Contrasting the ACA route and any way you want to go.

[Westinghouse]

You can cycle many miles of interstate highways. You can expect many multiples of punctures in your tubes. They are punctured by radial wires. You will suffer far fewer flats on the mapped bicycle routes.

Mapped routes could ensnare you in the convenience-store trap. Multiple dinky little towns where cafes are closed, where only health-altering junk foods are available are irresistable to energy-hungry bicycle tourists.  Going your way gives freedom to chart a course where real nutrition is available

Using unknown roads could get you into a jam, e.g., extreme noise, pollution, fast and furious insane traffic, grueling long climbs, crumbling deteriorated road-surfaces, unanticipated complications. The ACA mapped routes are very well known. Those problems are solved for you before you spin your first revolution.

Using mapped bike routes, you are just another cyclist passing through. Same old, different day. Adventuring your way could take you to places where cyclists never travel, and here you are the talk-of-the-town. I cycled through a foreign country that showed on television secretly-recorded videos of me cycling there. I have no idea how they got those pictures. I had no idea until I cycled into these villages. People approached me in the streets. "American, American. You are on TV television."

Five times for me from Florida to California. Twice from FL to El Paso, Texas. Mostly I free-camped. Quite a few motels. Van Horn was my favorite. Used designated campgrounds only a few times. I took many routes not on the ACA maps. I took many that are on the maps. On a broad scale of equalities, I say using the mapped routes is the best way to go. But not always because of variables.

[davidbonn]

I think a lot of the adventure in bicycle travel comes from planning your own adventure and discovering stuff along the way.  Some of my very favorite places to tour aren't on any "official" routes.

Yes, sometimes the Route Gods smile upon you.  Sometimes They smirk.  Sometimes They sneer, and sometimes They snarl.  But if you remain flexible, patient, and keep a positive mental outlook you can get through most any challenge.

You can also go a long way on route planning with judicious use of ridewithgps heatmaps (or any cycling apps' heatmaps) and Google Street View.  I also like to block out some time every few days on tour so I can call around and do some research.  I've been burned often enough by a campground or local store being closed.  Worse, when a city park has its water shut off so I can't jug up or use the loo.

I think a lot of ACA routes were laid out decades ago in a country with far fewer people and far less traffic.

[Westinghouse]

People change, populations change, towns change, roads change, businesses change, conditions change, prices change. Routing maps for cyclists should flex and change with the times and the unstable conditions. If they do not change, they risk obsolescence.

[Westinghouse]

Using the bicycle option in Google maps, I wrote down a route from southeast coastal Florida to Ocotillo, California. And if you cannot get from Ocotillo to San Diego on dead reckoning, there is no way you could have gotten to Ocotillo. It is that very small settlement just where you begin to climb to over 3000 feet elevation going west on Interstate 8. Restaurant, small motel, small store, small population and many white wind-turbine towers marring the land.

It is written out in detail, double and triple checked. It is not offered to anyone for using. Well, maybe for getting through a large city. Anyone planning bicycling the southern tier, as I have done five crossings, ----Use maps from Adventure Cycling Association. It takes a lot of the guess-work out of it. My route looks good, and I was careful to choose roads with shoulders and side-lanes, however, it is unknown. The pre-mapped routes from ACA are well known. The popular ones seem to have developed a bicycling infrastructure. On these routes you are very likely to meet others going your direction, and the other way. If you want pre-mapped bicycle routes, get them from ACA.

[ray b]

If adventure comes from meeting the unexpected, then the choice comes down to how much adventure one wants (or can tolerate).

[Westinghouse]

If adventure comes from meeting the unexpected, then the choice comes down to how much adventure one wants (or can tolerate).

Some unexpecteds were as light as a feather. Others were weightier than Mount Tai.

[David W Pratt]

If I didn't plan my own routes, I'd need to find a winter hobby.

[Westinghouse]

No matter how the directions and routes are chosen, they can be chosen only from what is available.

[BikeliciousBabe]

If I didn't plan my own routes, I'd need to find a winter hobby.

This forum need a like button.

[Westinghouse]

If I didn't plan my own routes, I'd need to find a winter hobby.

This forum need a like button.

I spent long periods of time on Google maps planning, fine-tuning and perfecting for my best routes, and did not follow the directions on the road. What looks good from satellite pics may be a bust in the real world. It is like they say--The map is not the terrain. It is not the woods. It is not the road.

[BikeliciousBabe]

I spent long periods of time on Google maps planning, fine-tuning and perfecting for my best routes, and did not follow the directions on the road. What looks good from satellite pics may be a bust in the real world. It is like they say--The map is not the terrain. It is not the woods. It is not the road.

Try using the Street View function when available.

[Westinghouse]

Street view is most useful at given points. To trace an entire transcontinental route by street view would not be very practical. Street view is good for looking at side roads or where side roads intersect with the main roads. What street view does not show is the actual density of the wooded areas if you're planning a route with certain wooded areas for camping. I do not call it camping. It is an overnight sleep site. A what wooded area may seem good, from street view but there could be a drainage ditch between the road and the wooded area that street view does not make clear. The Google maps street view also is not fine enough to accurately determine vegetation density in potential campsites. A number of times I bicycled to selected possible campsites in the treed areas using Google maps and Road view. I found myself cut off by a drainage ditch that did not show on the map many times. In other potential campsites there were vines and interlaced branches that formed a flora fence. I could not get in to the woods for free camping. That did not show on the maps either.

[davidbonn]

Street view and satellite images are helpful for evaluating how busy a road might be and how good the shoulder is.  Of course you aren't going to be able to track the whole route but still it gives you some idea of what you are getting into.

Street view is also helpful for getting a preview of critical road junctions and possibly confusing intersections on your route.

The feature I wish RWGPS had for its routes was showing street view for those road junctions on the cue sheets when it was available.

As for finding campsites, usually I use a combination of local experience and a tool like OnX backcountry, which can show who owns the land so at least you can know if you are on public land before you find a place to crash for the night.

On BLM or USFS land, usually it is a safe bet to find decent dispersed campsites close to road junctions or stream crossings.  If you aren't concerned about flash floods, gravel bars are often a good bet.  But really good stealth campsites usually require a bit of effort and skill to find and there isn't one formula that will always work.

[Westinghouse]

My first transcontinental bicycle tour in the United States was the winter of 1984-85. That was about 40 years in the past. Locating and using stealth campsites was easy in those days. It seemed like everything was much more open then. The last time I bicycle around Florida which was several months ago, I remember spending 3 hours a night trying to find the smallest open piece of ground to set up a tent and sleep. When you start getting into the western states and Texas it seems like the whole world is on the other side of a barbed wire fence. Much has changed over the decades.