Road conditions and route suggestions please!

[Azuredesign]

My friend Steve and I are planning to go from Boston to Washington D.C. towards the end of June. I'd like to take a route that includes the area around the Catskills national park, Delaware water gap, and a nice way to sneak into D.C. from the Northwest to the Cabin John Parkway. Any ideas, and road surface reports are greatly appreciated. We have a week to play with.
Thanks,
Ben

[luvtoride]

Azure, I am not super familar with the DC area but I'd like to suggest that you might come into DC via WV & western VA. There is some awesome riding there. I've heard a lot of good about Pennsylvania... but do not have firsthand knowledge. Wherever you end up going, have fun & be careful.

[garry]

I'd like to suggest that you might come into DC via WV & western VA. There is some awesome riding there.

+1000000. If you're coming that far south, you MUST allocate at least one day to ride:

50 west from Winchester. Starts mellow, gets better and better beyond Romney.
Run 42 south at Mt Storm from route 50 to bottom of very twisty hill (obvious), then turn around and go back up.
Continue on 50 west to jct 92 (not quite to Grafton)
92 south (just OK) to jct 250 into Elkins
33 east all the way back over the WV/VA state line (go until the twisties end)
Turn around and run 33 west back to CR-3 (just west of Brandywine, aka Ft Siebert Rd)
Follow CR-3 (becomes CR-7) into Moorefield
Follow OLD 55 (not the new interstate version of 55) to jct 259 in Baker.
Continue on 259/55 to jct I-81

That loop is 354 awesome twisty miles. Add whatever to get to/from where you're staying in DC. That would make for a great day ride.

[luvtoride]

Garry, does Old 59 go from WV into VA? (not looking at a map presently) If so, I'll need to try that one sometime. Need a good cut-through in there besides Howard's Lick... which is fine for me going west to east... not the opposite.

[garry]

Garry, does Old 59 go from WV into VA? (not looking at a map presently) If so, I'll need to try that one sometime. Need a good cut-through in there besides Howard's Lick... which is fine for me going west to east... not the opposite.

Old 55 (not 59, my bad) connects Moorefield to Baker (jct 259), so it's still all WV. It parallels the new interstate version of 55. Lots of  nice sweepers with little/no traffic. The hardest part is finding the damn thing. Never been on 259/55 farther east into VA.

Here's my first attempt at saving a route (Old 55) using MapQuest:

http://www.mapquest.com/mq/9-J4_a

[luvtoride]

Interesting... thx!

[maddjack]

Old 55 (not 59, my bad) connects Moorefield to Baker (jct 259), so it's still all WV. It parallels the new interstate version of 55. Lots of  nice sweepers with little/no traffic. The hardest part is finding the damn thing. Never been on 259/55 farther east into VA.

Here's my first attempt at saving a route (Old 55) using MapQuest:

http://www.mapquest.com/mq/9-J4_a

I have taken it as far as  Ft Royal Va a few times,it gets kinda boreing near there but not horribly so.Its worth using to there even if only for food and fuel

[Azuredesign]

Thanks for these suggestions. I don't know if we have the time to include VA and WV, but we are looking at the alternatives. I guess I will post specific route ideas we have for NY and PA and see if we can get some feedback concerning our choices and the surface conditions.
In any case, if we can, we'd like to see VA and WN as well!