettysburg one of these days. I've heard it is a solemn but wonderful experience.


ALRIGHT YOU GUYS! Stop laughing....we DO have benefits!

[UHGORDO]

I am still laughing...

1 Critique: 1) Nice Mustache on that Dog--lookin' thing...did he/she eat the old Boxer??

Dave

[rufusxs]

Rufus-Nice report. Two critiques. 1.) You should register on the board and enjoy all the benefits... 2.) Post some pics on Smugmug (or elsewhere) and let us all see some of those scenes.....with the bike in some of them of course.

I'd really like to get to Gettysburg one of these days. I've heard it is a solemn but wonderful experience.


ALRIGHT YOU GUYS! Stop laughing....we DO have benefits!

I've been meaning to re-register - I was registered previously, but my registration was not transferred over when the new site was brought on-line.

My friend will be emailing me some of the pics from his digital camera tonight, so I'll post them up.

Thanks!