Fastest, flattest combination of routes from Hood River OR to Boston??????

[Lorax]

Hoping to get advice on easiest route, with any suggested short cuts, from Hood River OR ( lewis and clark) all the way to the east coast, then up to boston

ANY advice welcome

thanks

William

[bktourer1]

Get the Conn State bike map and Rubels bike maps for Mass.  There is no flat route through Mass.  Also look at NY Westchester County North & South County Trails.
Contact me off list for further NYC / Conn / MA info

ed

[litespeed]

The easiest way to cross the northern Divide is the Hiawatha Trail on the Idaho-Montana border. http://www.fs.fed.us/ipnf/rec/activities/biking/hiawatha.html The tunnels save a lot of climbing. Then avoid the Bighorn mountains in Wyoming at all cost - maybe passing to the north.

Go through the Great Lakes and maybe southern Ontario to Buffalo. I recommend the Manitowoc WI-Ludington MI ferry.  Then follow the Erie Canal across New York ("Cycling The Erie Canal", available from Parks & Trails New York). This will save you from the very tough terrain in the Finger Lakes region of New York.

There is really no easy way to go west-to-east across Vermont and New Hampshire or across Massachusetts. But you should be in fine shape by the time you get there.

[roadrunner]

The easiest route from Oregon to the east side of Nebraska (Missouri River) is the Oregon Trail route used by Oregon-bound immigrants in the 1800s.  (They had to find the easiest way for their wagons.)  The trail crosses the continental divide at South Pass in Wyoming, the only place wagons could cross the divide, and follows rivers (the Columbia, Snake, Sweetwater, and Platte)for much of it's route.  I rode the route in 1990 -- not much climbing and lots of westerly winds.

Cross Iowa north of Des Moines to avoid the hilly southern part of the state.  Northern Illinois and Indiana and the western 2/3 of Ohio are very flat. I haven't ridden east of Iowa, but I'd guess sticking close to Lake Erie and then following the Erie Canal would be the flattest route to Albany.