Southern Tier question.

[Reminiscence]

With departure a few days away, a question has popped into mind: are there any places along the general Southern Tier route where one can follow a designated bike path/trail for a good distance rather than sharing the road with motorists?

[billy50]

As I remember it, the only place on designated trails is about 18 miles of greater Phoneix and a few miles near San Diego.  Both are on the published route.  Some of the remote highways will feel like trails though.  It's a great ride.  Good luck.

[Westinghouse]

You can google the Tammany Trace in Louisiana. It is 31 miles of offroad cycling. It is up to you if you want to leave the designated ACA that far.

There are other designated bike paths in Florida on the S-tier.

This message was edited by Westinghouse on 10-20-08 @ 8:50 AM

[Reminiscence]

Thanks. I will be only loosely following the official route as it (I am not keen on traveling so close to the border in Texas and California, and going through cities like El Paso) so I'll definitely look into the Tammany Trace. Billy, do you have more specific details on the Phoenix trails? Due to budget constraints I am following road maps the whole way.

[rreinarz]

We did the ACA route along the border in TEXAS. We were never out of
sight of Law Enforcement. They knew what we were doing. we were never
bothered. It is a fun ride. Even the I 10 section was a blast. I was beeped
at by a State Trooper, a BN SF train engineer, and numerous 18 wheelers.
The wide shoulders were great to ride on. I stayed at the right hand edge
to take advantage of boost from passing vehicles. The big trucks usually
moved over into the inside lane for me.

When off I 10 the traffic was sparse. I recommend doing the ACA route.
roy

[Westinghouse]

Areas near the border of Mexico seemed safe enough, and the border patrol were seemingly omnipresent.

If you plan on slipping over the border and doing some of the trip south of the Rio Grande, perhaps you might want to think again. There have been many robberies and murders in Mexican border towns. I was cycling east to west from Florida, and I was about 80 miles (estimated) west of Van Horn, TX when a border patrol truck pulled in behind me and asked me to stop. This I did. Two officers asked me where I had started from and where I was going. Then they told me this. If anyone on this road yells for you to stop or motions to you in any way, do not stop; just keep right on going. Two persons had gone over the border shortly before then. They were found robbed and murdered, and those two were not the only ones who had run into serious trouble. I assured the border patrol officers I would not go over to anyone if they yelled or motioned to me to do so. Nobody ever did try to direct me in any way along that road.

Sure, we enjoy our cycling tours, and we intend to mind our own business, obey the law, and have a good time of it, but we cannot go blind to the fact that there are real dangers out there. Be careful.

This message was edited by Westinghouse on 10-20-08 @ 4:06 PM

[billy50]

Westinghouse is right about the Tammany Trail in Louisana.  It's about 35 miles of great trail from Covington to Slidell and it brushes up near the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.  If you do that you can easily head south east and follow the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Not sure about the extent of storm damage there though, but it is a great off route and well worthwhile in my opinion.

The Canal Bike Path is in between I-17 and Rt 60 if you are heading east bound into Phoenix.  Check with locals as you enter Surprise AZ, or Peoria at the latest, so you can make use of this great bike path.

Good riding.

[Westinghouse]

That Tammany Trail is really nice. You would never regret using it. If I do the S-tier again, perhaps this winter, I will definitely use it.
What I would like to see is a dedicated bike path like the Tammany race all the way across the United States, east to west. It might be very expensive to build and maintain, but the building of it would create jobs, and the maintaining of it would also keep people in jobs.

This message was edited by Westinghouse on 11-1-08 @ 11:38 AM

[Coyotetrack]

By now you are probably on the road but I was wondering about the weather, mainly the temperature, at this time of year traveling the Southern Tier. Three years ago I motorcycled across country taking a south route and camping the entire way. I found a few places to be really cold such as the Guadalupe Mountains of west Texas. I was riding at below freezing at times and one night got down to 17 degrees. Does anyone have any comments on this? I'm considering a ride soon. Thanks.

[Westinghouse]

Early in the winter of 1985 another person and I got caught out, I believe it was new years eve, at night in a serious snow blizzard. We had a tent and two sleeping bags. During the night I was really concerned about hypothermia. Neither one of us was able to sleep because of the cold. The next morning we got up. I had to use a screw driver to pic the solid pieces of ice off the brake calipers and the deraileurs to get them to move. I was somewhat miserable for four days after that. That blizzard hit us just east of Guadalupe Pass. I think there is a mountain there, el Capitanis, that is the highest elevation in Texas.

I do not know what the temperature got down to that night, but I would not be surprised to find out it was zero F.