Perimeter Tour

[sjp5107]

Hey, this is just to satisfy my curiosity.

I am an avid tourist. My largest tour I have built up in my mind is doing the perimeter of the US when I graduate. Probably summer 2012. I need to take a break from life. Just wondering how many people are out there that would be even remotely interested in accompanying me in part or all of the tour. I would probably be roughly following the pacific coast route, northern tier, southern tier, and Atlantic coast.

Steve

[Westinghouse]

Hello:

Actually, I have done most of the perimeter already, and a good deal more besides. 2012 is too far into the future for me to be able to make plans of that length of time. I have done some research into doing a perimeter tour. It could be done in eight or nine months, give or take.

[sjp5107]

Yea im not looking to make any plans. I was just wondering if there were people out there that had even thought of doing it. And i had figured it would take probably around 10 months, but i haven't even looked at the maps that closely, i just kinda threw an estimate together. It nice to see that there is at least one other person who has thought about it.

[staehpj1]

In that case I will say that yes, I have considered it and may even do it when I retire.  I estimated 6 months.  It is probably important that you go south on the Pacific coast and that you are in the right places at the right time weather-wise.  Here is some doodling I did:

	Miles	Days	Start	Finish
Baltimore to Bar Harbor	1000	16	06/01/??	06/17/??
Northern Tier	4295	69	06/17/??	08/25/??
Pacific Coast	1836	29	08/25/??	09/23/??
Southern Tier	3159	50	09/23/??	11/12/??
St. Augustine to Baltimore	1000	16	11/12/??	11/28/??

       11290   miles    
        180     days

This was done with a bias toward starting and finishing from home.  The weather would be easier to schedule for if the beginning and end were in the south.

[Westinghouse]

I was just going to say but staehpj1 took the words right out of my mouth. You would definitely have to schedule your trip around the weather if you are going to do the entire perimeter all in one tour. If you do it in stages at your convenience, you can pretty much pick and choose the kind of weather you will have, within certain limits.

[TCS]

I was just wondering if there were people out there that had even thought of doing it.

John Rakowski (who wrote many travelogs for Adventure Cycling) rode the US perimeter in, hmmm, 1979-1980 (?) I believe.  Contemporary Stories of this ride were carried in Bicycling magazine.

tcs

[John Nettles]

I have completed 3/4 of a perimeter (San Diego to Vancouver to Portland, ME (via original northern tier), to Key West.  It took me about 3 1/2 months but my mileage averaged 83 per day overall which is a tad high and would not recommend.  The big thing is to factor in weather.

I started from San Diego on a spur of the moment thing on July 4th so I hit the northeast with winter storms coming soon and arrived in Key West on November 12 with about 8,900 miles.  If I would have headed west, it probably would have been too late for NM, AZ.

If doing again, I would probably give a serious look at the weather in the Rockies (when does snow come/leave) and work from there.  I was not as concerned about the northeast as once I headed south, it gets warm pretty quick.

Hope this helps!