BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

You can take Noblestown Road all the way to Burgettstown, head down 18 for a bit to Langeloth, take some back roads to 50, 50 through Avella to 844, 844 to 88 through Bethany and West Liberty to Ogleby. Good route, pretty quiet in most places. I used to do a loop to Bethany and back.

following (or amending) CharlieC's route - you didn't say where you're starting - but perhaps Montour Trail to MP17, intercept the Panhandle Trail to Burgettstown, then continue as Charlie suggested?

We would probably leave from downtown or Oakland. But if the Montour Trail is a good way to begin I suspect we could get transported out to it. I had been thinking of starting to explore that trail on my longer rides anyway... this may be a good excuse! Thanks guys.

there's a temptation, possibly, to take the Panhandle to it's western terminus and then road-ride south to intercept the Wheeling Trail. That bit of road-ride is not bike-friendly. The Wheeling Trail is great, and I believe there's a spur trail that goes toward Oglebae.

This may just be one of my proclivities, but I would regularly hop the bus to Coraopolis to get to the head of the Montour. The interchange with the Panhandle is ~12 mi up the trail. (I always get a kick out of calling that spot an interchange. You know, like on interstates.)

If you take the Panhandle Trail, or roads parallel to it, you might be tempted to bike WV Route 2 between Weirton and Wellsburg. I tried it once, but I recommend avoiding Route 2 as much as possible. The cars travel at 65mph and the shoulder is often narrow and gravel-strewn: https://goo.gl/maps/jH0nc . An alternate route I've done that is very low traffic, very scenic, but quite hilly, is Hanlin Station Rd (up), Eldersville Rd, Cedar Grove Rd, Bethel Ridge Rd (scenic, down, some gravel), Cross Creek Rd which leaves you only 1 mile of Route 2 to bike before the Kroger in Wellsburg, where you can get on the Brooke County Trail, which connects to the Wheeling Trail system.