Despite writing, after I finished this summer's trip from California to Wisconsin, that I'd probably never do another long-ish bike tour again, I am, in fact, thinking about doing another long-ish bike tour in 2025.

The last time I toured in the northeastern USA was in 2008. All of the tours I've done in recent years have been in the South, the Midwest, the Great Plains, and the West.

So I feel like it's time to head northeast, and maybe even up into the exotic, frozen, foreign land of Canada.

Since I'm much less familiar with the northeastern states and Canada, I'd welcome any suggestions from people here who have experience touring (or even just riding) there.

My current "plan" (more like a vague idea) is to ride out of my driveway in Western Kentucky, across my famously dog-friendly state, into West Virginia (mainly because I've never toured there), then Ohio and/or Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Maine, and then Canada.

I like the idea of ending at what I believe is the easternmost point in North America: Cape Spear, Newfoundland.

Does this sound fun? I'd welcome any feedback.

If you like rail trails, in 2021 we cycled the NT and after Grand Forks ND we did lots of RT (almost entirely RT through WI) including OH, PA, NY, VT, NH and ME. There's a great RT DownEast Sunrise Trail that goes from (in your direction opposite of what we did) from Ellsworth to Eastport ME, the furthest incorporated city of continental US.

Racpat

What a brilliant vision!    Hope you decide to do it, and I’ll love following along.  We’ve biked some of this - Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick - but that was 35 years ago.  Useless information now.

Thanks! I do like like rail trails as a break from road riding on bike tours, although a couple of days of riding on them is usually enough for me.

I hadn't heard of the Down East Sunrise Trail, but it looks interesting. 

I know virtually nothing of that part of the country (and even less about Canada), and I'm just starting to gather info. I'll make note of this trail.

That certainly sounds like fun, and finishing up in Newfoundland will guarantee that! This was the one part of Canada that neither Kirsten not I had been to prior to our 2015 cross continent trip and it was a great way to finish. This is a very unique part of Canada (Newfoundland is to Ireland what Quebec is to France) and the people are largely what make the place so outstanding. We took the ‘standard’ route some 900 km’s from Port aux Basques to St John’s along the Trans Canada highway (the ‘only’ road across the island) but I’d highly recommend looking at Peter Salnikowski’s journal and also Tim Hathaway’s ‘Tea for Tim’ journal for inspiration. Both of these folks took a series of ferry’s between villages along the south coast and saw what Newfoundland really is. Maybe a bit unconventional, but also a once in a lifetime experience.

If you go, pack your GoreTex!

I think you'll probably also knock off New Hampshire. It gets in the way between VT and ME. 

As for West Virginia, you can easily knock off that state by crossing the western panhandle. It's not cheating. Just don't do it at Wheeling. The hill is brutal.

One other consideration, try to time your ride when the black flies are over. My friends from Millinocket say they are absolutely awful. (I think May is their prime time.)

I was really tempted to continue on to Atlantic Canada from Bar Harbor but I took a left instead. 

Hi again Jeff,

From W. Virginia head for Erie then Buffalo and ride the Erie Canalway to Albany. Then start picking up RT  either through VT and NH or head toward Boston and pick up the East Coast Greenway and head north to Bar Harbor and pick up the DownEast Sunrise Trail to Eastport.

Or From Albany zig zag up through VT and NH on multiple RT. There's a page in our NT 2021 journal with a list of trails. Lots of WS hosts along the way. On our tour out of 131 days we stayed with 53 WS hosts (and some multiple days).

Have fun planning and looking forward to following your tour.

Racpat

Just before the Newfoundland ferry, take a detour through Cape Breton Highlands national park on the north shore of Cape Breton island. That's probably already in your head because it's so well known. It's also a good place to experience Acadian French culture.

It will be interesting to slowly travel from a hot and humid climate to a cold and humid and very wet climate. A dramatic change in both scenery and climate. The latter part seems mostly fun if you are able to take refuge indoors during the worst periods of horizontal rain.

Thanks for those links, Lyle! I hadn't found those journals yet. I've also recently read about the Newfoundland T’Railway. Since I tour on a mountain bike, that might be feasible.

It looks like the trail mostly stays fairly close to the Trans Canada Highway, though, so it might be one of those situations like the Cowboy Trail in Nebraska, which is next to US-20 most of the time. When I've crossed Nebraska in that area, I just rode on US-20 almost all of the time, since it has a nice big smooth shoulder, and the traffic is pretty light. But maybe the Trans Canada Highway in Newfoundland is unpleasantly busy, though?

It looks like there are some north-south roads, but no other east-west routes across the island.

If you go, pack your GoreTex!

Yeah, it looks like it can rain a lot there ;)

Thanks, John. I actually thought I might do more than just a minimal part of West Virginia, because I've not seen much of it. When I lived in Fleming County, Kentucky (the other end of the state from where I live now in KY) I rode from my then-home 100+ miles to just over the KY/WV border at Huntington. That little bit around Huntington is the extent of my cycling in the state. Of course, maybe there are good reasons that West Virginia is apparently not a popular place for bicycle touring :)

The one time I toured in the northeast I encountered the Black Flies. They were horrible, so I need to look into the best time to avoid them on this tour.