Gateway Road
My favorite road begins one mile from my front door — Brush Valley Road. Whenever I need to unwind with a short ride it’s generally my first choice. It’s a lightly traveled secondary road the winds through rural Pennsylvania; past horse farms and dairy farms, through villages and woodlots and all the time providing scenic views that help erase the noise of an especially chaotic day.
If I have little time the ride can loop home after just eight miles. But it’s a gateway to longer ones. Brush Valley continues on for forty miles until taking on the name of Buffalo Road. And along the way there are a host of departure points for much longer rides.
Road for All Seasons
It’s a lovely road in all seasons. The natural beauty of the landscape coupled with the seasonal effect make for some visually rich travel. The road is well maintained and the drivers are generally well-behaved.
Road for All Weather
As the road winds through the valley it is blessed from time to time with fog which can completely change the riding experience, almost to the degree that I sometimes don’t recognize where I am. That’s a joy for a short ride in familiar territory.
On Through Amish Country
Ten miles from home you’ll begin to see signs of the Amish communities in the valley. Lines on the roads from the buggies. Horse droppings. The Amish farms. Or even the horse and buggies themselves. Added to the picturesque landscape makes the road one of the finest rides you’ll see in Pennsylvania. And get the right weather and it’s magical.
On to More Adventure
Brush Valley Road can be a jumping off point for a wide range of rides. One of the most common rides I take is a 150 mile loop through three counties that traverses field, forest and mountain. Here I was stopped along PA Route 44 as it crests Little Mountain. I was riding a BMW F650 GS motorcycle. One of my favorite motorcycles. Plenty of power without being a lumbering mess.
Vespa in the Mountains
My friend Gordon and I rode our scooters on the same route and stopped in the same place to admire the view. Some roads have those special places just screaming for a photography.
My favorite road provides a challenge to ride, exquisite scenery, and a chance to renew my riding spirit. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
I didn’t have to go far for my favorite road when I lived in Deposit. Turn right or left at the end of the driveway. Turning right took me past hills and farms to State Route 10 wh ich twists and turns along the Cannonsville Reservoir for 25 miles to Walton. Turn left and Route 8 took me through Sidney and on to Utica if I wanted to ride that far.
I haven’t explored Hyde park yet although what I’ve seen so far is intriguing.
Upstate New York has some fine roads. I used to travel a lot to Ithaca when Kim was at Cornell and would explore that region of the state. Nice riding.
Methinks you dwell in a quasi-rural area.
One of the great disadvantages for me locally was as years passed it was increasingly difficult to find an isolated well-maintained road. When i started riding some 55 years ago, rural areas were within ten minutes of home; when health reasons forced me to stop riding it would at times take an hour or more of stop and go traffic any time of the day just to find a quiet road.
Friends still riding tell me it’s up to now two hours to find a quiet road and one not littered with monster 10 and 12 thousand square foot homes and the local cop with radar gun in hand forcing people to drive no faster than 30 km/hour….got to maintain the quiet roads.
So your local Brush Road is obviously a gem and as noted it probably wends its way towards Buffalo given the change of name along the way.
I do like the contrast photograph between your scooter and the red scooter in the photograph, stark realism… and happy times.
State College, Pennsylvania is a growing metropolitan area and the sprawl of development through the agricultural lands is obvious. But so far it’s still easy to get to some empty roads. And in the mountains it’s all state forest with little development and mostly gravel roads. I’m lucky to be where I am in terms of riding.
The red scooter does contrast nicely. The BMW blue isn’t bad either.
Looks like a great favorite road Steve….that first shot, beauty.
I lack your ability to enjoy and see new detail on recurring roads and destinations….hence my current plan to extend my range via URRV and see new roads.
Thanks Dom.
It takes work to see the details. If my situation were different I would be extending my range. But for now I’m content to explore on a smaller scale.
I am jealous of your availability of rural roads. One of my favorite roads is in the Angeles National Monument, Glendora Ridge Road. It is a 17 miles long undivided road that runs for seemingly no reason between the hamlet of Badly Village and Glendora Mountain Road. Try as I might I can find no history of the twisty road that runs the spine of a front ridge of a wilderness area. The road is popular with cyclists and car clubs which can make for interesting situations in it’s tight narrow corners.
Mike Davis,
Glendora Ridge Road. I’ve all but forgotten about that one. I was one of those pesky cyclists riding the loop. Thank you for the pleasant reminder.
Sounds like an interesting road. Not sure I’ll ever make it out that way but I’ll file it away in my head in case I do.
Beautiful photos! Whenever I visit PA, there always seems to be a ridiculous amount of traffic on the small rural roads. Maybe I need to look for more out of the way places.
You probably aren’t on the small rural roads. You are probably on the main rural arteries. If there is a route sign, it’s not a small rural road. I’ll have to show you some next time you’re down this way.
What a blessing to have such exquisite roads a mile outside your door.
I live in the wrong neighborhood.
It is a nice place to live and ride.
Beautiful description and photos! Rural PA really is lovely.
Pennsylvania is a lovely state. Tremendous forests and open areas.