Sometime in 2011, I want to try to bike out to my mother's house. I've got some motivation at the moment to try to figure out if this is plausible for me, so I've got some questions if anyone knows their way around areas out toward Sewickley, then up into the area on the other side of the ohio river.
Parts of the route I have an idea of, and other parts I'm pretty unsure about.
I'm starting in Greenfield, so I'm thinking:
Jail trail. Cut through Downtown into Northside and get on Brighton.
I then want to make my way out to Camp Horne Rd, which seems like I could do in more than one way. I'm looking at Left on Benton (which looks like it sort of merges in with California and California at some point starts being called Lincoln as well.) Right on division. Division becomes church, then center. Right on Camp Horne.
(A left on Camp Horne would take me to 65, the shortest route to the Sewickley bridge and that area, but I've driven on it and am thinking that biking on it would suck off the scale. So right on Camp Horne. Advise if you differ. I'm not going for scenic here, but I am going for safety.)
Once I leave Camp Horne I'm in completely unfamiliar territory. I'm looking at some routes described in a pdf of rides I have. Could be steep but should at least be ridable. Anyway.
left on Crawford, right on Roosevelt, left on mt Nebo, which becomes Blackburn, left on Glen Mitchell, which will dump me out on Beaver In Sewickely. (The pdf was more of a hill-climbing ride, so I cut some of it out. That puts me on parts of Mt Nebo and Blackburn they didn't proscribe. If anyone knows of parts of these roads to be inadvisable, please let me know? Also, it may be that there's more I should cut out - parts of the route I'm assuming to be necessary to get me there, but maybe they were just having fun with the hills. If you know of something more direct without getting myself into trouble (fast highway kind of thing)-wise, please let me know that too.
From Sewickley, the way I drive it is to go over the bridge, make a right onto 51, go up stoopsferry, right on mcgovern (still 51) and then I'm good, I can get to my mom's via bocktown or harper, which I think will be ok. The part I'm uneasy about (well parts) are 51 between the bridge and stoopsferry, and the bridge itself. Has anyone biked these? I'm thinking stoopsferry's going to be some work, but there's an extra lane for passing going up, so it should be ok. Coming home, going down that big hill, that might shake me up. But anyway.
If that stuff feels too scary, I'm trying to think of alternatives. I could skip the Sewickley bridge and take beaver out into Ambridge. Last I checked we had a bridge out there, although google's being feisty about showing it. Anyway, then take 51 back toward glenwillard and head up into the hills as before. But I don't know. Has anyone biked *that* stretch of 51? I'm thinking maybe less scary than coming off the sewickley bridge, but I don't know. And what about the ambridge bridge itself? What a pittburgher. Won't cross a bridge. have to fix that.
Well, if you've got thoughts, throw 'em at me. Thanks!