Running down the road trying to loosen my load...

July 21, 2006 1:21 PM

Traveling from Washington DC to St. Johnsbury (actually Greensboro) Vermont towing a trailer. Is there a way to minimize the hills?

I'm towing a half-ton trailer with a car (manual transmission Maxima) that, while rated for towing that load, isn't really the right tool for the job. My memory is that 91 past Springfield starts getting quite hilly, and past Brattleboro yurns into a real rollercoaster. Is it possible to minimize the hills and strain on my transmission by taking an alternative route? Is Rt 5 less hilly? Or does it make sense to take 87 and cut across the state?

posted by smellycheese to Travel & Transportation (2 answers total)

My feeling is that the hill problems you're likely to encounter will balance the windy road factor that you're going to see doing this almost any other way. Route 5 and 91 both go pretty near the Connecticut River most of the way. You can go more slowly on Route 5, but you're likely to be dealing with a LOT of stop/start traffic which may play hell on your brakes.

You could do 91 to 89 (I assume you meant 89 in your post above) and then take route 12 north from Montpelier. This may be better since route 12 is practically empty up there and even though it's pretty hilly, it's also pretty empty meaning taking it slow would not be bad. Then you could take 12 to 15 to go over to Greensboro. Either way, you're going to be gaining altitude and there's not going to be any real way of avoiding it and the last part of the trip is where you're going to be really climbing if I recall correctly.
posted by jessamyn at 1:29 PM on July 21, 2006

You're better off staying on 91 until Barton and then taking rt. 16 back down to Greensboro Bend. Rt. 2 out of St. J's has a long, long hill. If you want to avoid the hill out of Greensboro Bend, go a couple of miles further S. on 16 until you can take a R onto Main St. -> Hardwick St.
posted by Icky at 8:51 PM on July 21, 2006