Messages

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.

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South / Re: Jefferson, Alabama Bicycle Camping

« on: January 04, 2024, 10:28:09 am »

Thank you, John. I saw the note in the Service Directory after I posted this.  The ACA cartographers recommend that I call to make sure the service is still available.  How long since you stopped there?

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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?

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General Discussion / Re: Must have spare parts/tools

« on: March 16, 2023, 02:12:59 pm »

If you have a pump the CO2 cartridges and inflator are redundant.  Besides, have you ever noticed how quickly a tire loses pressure after being inflated with CO2? That's because CO2 is soluble in the butyl rubber that tube are made of.  It literally diffuses through the rubber to the lower pressure of the atmosphere. You'll need the pump to keep the tire properly inflated, so why take the extra load.

CO2 is great for a flat on short rides ,when you are back to the house that same day.  I use it.  When I get home I deflate and inflate the tire once or twice with a floor pump to purge the CO2 from the tube.

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General Discussion / Re: Your best single piece of advice

« on: March 15, 2023, 12:15:56 pm »

My brother and I are starting an east to west tour beginning in DC on May 4.  Maybe we'll run into you at the starting gate.  We're heading west on the C&O Canal towpath to follow the Transam Eastern Express, so if not around DC maybe after Walden, Colorado.  We decided on the Eastern Express start to cut out about 40,000' feet of climbing in the Appalachians and Ozarks. Good luck and have a great trip!

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Routes / Re: Brit riding across the US

« on: January 12, 2023, 11:14:16 pm »

Are you still there, Oscar's dad?

My brother and I have finalized our route for an east to west crossing of the continent this year.  We will depart Washington DC on May 4.  The Potomac River at DC rises and falls with the Atlantic tide, so I consider it close enough to the coast for a starting wheel dip. We will head west pretty much along the TransAm Eastern Express route as it was laid out on the website that ACA took over last year (they adopted most but not all of the route).  It avoids some of the worst climbing on the traditional TransAm route (about 40,000' by my estimation). We follow the C&O Canal towpath, then the GAP rail trail to near Pittsburg; then across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to just north of St. Louis. We follow the Katy Trail across half of Missouri before we start angling WNW across the rest of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado to Fort Collins, then over Cameron Pass to Walden, Colorado. At Walden we join the original TransAm and follow it to Missoula, Montana, where we switch to the Lewis and Clark route west across Idaho to the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon to end up at Seaside, Oregon. Then back to Portland for a plane home. I've laid it all out in Ride With GPS and it totes up to about 3850 miles and 140,000' of climbing. The most challenging parts I think will be getting over a few high passes in the Rockies and the potential for a strong blast furnace headwind through the Columbia River Gorge (80-120 miles worth?). The attachments give a general picture of the route, though this iteration is many months old.

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General Discussion / Re: Companion for TransAm from East to West

« on: January 15, 2022, 01:52:57 pm »

Thanks for your comments. I don't doubt a bit that the steeps in the Appalachians and Ozarks can be worse that the climbs in the Rockies.  I've seen 18% grades in Ohio (that was the only time since I first started riding over 35 years ago that I had to stop half way up a hill to look for the lung I coughed up),  but my issue isn't steepness but altitude.  I'll be 70 when I make my transcontinental ride in 2023. I've kept a meticulous log of all my riding for the past 15 years, and I see evidence in the stats of the very slow but inexorable decline in physical capability that comes with age.  I still ski (it's been 3 years due to the pandemic) but riding up a lift to 11,000' or 12,000' and skiing down is quite different from chugging up to that altitude on a loaded bike. I may well be able to do it without a problem, but I won't know for sure without actually taking it on. I'd rather not take the chance only to discover I don't have the lungs for it anymore, and have to reroute at that point or cheat a ride over the top in the bed of a pickup. I'm looking for ways to improve my chances of successfully completing my ride, and avoiding extreme elevation is one of my considerations.

I appreciate your suggestion of the Eastern Express.  I've heard of it but knew nothing about it until I started investigating after your posts. I've been concentrating on routes available from ACA, and it's not in their inventory yet, though I read it will be soon. I will be looking into it.

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General Discussion / Re: Companion for TransAm from East to West

« on: January 14, 2022, 03:53:05 pm »

2022 or 2023?  My brother and I are talking about a coast to coast ride in 2023.  We haven't selected a route yet, but here's an except from something I just posted in another part of the forum. My latest idea is an east to west ride starting on the TransAm then switching gears so to speak halfway across the country.

"I considered the Transamerica Trail in its entirety until I discovered that it crosses the Continental Divide at above 11,500'. It will be enough of a challenge to go the distance next year at age 70 without adding the insult of extreme elevation to the injury of thousands of miles of riding. I looked at the higher elevations along the other major east-west routes, and I think I've come up with a plan, which I pitched to my brother yesterday.

I'm proposing starting on the Transamerica Trail on the East Coast in early May (maybe a little earlier), and heading west to intersect the Great Rivers South route south of St. Louis, then cutting north to intersect the Lewis and Clark Trail west of St. Louis and following it to the Oregon Coast using the Blackfoot option on Map 6 of the Lewis and Clark to cut off the huge southern loop on Map 5).  As far as I can tell the highest point on my proposed route would be the 5610' Rogers Pass at the Continental Divide between Great Falls and Missoula, Montana."

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Routes / Re: Brit riding across the US

« on: January 14, 2022, 03:44:51 pm »

Happy New Year, Oscar's Dad! I haven't posted since I replied to you in November, but that doesn't mean I haven't been pondering and investigating.  I drove out to California to visit family at Thanksgiving and on the way back took the opportunity to do some reconnoitering of parts of the Southern Tier and Bicycle Route 66. Given the choice of starting or ending a coast to coast ride in Santa Monica or San Diego, I would definitely choose San Diego for a number of reasons (amount of urban/suburban riding, the routes into/out of the costal basins, etc.), but I'm HEAVILY leaning away from both of those alternatives.I've driven between the central U.S. and the West Coast many times over the past 40 years, many times paralleling Route 66 and the Souther Tier.  On my trip 6 weeks ago I was struck anew by just how many miles I would spend on a road bike trip in the American Southwest along the Southern Tier or Route 66 on the shoulders of interstate highways, on frontage roads immediately next to interstate highways, and on other roads paralleling interstate highways and within a mile or so of them.

When I returned to Oklahoma I did the math. Starting in Santa Monica and taking Bicycle Route 66 to Chicago I would be on or within sight of or earshot of interstate highways for about 877 out of 2528 miles (35% of the time) on that portion of the trip.  From San Diego on the Southern Tier, then cutting up to Bicycle Route 66 on the Grand Canyon Connector the numbers would be similar, 867 out of 2489 miles (35%).  I'm not knocking interstate highways  per se. They're certainly the fastest way to get from point A to point B in that part of the world, but I don't want to spend that much time on a bike looking at them or listening to them.

Since then I've spent a lot of time looking at other alternatives.  I don't really want to do a complete Southern Tier tour, even though it's the shortest route across the country. I've spent most of my adult life living in Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi, so I've seen a lot of Southern Tier country.  The remaining alternatives are farther north. I considered the Transamerica Trail in its entirety until I discovered that it crosses the Continental Divide at above 11,500'. It will be enough of a challenge to go the distance next year at age 70 without adding the insult of extreme elevation to the injury of thousands of miles of riding. I looked at the higher elevations along the other major east-west routes, and I think I've come up with a plan, which I pitched to my brother yesterday.

I'm proposing starting on the Transamerica Trail on the East Coast in early May (maybe a little earlier), and heading west to intersect the Great Rivers South route south of St. Louis, then cutting north to intersect the Lewis and Clark Trail west of St. Louis and following it to the Oregon Coast using the Blackfoot option on Map 6 of the Lewis and Clark to cut off the huge southern loop on Map 5).  As far as I can tell the highest point on my proposed route would be the 5610' Rogers Pass at the Continental Divide between Great Falls and Missoula, Montana.

I was originally wary of the "headwind" issue for an east to west ride. My experience in the southern plains of the U.S. is strong prevailing southwest winds in spring and summer; however, my (limited) experience in the northern plains tells a different tale. I rode west to east across Nebraska in 2012 and 2014 and west to east across South Dakota in 2015. My notes from those rides complain of easterly headwinds on most days. In the end it will be a crapshoot regardless of the travel direction.

So, that's where I am right now.  Today I ordered the maps I need to further evaluate the new plan. How is your planning going?

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Routes / Re: Brit riding across the US

« on: November 15, 2021, 11:33:47 pm »

My brother and I are also talking seriously about a west-to-east coast-to-coast ride in spiring/summer of 2023, the year I turn 70.   I've started calling it the Friends and Family Tour, since the original thought was to string together parts of several different ACA routes to go from southern California to the coast of Maine, taking some days off at stops in Mesa (AZ), Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Joplin, St. Louis, Chicago, Fremont (OH), Fredonia (NY), Camden (ME), and other places where I have children, cousins, friends, wife, aunts, and the like.  I've gone so far as to buy a stack of maps from ACA and start creating the route in Ride With GPS. Exact timing at this point is uncertain (I don't want too much cold at the start, but I also want to miss the heat as summer comes on farther east), as is the starting point (if Santa Monica then so long Mesa), but I'm psyched about it. I'm not too concerned about spotty services in places. I often take long rides on my road bike in the hot Oklahoma summer (60-80 miles with maybe one stop to top off the water supply.  If I have to I'll strap on a 3-liter Camelbak until civilization starts to get a little denser farther east. I'd be happy to share ideas with you, Oscars dad.