Where is the best Epic Ride"
I am planning on doing an epic ride for my 50th birthday. I have done a couple of this type ride in preparation. I did the Womble trail as a solo out and back 2 day ride with all my gear on my back and 12000 feet of climbing. I did the Ouachita Trail as a 3 day epic ride with several friends too. Now, as I look forward to my 50th birthday, I am planning on doing a big epic ride. Places I have considered include, The Colorado Trail, this may be too long (500 miles) and require too much support. The Tahoe Rim Trail, 162 miles but not all are open to bikes. Are there other long distance trail systems here in the US that would make a good 4 to 7 day epic ride adventure?

500 miles seems pretty damn far for an epic ride. Would you be able to carry that much gear? How many people?

You'll be looking at killing around 60 miles per day if you hum the whole time (I wouldn't recomend riding for more than 8 hours in one day, you'll get BURNT OUT).

So a good 7 day trip would be roughly ~375 miles.

I don't know where you want to go, but you could do the hard ass trip and bike 400 miles of the Appalachian Trail. 200 in, 200 back out to your vehicle again.

How many people are you looking at taking? I'd have ~4 for a trip of that size. Simply for food and gear requirements.

Are you completely opposed to going out to Moab Utah (closer to you than the AT) and simply riding Mt. Zion for 7 days and camping outside wherever you decide to stop riding? I would love to do that, but that's just me.

You could go to Santa Cruz, CA and ride the local trails. There are probally 1,000 miles of open trails in CA.

You could even call Mountain Bike Action and see if they can offer you a few ideas.

Is there not a trail connecting seattle area all the way to California or is that just a rumour I hear?

you can always ride the rails

If there is one, it's one of the best kept secrets. Perhaps you're thinking of the Pacific Crest Trail? Unfortunately, it's doesn't really run through Seattle but it does run a little to the east in the mountains. Most unfortunately, bikes are not permitted on the trail.

There's also The Pacific Northwest Trail which runs east-west across the top of the state of Washington (and Idaho and a little-ways through Montana) and does permit bikes.

The most epic ride I can think of here in the continental u.s. is the Continental Divide Trail.
https://www.aldhawest.org/Trails/cdt_def.htm

Look into the Kokopelli Trail. It goes from Moab to around Fruita. It's 142 miles one way and you could throw in some time riding in either Moab or Fruita if that's not enough. Average time riding it is 5-7 days.

I'm not gonna say its the best epic or the farthest but the scenary of ND's Maah Daah Hey is very beautiful and different than most other trails have. It is over one hundred miles one way. It is not very technical and not a whole lot of climbing. Go to Maahdaahhey.com if you want to learn some more.

Rickm-Are you from around Arkansas? Womble rocks, and I've ridden parts of the Ouachita-I adventure race train on the Ouachita since it runs by Pinnacle near Little Rock (which is where I live).

sm266, no I live in Texas, but I love the Womble and parts of the Ouachita Trail were fun, other parts were brutal.

The Mah Daah Hey sounds cool, I will look into that one. A freind of mine did the
Kokopelli Trail, and I will have to ask him about it.

The Continental Divide Trail is actually part of or shall I say the Colorado Trail is part of it. Thats a little too long.

The Pacific Northwest Trail is a possibility. I am going to read all about it.

Sounds like your stuck on camping and riding point to point. However, I have been to Moab a couple of times, and there are a few one day epics there, then you could drive to frutia CO (only 2 hrs.), the edge loop is great - only 35 miles or so, but you have to repel an old waterfall (dry) and the diversity of the ride is unmatched - spend 7 days down there and you'll cover all types of riding.

If your set on a pure epic - blow your lungs out ride - try the Cascade Creampuff 100, I've done it, and it ain't for pansies. (the only time I'm not a pansy is during that ride) 100 miles, 1 day, 18-19K feet of climbing. www.PUFF100.com - it's in the June July timeframe.