BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Hmmm...might be a bit far, but 31 from Mt Pleasant to Donegal has a good 3-mile climb at 8-10%. 'Good', in this context, meaning wide shoulders and no shade whatsoever, so you won't have to worry about traffic when you fall over from heatstroke.

Classic multi-milers to the SE, not within 50 miles, but really worthwhile:

Head over Kentuck Knob from Connellsville to Ohiopyle, via Furnace Hill Rd. Really pretty 6-mile steady climb at 4-15%, with about 1200' of elevation gain, followed by some exciting V-shaped valleys and a mildly scary descent to Ohiopyle. Return to Connellsville via trail, as you do NOT want to try to climb back out of Ohiopyle that way.

From Ohiopyle, climb Sugarloaf to Confluence via Sugarloaf Rd. 5-6 miles at 5-15%, 1500' of gain, then drop into Confluence. You can get back to Ohiopyle by turning around and climbing Sugarloaf again (you sick masochist you), or just grab the trail.

From Confluence, you've got the Mt Davis climb. Head down 523 to Listonburg, then left on Mt Davis Rd. 10 miles, 1500' of climbing, to top out at the highest point in PA. Yet again, turn around and climb the mountain again, or catch the trail in Meyersdale.

Slightly unhelpful suggestions...

Lebanon Rd (by Big Bang in West Mifflin) is about 1.25 miles to PAT West Mifflin Garage

Frankstown from Homewood to someways past the Giant Eagle is about 1.65 miles

Not sure about the grades though

Let me know if you find anything like that without annoying traffic

Are there any good online tools for mapping average grades?

Logan's Ferry out of McKeesport is super-duper classic, and pretty low traffic. You can do a nice loop to Murrysville and back in about 30-35 miles.

Plum/Hunter Road out of Verona/Oakmont is probably the nicest climb close to the city. It might be about a mile long.

EDIT: Spring Garden from the North Side to Troy Hill is also quite nice, though slightly on the short side.

I should note that Kentuck Knob and Mt Davis will be prominently featured on the Pittsburgh Randos 300K in a few weeks, if one feels like stretching the legs a bit.

Brian's suggestion of Logan's Ferry is a good one, and reminds me that Sardis Rd out of Murrysville is a good 4-5ish miles of gentle grade.

For quick checks of elevation, I like ridewithgps.com: not the best tool for editing routes, but great for checking out (and zooming in on) elevation profiles.

@reddan I spent some time growing up on Coolspring / Jumonville Rd off rt 40 around Ohiopyle, was thinking about heading out that way early on a Sunday (used to climb Coolspring on my 44x16 bmx 25 yrs ago). This am between 6 & 7 I got in 1200 ft of climbing out my back door on a few Stanton Ave loops... a lot closer to home, but lacking distance... I need a good hour long climb.

The 300k definitely looks like fun, but too close for my tapering week to do Etape in the Pyrenees on the 18th. If it was in a week or two, I may have given it a go. Maybe next year? Maybe something similar in August?

I'll check out Logan's Ferry too... thx for the tips!

I have a few ideas, but the problem with trying to find roads with a consistent moderate grade is that they are often on higher-speed roads.

Guys Run Road from Harmarville to Fox Chapel

Hulton Road/Coxcomb Hill Road between Oakmont and New Kensington

Freeport Road south of Freeport

I'm sure there are many more in the similar area to these roads (close to where I grew up) but I'm not aware of every last one.

Also, if you can get out that far, Route 30/Lincoln Highway might be what you're looking for. I'm specifically referring to the Laurel Highlands area of the road between Ligonier and Bedford. Not that it's necessarily a good "biking" road, but it is a spectacularly scenic area that beats traveling on the Turnpike.

If you don't want to travel too far, try, from Main st in Carnegie, take Cubbage to Collier to Ewing to Baldwin. To the intersection of McMichael it's 3 - 4 miles pretty steady climb. Then for fun, you can take McMichael through Settlers Cabin park, cross over the parkway to Church Hill road to Steubenville Pike, look for the Presbyterian church on the hill and ride up to the parking lot, that's the highest point in Allegheny Co, so that's about as much climbing as you can do around here. That's part of a quick 12+- mile loop I do in the evenings.

The steadiest grade I have found that is not bad

to ride is 30 out of liginior.

Guys Run is steady until the end.

Baily's Run (orange belt?) off of freeport goes up

forever, but is more shallow.

There are tons of climbs over the ridges out of

kecksburg, derry, 130, etc.

From Route 50 south of Carnegie I like Thom's Run to the right, and follow it into Battle Ridge road. It's a nice long climb, though not as steep as 8%. Once it tops out you can drop down 978 into Oakdale or follow it as Robinson Run over some rollers into McDonald.

Another option from Thom's Run is to continue left on Presto-Sygan to Miller's Run and then up 978 or continue even further on Miller's Run to 980 and up. Return from either Oakdale (978) or McDonald (980)on Noblestown.

Thorn Run Road from Coraopolis into Moon is a steady climb for about 1.5 miles, then levels off a bit but is still a climb until about 2 miles. The first half mile is very steep.

This is not EXACTLY what you are looking for, but there are a series of long-ish hills that rise toward Sewickley from both Beaver Avenue in Leetsdale/Sewickley (such as Little Sewickley Creek and Pink House Roads) that might be worth checking out. You could do a combination of Little Sewickley or Fern Hollow all the way up to Sewickley Heights Park, which would be pretty much steady climb the whole way, but I don't have either distance or grade for you at this time.

I often see Sewickley based riders doing a hill training circuit that starts on Glenfield Road right near the I-79 and Route 65 junction. Deer Run Road to Merriman Road is one of their routes, and then there is also a series of shorter hills off of Glenfield past Deer Run -- Ferry, Lang, and others. Just look for anything heading north/west off Glenfield.

They generally ride on Sunday mornings when the roads are very quiet. Looks like fun - except for the hills.

Steuben street (Rt. 60) from the Sharp Edege Creekside bar up into Robinson is a nice 2+ mile climb - not to mention a great place to start!

Blackburn road up from Sewickley is a nice climb too. I've heard Red Gate to Merriman is good but haven't done it.

@swalfort, when Blackburn was closed last year we headed down 65 that way but it seemed like the Kilbuck/Glenfield entrance was a freeway entrance. Is it better than it seems after you get under the highway there?

We ended up going a bit further and turning into Tom's Run road which has a serious wall right at the start and then into Duff road. I remember that being a good climb.

@quizbot, from Lower Burrell another Logan's Ferry leading up toward Sardis Road is about a mile at 10%.

Edit: And I just thought of another one, it's not 100% up all the time but it's a good long 2 mile effort--Merwin Road from PA 366 over to PA 780. (plug these numbers 40.53272,-79.672508 into the search box at Google Maps.)

Ride over Mt. Davis is this Sunday ... it's a nice, scenic ride. Remember, all hills are good but some are better than others !!

@jeff - Between the I-79 entrance and where it tops out at Blackburn Road, Glenfield is a nice ride. It's only at the bottom, between I-79 and Route 65 that it's so ugly (and so busy). And that's what - less than a mile?

@sara that's good to know. Thanks!

We had this thread about this same time last year.

@stu - deja vu

Dude MT Davis is like downhill. Not really a steady

climb toward the end.

Hey if you want to drive somewhere, the climb up Blue Knob State Park from PA 869 is pretty epic.