Touring - Transamerica route

Hello everyone. Planning a coast to coast on the Transamerican route, shortcut on Western express from Pueblo to S. Francisco I just wanted to find out more info on availability of camping sites, and hostels on route or weather I will end up stealth camping all the way!

Thanks

www.cyclingtheworld.org

Howdy -
When are you planning to go? How many days are you giving yourself?
Mountain bike or touring?
Weather:
Western weather data - http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/climsum.html
Click on the state then the locality.
Go to their homepage and connect to other regional climate centers.
Camping:
West - Anywhere west of Pueblo, Colo you can camp for free legally on BLM or Forest Service lands - as long as it is not posted "No Camping" - you need to be sure of ownership - forest service maps show ownership patterns.
Great Plains - most small (>1000) towns will let you camp free in their town park if you ask beforehand - barring that ask at a church.
I'm not a big supporter of TransAm route - I've biked cross-country 7 times and the TransAm is simply not the best - by far. What's more - the Western Express doesn't take you into Yosemite. If you are going East-to-West Tioga pass will be open - sometimes it doesn't open until late June because of heavy winter snows. You can include Yosemite by veering off the Western Express at Ely, Nevada on US 6 - then Calif 120 from Benson to the park.

Drop me a line -
Best - John

www.adv-cycling.org will sell you cue sheets and maps showing camping spots. (of course you can stealth camp also :D ) If you have mapping software like I do (Street Atlas 8.0), you can download the GPS routes and reststops and look at the route on your computer.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/journal/?o=as&category_id=245

Is another excellent site from cyclists who have ridden the Western Express & Transamerica. If you email them, most of them will gladly tell you where to stop and give excellent advise. Or read their journals and see how they coped. You get all types of journals there from the credit card folks to the free campers.

Good luck and Cheers,
BLake

Hi Jamawani thanks for your comments.

>I'm not a big supporter of TransAm route

Any reason why apart from the fact that you have done it 7 times! Would you suggest a different, more scenic route to cross the States? Or should I rather do a Pacific Coast ride Vancouver to LA?

You are right about Western Express not crossing Yosemite, it is a bit of a crime and I thought I would do Tioga anyway as you suggested. I have cycled Yosemite last year and it was unforgettable.

Cheers

GF -
Hey now - it's a big country - I haven't done the TransAm 7 times - I've done lots of different cross-country routes. Again - would you be touring on a mountain bike and when? In the East - rail trails are quite nice - they have zippo, zero cars and often have nice secluded hiker/biker campsites. Otherwise there is often a lot of traffic in the East plus campground filled with 45-ft Winnebagoes with satellite dishes on top.
For an East-to-West route starting in late May/ early June I would suggest Cape Hatteras, North Carolina - following the North Carolina/Virginia border to Cumberland Gap then to Mammoth Cave and up to St Louis. I'd avoid the TransAm across Missouri in favor of the Katy Trail - 200 miles along the Missouri River with limestone bluffs and great historic towns. Kansas is more monotonous to cross than Nebraska or South Dakota. I really like the Sandhills of Nebraska. Also, by mid-summer - the further north you can be in the Great Plains - the more comfortable you will be - especially since you are a Limey unused to 100 degree heat with 100% humidity. Give me some ideas about your timeframe and touring style and I'll share whatever experience I have.
Next summer I'm planning a loop tour starting in San Francisco - heading east to Taos, New Mexico - then taking a left turn and running up the Rockies to the Yukon and Alaska. I've done a similar tour a number of times - I just find new ways to follow the perfect western weather all summer.
The pics are - starting near DC, crossing the Mississippi in St. Louis, and ending at the Golden Gate.
Best - J
PS - One nice option out of DC is the C&O Trail

Websites -
C&O Canal Trail - http://www.nps.gov/choh/
Cape Hatteras - http://www.nps.gov/caha/capehatteras.htm
Virginia Creeper Trail - http://www.vacreepertrail.com/
Katy Trail - http://www.mostateparks.com/katytrail/index.html

i´m thinking about a coast to coast tour myself as well, but need to be sure that the flight to the states is cheap enough...next year the petrol prices rises even more, damn!

i´m thinking about a coast to coast tour myself as well, but need to be sure that the flight to the states is cheap enough...next year the petrol prices rises even more, damn!

Book it now and lock the price in.

would really love to do that, but the problem is that i'm not sure if i can go or not(money, school, etc).

>Would you be touring on a mountain bike and when?

I am planning a East to West crossing from DC or near there. Limit is only to do with my VISA which will expire after 3 months.
Starting period would be sometime in may and I will use my Marin MTB with front and rear racks as I plan to go on after the US.

>Touring style

Never thought about this one! It generally involves a lot of pedalling a sore butt and great fun in the process! On my shorter trips I normally average 100km @ 18k speed Gods permitting.

Thanks for your help

John and I have discussed the merits and shortcomings of the Trans Am trail before and, with my experience of relatively small portions of it, I would have to agree that it is often not the best route. The roads chosen are often busy or of poor quality when a better road is nearby. However, it is probably a real gamble for someone from another country to make up their own route based on hunches. For example, when I got off the Trans Am and cut across country in Southern Illinois a few years ago, I knew enough about the area to guess (correctly) that a certain road that went where I wanted to go was almost certain to be virtually traffic free.

I recommend starting with either a route that you find in someone else's journal or with the Trans Am maps but then doing a lot of research (hey, that's part of the fun) and, above all, not sticking with a route when your gut tells you it is not going to be good. The biggest mistakes I have made have been when I said to myself something like: "These next 20 miles don't look good but the guys who laid this out must have known what they were doing."

Hi; I am looking for advice. I am taking 4 or 5 very fit college age males cross country this june and am looking for ideas for different routes. We will be supported with a vehicle and supplies and I suspect riding fast. We want to go west to east and of course choose beauty over concrete, more miles over traffic. I have done this once over a northern route many years ago but am a little leary of the standard mid america route because of the cook book approach. I am sure that would work but can we choose something better? Thanks, Jeff

>
I am planning a East to West crossing from DC or near there. Limit is only to do with my VISA which will expire after 3 months.
Starting period would be sometime in may and I will use my Marin MTB with front and rear racks as I plan to go on after the US.


Hey gf71,

here are some interesting links for planning - the first gives good info on the C&O trail which will take you 185 miles upstream, following the Potomac, to Cumberland. The second is a rail-to-trail conversion (to be completed this Spring) that will take you on from Cumberland to Pittsburgh for another 150 miles.

http://www.bikewashington.org/canal/index.htm
http://www.atatrail.org/

I did SF to DC this summer following the AC maps. As a novice tourer I started out following them exactly, but as I got more adept at the ways of touring I started to deviate a bit. I camped 75% of the time

Some of their routes leave a lot to be desired (and seem to take the long winding way just for the sake of it), but it is very convenient knowing what is coming up, what camping and services are available, where the bike shops are etc etc, particularly if you are inexperienced (and a foreigner) like me. I found it takes a lot of effort plotting your own way across. I also ended up on some pretty bad roads that I just picked from the map.

If I had to do it again, I would use the maps as a rough guide, but not gospel. I also got a lot of info from reading journals at www.crazyguyonabike.com - you can check out mine at chris.crazyguyonabike.com

Hello everyone. Planning a coast to coast on the Transamerican route, shortcut on Western express from Pueblo to S. Francisco I just wanted to find out more info on availability of camping sites, and hostels on route or weather I will end up stealth camping all the way!

Thanks

www.cyclingtheworld.org

Hi,

Spring/summer 2005 I rode the TransAm west from VA to roughly 150 miles into Colorado.

VA was my toughest state for camping because commercial campsites are relatively few and far between. As a result, I stayed in VA motels much more than planned; generally, VA motels are more expensive than motels in Missouri or Kansas. I didn't stealth camp.

Kansas was much better for camping--and much cheaper--as there are many city parks in which you can pitch your tent for free. Most of these parks have a swimming pool and showers. The proprietors are used to touring cyclists passing through, so they often let you use the facilities for free. Be careful where you pitch your tent, though. For example, twice I pitched my tent too close to the baseball field. Little League games continued to almost 11:00 PM; all I wanted to do was sleep, but couldn't due to the lights and noise. Stay away from tennis courts, too; once, somebody turned the court lights on full-blast around 11 PM and left them on until 1 AM.

I stayed in other places other than camping or motels that were cheap or free: a firehouse, a church, an old high school, the house of a local resident, a dilapidated log cabin, to name a few. Some of these places are listed on the TransAm maps; other places I came across by accident. It's amazing what you can uncover by talking to some of the locals.

Anyway, I wish you the BEST on your TransAm journey! As for me, this year I may continue from where I left off in CO, finish the TransAm to OR, and then head south through part of CA.

David in PA