Ocean to Ocean? Or Just Kinda Close??

[jamawani]

The ocean is important to me.

This summer I did a loop of the West - 3500 miles.
Started on water's edge just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Finished on the Oregon coast after hitting all 11 western states.
On my 2016 cross-country ride it was Pacific Ocean to Atlantic Ocean.
Westport, Washington to Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

But the actual start/end may not be that important to other folks.
The west end of the Northern Tier is in Anacortes, not on the Pacific.
The east end of the TransAm is at Yorktown, not on the Atlantic.

People are always posting about how to start at Virginia Beach.
Fewer folks seem to want to get all the way out to Cape Flattery.

<<<>>>

So, I'm curious ...
Whether you have ridden cross-country or simply thinking about it,
How important is it to start and end on the ocean shore?

One issue is the extra time and hassle it takes to get to the ocean.
Although New York and Los Angeles are a bus/subway ride from the beach,
other coastal cities - D.C., Seattle, Portland - are a hundred miles away.
Flying in (or Amtrak) and connecting means an extra day or two.

Of course, if you have a good friend in Federal Way
who will take you all the way out to Neah Bay -
then all the better.

So on your cross-country trip ...
Does it have to be ocean to ocean?
Or is "close enough" good enough?

[John Nettles]

I'm a dip-the-wheels-in-both-sides kind of guy.  However, I am not a stickler for it if it is a pain to do.  For instance, I did not dip my wheels in Key West but did the Zero Mile Marker as the end. I probably could have gone to the water but figured the Zero Marker was OK.

Tailwinds, John

[John Nelson]

If the water is salty and it has tides, then I say good enough. And I’m a toe-dip guy. I don’t want to get sand in my chain.

[John Nettles]

I don’t want to get sand in my chain.

That is why I have a Gates belt.

Tailwinds, John

[staehpj1]

We dipped wheels in the ocean at the start of the TA (our first tour) and in tidal water at Yorktown.  Then we went to the beach to swim at Virginia Beach by car the next day.  Kind of as a joke we took our front wheels and dipped them.

Since then I really don't care and close enough is close enough.  I did the Southern Tier and didn't bother to even see the Pacific Ocean.  Normally I'd have ridden out of the San Diego airport, but I was riding with a guy who picked me up at the airport so we started from his home in a suburb somewhere east of there.  I stopped in Pensacola so I really cheated and used the Gulf of Mexico as the East Coast with no toe or wheel dip.  Timing and family stuff cut the trip short.  To give some more closure to that trip I do plan to ride from Pensacola to St Augustine in April, but won't bother with wheel dips, but will see the gulf and the ocean.

If I were to cross a different continent I am not sure if I might care more again.

[Pat Lamb]

In the east, Yorktown is east of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America.  If it was good enough for John Smith back in 1607, it's good enough for me!

(And I second keeping sand and salt out of my drivetrain.)

[misterflask]

Surf to surf, but toes only.  And salt water in spoke nipples is what gives me the willies. 

For TA, I flew in to Portland and rode a day-and-a-half down to Astoria.  At the east end, I skipped Yorktown, took the ferry across the James River, and rode to Kitty Hawk.  The bonus miles at both ends were memorable.

I suppose for the original TA on the bicentennial it was a big deal to start/end in Yorktown.  And once there, it's not terribly easy to get to the beach.

[TCS]

Wheel dipped Irish Sea and North Sea (England) and Clyde and Forth (Scotland).  Narrow countries.   

[BikePacker]

The ocean is important to me.... How important is it to start and end on the ocean shore?...
So on your cross-country trip ... Does it have to be ocean to ocean?  Or, is "close enough" good enough?

Ocean to ocean.
Btw ... thank you for your baw-U-tee-full east & west coast photos.

[staehpj1]

I suppose for the original TA on the bicentennial it was a big deal to start/end in Yorktown.  And once there, it's not terribly easy to get to the beach.

By the way...  For me the Bikecentennial connection with 1976 was something that was kind of important since I dreamed of riding it that year, but wasn't able to.  When I finally did ride the route 31 years later that made the official Bikecentennial end at the Yorktown Victory Monument more important than the wheel dip for me since I remembered pictures of folks starting or finishing at the monument in 1976.

[BikeliciousBabe]

I'm good with kind of close. Did Seattle to Bar Harbor then down the Atlantic Coast to Ocean City, NJ, which is on the Atlantic. My G.E.D.: Good Enough Diploma.

[hikerjer]

To me, if it's cross country, I have to dip the appropriate wheel in each ocean.  Not saying it's right or wrong. Just me.

[Nyimbo]

I started in Florence Oregon with a wheel dip picture - but then put the bike back on the bike rack and went back into town to eat a send off lunch with my wife.  So I didn’t ride the first four miles even tho I have a picture starting at the pacific. 

Also I finished in D.C. and took my end picture at the 0 mile marker for the C&O, then I dipped in the Potomac.  If I rode all the way to the Atlantic I would have had to turn around and ride back to DC to fly home and that seemed like too much trouble for a picture especially when no one else would care.

[hikerjer]

As long as you're happy with it, that's all that counts.