Help Me: Advice routes from Boston, Ma to San Francisco, Ca

[tharlow]

I want to ride from Boston to San Francisco in mid April. I am new to riding and would like to hear about routes people have taken, difficulties, time etc. I am trying to make the trip in 45 days....thanks for the help!!

[bktourer1]

Get the Rubels bike maps for Mass. I rode from Springfield to NYC 2x via back roads and rail trails.  If you come my way, you could camp out in my yard.  You could take the commuter train to Worcester from Boston if you wanted to save some time and effort.   

[wanderingwheel]

I hate to answer your questions with more questions, but please tell us a little more about what you are looking for.  Will this be a self-supported camping trip, a credit card and motel trip, or possibly a SAG supported trip?  Are there any parts of the country you would especially like to see, or maybe skip?  How many miles a day do you expect to ride?  How do you feel about inclement weather?  Will this be a solo trip?

Based on your schedule of 45 days, you will probably have to follow a bee-line route and keep the total mileage to near 3,000 miles.  While the Adventure Cycling routes are wonderful, you will probably have to make your own route for much of the trip.  However, consider using the Western Express once you reach Colorado or Utah; the truth is you'll probably be following it, whether intentionaly or not, by the time you reach Nevada.  For other route ideas, search through the journals on crazyguyonabike.com .  Other resources include some of the older RAAM (Race Across America) routes, and the routes followed by supported tours including The Big Ride, America By Bike, and PacTour.  I think all of these have followed routes close to yours at one time or another.

Leaving in April, be ready for plenty of rain, but you may get lucky.  There is a chance of a late season snow storm in the mountains, but it should be unlikely.

Good Luck
Sean

[tharlow]

Hey, thanks for the advice, and I suppose it would be a little more appropriate to have some information about what I want to do. I would love to camp as much as I can, on a solo bikeride. I am not worried about missing out on anything to see in the country as I have never been west really, so everything will be novel to me. I would like to ride about 90 miles a day, as I realize the time limitations I have set for myself would demand such. (I am thinking more like 50 days of riding, not 45). I am not adverse to the weather....what can you do about it anyways. I have looked on the crazyguyonabike webpage and he has some really great stuff. He did the trip west to east which would change the dynamic of my ride. I have also looked at the ACA bike routes and they seem very helpful, would it be possible to simply follow ACA routes from KY to CA, with alterations at the beginning of my trip? I realize that from Boston to Kentucky area would have to be improvised. Hope that helps clarify things, and thanks for the help!!!

[staehpj1]

I have looked on the crazyguyonabike webpage and he has some really great stuff. He did the trip west to east which would change the dynamic of my ride.

He?  Which he?  There are a ton of Journals on crazyguy.  The founder of the site did his TA E-W as did lots of the others who have journals there.  You should go back and read some of the other journals they might be helpful.

BTW: If you aren't dead set on starting in Boston, it wouldn't be too difficult to change plans and just do the TA starting in Yorktown.  Rent a car or hop on a train.  It depends on what you are looking for, but using an AC route really simplifies things and makes it easy to find free or cheap places to stay.  Improvising your own route has it's charms too though.

[ztmlgr]

I did the reverse (SF to Boston) in the summer of 2007. 

For details of the route, see http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/sftobostonbybike

The route was ACA Western Express, TransAm, a shortcut from Charlottesville VA to Fredericksburg VA connecting to the ACA Atlantic Coast route to Boston, although I wandered from the Atlantic Coast route as I got closer to Boston to stay with friends and family.  My final mileage was 4,628 miles and it took 54 days.  45 days is doable but you will need to avoid bad weather and mechanical/physical breakdowns.  I was trying to make it in 50 days but I lost 1 day due to snow in Nevada (in June) and maybe another day due to thunderstorms in Kentucky, as well as maybe 2 more days due to an overly aggressive schedule and some saddle sores.  If I were to do it again, I might take a more direct route, such as the route taken by this tour group http://www.americabybicycle.com/CCC/CCCPop.htm which takes 52 days, with 5 rest days, to go from SF to Portsmouth NH (close enough to Boston).  I wouldn't ride on the freeway like they do, but I would take a more northeasterly course from Kansas rather than follow the TransAm to Virginia and then head north.

Good luck. 

[jimm1909]

I want to ride from Boston to San Francisco in mid April. I am new to riding and would like to hear about routes people have taken, difficulties, time etc. I am trying to make the trip in 45 days....thanks for the help!!

Howabout a followup? How did your trip go? Any problems along the way? Lets hear it!

[paddleboy17]

I would like to ride about 90 miles a day, as I realize the time limitations I have set for myself would demand such. (I am thinking more like 50 days of riding, not 45).

I don't know you and I don't know your riding style, but I did a tour in which we averaged 80 miles a day.  I hated it.  I felt like it was about covering today's target mileage, and that I was not seeing or experiencing my route.  For me, the ride is a celebration of the fact that I am alive, and that I can do this, and so many other people are missing out.  Maybe there are parts of this country that are boring as hell, and you just can't wait to pass through them.

I think your experience will be enriched if you cut your mileage targets back.

Just my 2 cents...