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1

General Discussion / Eastern Express

« on: March 06, 2024, 12:09:36 pm »

My brother and I rode the Eastern Express self-contained last summer as it was laid out on the website before ACA got hold of it and truncated the eastern section to DC and ran it up to Indianapolis.  I turned 70 a week into the ride. We started in early May headed west from DC on the C&O Canal towpath headed for Seaside, Oregon. I'm not ashamed to say I didn't mind missing out on 40,000' of climbing by not taking the traditional TA route.We took the Eastern Express to Walden, Colorado, then the TA to Missoula, and the Lewis and Clark to the coast. Overall the weather was great. Very few rainy days. We didn't run into real heat until Missoula, then again at Lewiston, ID most of the way to Portland.  Only a half dozen real headwind days all the way to the Pacific Ocean, the worst being the demonic, chaotic, gale force wind from Walla Walla, WA to Umatilla, OR. Nothing the day before or the day after. I recommend the route with the timing and direction we took. If you have nothing better to do you can check out our trip blog at www.cycleblaze.com/journals/togob. We have something more limited planned for this year, Pensacola, FL to Davenport, IA starting in about a month, then Davenport to Winnipeg, Manitoba next summer. See you out there.

2

South / Jefferson, Alabama Bicycle Camping

« on: January 01, 2024, 12:40:27 pm »

Map 8 of Section 1 of the Underground Railroad route shows a cyclists-only camping symbol at Jefferson, Alabama, a wide spot in the road with a country store, a volunteer fire department, a Methodist church, a temporarily closed community center and a cemetery. No amount of googling finds any indication of a place to camp.  Is anyone familiar with this spot?