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[froggie]

I don't see NY 74 as particularly trailer-friendly, especially once the climbing lane out of Ticonderoga ends.  It's great if you're just in a car, and semis use the route regularly, but it's too hilly/curvy IMO to be a good ride with a trailer.  The left turn from 185 to 9N/22 South isn't exactly a picnic either, even without a trailer.  That said, it's far less busy than anything further south.

[FlatlanderinVT]

Well coming from someone else who resides here in Vermont I will take your advice and avoid this stretch with the trailer and save it for a time without something in tow. Having the trailer on the trip south is definitely my major concern for avoiding hills and curves as much as possible. Once we drop it off in WV, I'm open to taking most any roads as we likely poke around there for a bit and make our way home.

[AvDave829]

If you dont mind lots of hills, up and down with the trailer than I 81 would work for you. From BNG you have 2 long climbs up heading south on 81 in PA and then the long downhill grade into Clarks Summit/Scranton.  Then I 81 is basically easy drive thru the metro Scranton/Wilkes Barre area. Once you pass the exit for PA 29 Nanticoke, You will have a long climb up a mountain then a short descent then few miles ahead you have another climb near Dorrance and then a decent descent down towards I 80 Jct, Then you climb up one more mountain into the coal country plateau near Hazelton.  Now if it is raining, this stretch atop the plateau from Hazelton to Pine Grove can be soupy dense fog. After you pass the exit for US 209 for Tremont/Tower city, it is a long descent down the mountain towards Pine Grove. After that I 81 is flat from Lebanon all the way thru PA, MD into WV then Martinsburg.

[VTGoose]

The problem is there's no good east-west way between most of Vermont and the Thruway/Northway.  Sure, US 4 is freeway west of Rutland, but that dies at the state line.  I'd rather slit my wrist along NY 7 in Troy and Brunswick than deal with Fort Ann and the western NY 149 terminus.

I'm curious about your experiences with Fort Ann. I don't think I had ever heard of it being problematic until you mentioned it. Is there a something going on currently, or just slow/congested in general?

It's been a few years, but I don't really remember many problems in Fort Ann except for maybe one trip. It was getting from 149 down the short stretch of U.S. 9 to get on I-87 that was a challenge when Six Flags and the outlet shops were going big time.

 

[FlatlanderinVT]

Wow thanks very much for this detailed description AvDave829! My better half did most of this drive back in early June on a preliminary visit with her mom and now with your description I can possibly likely pin point the section that my MIL (who wasn't driving at the time but I digress) hasn't stopped complaining about anytime this drive gets mentioned. They had hit a section where they went up hill and straight into quite foggy conditions in some light rain. I assume this most likely wasI the area after Hazleton you mentioned. It is all certainly good info to have as I consider the options.

This did start making me think that perhaps taking a more circuitous route from Scranton on I-476 to I-78 might be preferable tolls and extra time taken into account. Of course though tracking that far east again to get on I-78 west near Allentown somewhat makes the case for simply sucking it up in the first place taking I-287 off the Thruway. I have concluded that I think my best bet as far as tolls goes will be to get a second EZpass transponder programed for as big a trailer as we might end up with and the truck. The transponder won't cost me anything and if we end up with something smaller I can live with spending an extra few bucks for the convenience and lack of hassle of having an EZpass.

[froggie]

Is this trip happening/already-happened?  We seem to be in the time window.

[FlatlanderinVT]

Hi all, we did in fact make this trip the first weekend of this month. It was a bit hectic in the lead up to it and then after our return last Friday so I am finally getting around to posting this update on it.

After some deliberation we decided that instead of heading directly from Morrisville VT towards WV we instead opted to load the trailer on Friday October 1st and came home to Whitingham Vt about 3 hours south. As we thought might be the case we got on the road much later in the afternoon than we had hoped and we thought that taking a bit of a "trial run" with the trailer on roads we were quite familiar with seemed to make sense. Given being the construction on Rt 15 in Morrisville and on Rt 100 between Stowe and Waterbury we headed east on VT 15 towards St. Johnsbury to get to US 2 and ultimately I-91 south. The truck handled the trailer quite well on 91 all things considered and by the time we made it down towards Brattleboro I was quite confident that it could handle most any grades we would encounter on any Interstates enroute to WV. 

We checked everything out on Saturday late morning and got underway from home. We cut across through Massachusetts down into NY to I-90 and its connector to I-87/NYS Thruway. From 87 we got onto 84 in Newburgh, my better half was pushing for that route for some reason and I was a bit ambivalent since I was confident in the truck so I decided it was just as well to let her her pick on this one and avoid any unnecessary headaches. We did encounter a few sections of road work in Pennsylvania but it was pretty quiet all and all being a Saturday afternoon. The hills south of Wilkes-Barre on I-81 didn't prove to be much of an issue at all. I just took everything nice and steady so the truck took it all pretty much in stride down to the . We spent Saturday night in Carlisle PA and finished the trip, which ended up being to Berkeley Springs WV, via I-81 to I-70 without issue on Sunday.

After a busy Sunday of unloading and such we returned the trailer down there and headed further south to spend the next 4 days in and around Shenandoah National Park, which was quite nice. We did take a section of I-78 on our way home and encountered some quite narrow construction areas east of the junction with I-81. It was on both sides and made me very glad we had opted for I-84 instead as I didn't think it would be fun with the trailer.

One other thing of note regarding the EZ-Pass; I had decided to just go with it and take the NYS Thruway as I mentioned and planned to deal with whatever toll ramifications came. Once it showed up on my EZ-Pass account it had charged a toll for 3 axles which was very pleasing. For New York anyway it seems that they can in fact calculate the rate based on the situation, of course I am unsure if this would be the case anywhere else.

All in all it was a very smooth and enjoyable trip. Again I really appreciated everyones input and it certainly helped me have a feel for everything as we progressed. I look forward to keeping active here and chiming in on things when I can. Thanks again everyone!

[hbelkins]

Berkeley Springs. I'm presuming you went to Hancock and then south on 522?

[FlatlanderinVT]

Berkeley Springs. I'm presuming you went to Hancock and then south on 522?

Yup that is exactly what we did. She was able to find a cute little place right in the heart of town so 522 was essentially the end of the journey with the trailer anyway.