Poopiedoodle

Hey everyone, 36/m here, mountainbiker transitioning into touring.

I'm trying to plan a route for 7 to 10 days in July. I'd like to depart San Diego on Amtrak, and have been trying to find an area close to one of their stations. I'd prefer to avoid using any buses.

I've looked into Colorado, Oregon/Northern California, and Arizona. I also considered something near Ohio or Atlanta, GA, since I have business in those places and was thinking of combining the travel. I'm looking for epic nature scenery, lots of trees, bridges, tunnels, ghost towns, but mostly just a lot of nature.

I'll be on a cross bike, and dirt/gravel stretches are welcome. I'd like to do a lot of camping with maybe a couple hotels mixed in. 40 miles per day sounds about right to me. I'm not sure I'm up for a lot of high altitude climbing, or at least not 40 miles per day of it. So I'm unsure about Colorado.

I've read up on a lot of routes, and tried to plot my own by starting at various Amtrak stations, using google earth to look for patches of green. I also tried google image search to get an idea of scenery. There's tons of info but what I'm looking for is suggestions on general areas of the united states that might be especially "naturey" in July, with lots of solitude, wilderness, etc. Though I'm not looking to do a mountainbiking/bikebacking trip this time, mainly roads through the woods, etc.

PCH through Big Sur could be nice but I'm not sure where I'd connect from an Amtrak station.

Thanks.

jamawani 

Probably your best bet using Amtrak is to take the Coast Starlight up to Klamath Falls, Oregon. That means you have to leave super early from San Diego and you'll get back super late, but you arrive 8:00a in Klamath Falls and leave at 10:00p - which is very convenient. One of the challenges with Amtrak is getting locations with baggage service. There are fewer and fewer small communities where they provide this service. The biking out of Klamath Falls is superb. To the east you have the OC&E Trail and the Sycan marshes. To the north you have Crater Lake NP and some great loops. To the west you have the Siskiyou Mountains.

Trying to get to Colorado locations is just too time consuming and with too few baggage locations. Amtrak no longer offers direct service via Salt Lake City to western Colorado. The Southwest Limited has baggage locations in Santa Fe or in La Junta, Colorado - which is way out in the Plains.

Doug64

I was actually going to suggest starting at K Falls, so +1.

adventurepdx

I definitely would recommend something involving Klamath Falls as well. With 10 days you could start or end in Portland and do the Sierra Cascades Route, which would definitely fulfill "wilderness-y". And July would mean McKenzie Pass is open and Crater Lake is nice. Of course, it involves many a climb and you may have to do a bit more than 40 mile days at some point. You could also use Eugene as a start/endpoint and do Crater Lake and stuff in the Cascades.

Portland, Eugene, and K-Falls all have checked baggage service, so you could get off with a boxed bike.

To note: The Pacific Surfliner service from SD to LA has bike racks, so you can roll on your bike. At Los Angeles Union Station you would need to box a bike.

And another option would be to go up to Glacier National Park in Montana. Lots of good options for a week of biking using either East Glacier Park or Whitefish Amtrak stations.

valygrl

Train is a waste of time and not that cheap. And you still have to pack your bike in a box. And spend all that time sitting around. Boring. Fly.

You might like Montana and Wyoming if Colorado sounds too high.
Look at adventure cycling maps, you might like the wa/or portion of the Sierra cascades route, or great parks.

adventurepdx

I'm starting to get the feeling that you don't like the train, valygrl.

Anyways, I do like the train and don't find it boring. And the OP asked about "suggestions for a July bike/train tour", not "Please convince me why I shouldn't take the train."

jamawani 

Of course, if it were 1956 you could take the Yellowstone Special
all the way from Union Station in L.A. to West Yellowstone.
Service ended in 1960, however.

Poopiedoodle

Ya know...I didn't realize that the bike racks on trains ended in LA. I've used those racks often between San Diego and LA. I figured the coast starlight route had them, didn't realize I'd need to box the bike on a train. However, I do enjoy trains, and it's part of the trip.


Some great suggestions for possible stations to start from...TY

indyfabz

It's not the same kid of boxing as with flying. You don't need to remove the wheels. Remove pedals, rotate/twist bars and stem, lower seat post if your bike is tall and roll it into the box.

Another option is up the coast to Seattle via train then train to Whitefish, MT where you could explore Glacier National Park then ride back to Whitefish.

valygrl

OK - well don't take my word about which trains need boxes as gospel, last time I tried to do it i was going from Santa Cruz to WInter Park and not on the Starlight.

I see I've pissed people off about the train comment, I didn't use very gentle language, but I think some people might have an idea that the train is a cheap, easy and efficient way to travel to a bike tour, and that was not my take on it. If you like it for some other reason, I'm not here to lobby against that. Obviously, it's not my preference but if it's yours, great!

ENjoy your trip!

mtnbud

Lots of excellent options out of Klamath Falls. There are many road options both east and west with many of them are paved. If you did decide on K-Falls I'd be sure and visit Crater Lake. There is a drought going on right now, but it should be fine riding. The west end of Klamath Lake from Rocky Point to Fort Klamath is real nice.

Here's a suggested route

If you're used to mountain biking, you may discover 40 miles is on the low end of how far you can ride each day - It would depend on if you're riding on pavement or not.

I've never tried using the train as I've noticed it takes so much longer to go the same distance than driving a car to the same destination.

Shifty

Jamawani is SO old, he remembers this from experience!!!

fietsbob

Amtrak to Seattle , take US 101, across the north WA coast, west along Strait of Juan de Fuca,
and down the Coast , back to SD Cal.

a Popular route , you will meet others doing the same.


Less ambitious ? Oakland-Emeryville, SF Bay area..


and Eugene or Portland Are also useful stations.

then you ride over the coast range mountains to reach the Coast.

Doug64

It is a nice ride, but the Going-to-the Sun Road is not flat! We did the route suggested the opposite way last summer. Part of our route from Canada took us through Glacier NP, and then to Whitefish, MT. We took the train from Whitefish to the Albany, OR station, and rode home from there.

I agree with Valygrl about trains not always being the cheapest or most efficient way to travel, but I like trains. Trains are a positive aspect of the trip for me. That's the advantage of being retired; a day or two one way or another does not matter.

indyfabz

I know. Been up it three times. I don't read his post as looking for flat. He just wants to avoid "a lot" of high altitude climbing.

benda18

For Ohio - Underground Railroad (Underground Railroad (UGRR) | Adventure Cycling Route Network | Adventure Cycling Association).

adventurepdx

True, but it's going to be hard to find something that fits all the parameters that the OP wants and be flat or flattish at the same time, at least staying in the west where things are more wilderness-esque.

Cheap, no. But it really depends on one's idea of "efficient". In a time sense, yes, trains aren't time efficient (at least for any journey over 4 hours.). But if you start looking at things like environment/energy efficiency, welll, that's a different story.

For me, I like slower forms of travel. That's one of the reasons why I like bike touring. And I'd rather watch the country change over the course of a day or two on a train than flying for a couple hours. But to each their own.

adventurepdx

Another option to throw in the mix would be taking Amtrak to Seattle and doing a tour around the Puget Sound/Inland Sea and its various islands. No real high-altitude or extended climbs, but a decent amount of hills. Not true wilderness, but lots of views, trees, and nature, and plenty of services. One could also travel into BC and do a part of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands too.

staehpj1

Be very sure that there is baggage service where ever you board, change trains, or want to end up. No baggage service and you are out of luck. That is unless you are on a train with roll on service, but they are not that common.

The Amtrak boxes are huge so boxing the bike is no big deal. That said trains are not very comfortable for long rides unless you get a sleeper and that is crazy expensive. Going coast to coast you are talking 3 days and $1000 if you get a sleeper. At least that is what I was quoted for my last west coast trip (I flew instead).

I rode Amtrak for a 1000 mile or so return trip on one tour and was more tired from the train ride than the tour. If I recall correctly It took about three times as long as a rental car would have and cost about the same. Oh and that didn't even count the half day waiting for my train. I will use the train where convenient, but a plane or rental car is usually more convenient IMO.

cyccommute 

I'l grant you that baggage service is limited and I wouldn't necessarily choose La Junta as a starting point for a tour in July...although this summer could be a very cool summer and the plains has its own charm. However, a ride from Santa Fe to Glenwood Springs or Grand Junction would be a great route. Ride from Santa Fe to Taos to the San Luis Valley to Buena Vista to Aspen to Glenwood.

An more "trainy" alternative would be to catch the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic in Antonito to Chama and see if you can sweet talk your bike onto the train. Then ride out of Chama to Durango and ride the Durango/Silverton to Silverton, then over Red Mountain Pass to Ouray and Montrose. I'd detour to the east to visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and then to Hotchkiss and Panonia and finally to Glenwood Springs. You could go to Grand Junction but US 50 is hot. Going over the Grand Mesa would be better but tougher.

The Amtrak site says that you can get from Glenwood and Grand Junction to LA on the California Zephyr.

jamawani 

You can get from Glenwood to LA - but it is ridiculously roundabout.
You get into Oakland at night - have to spend the night -
then take the morning train to LA getting into San Diego at midnight.
Almost 60 hours to do what you used to be able to do in 24.

cyccommute 

Getting to and from San Diego to anywhere by train is ridiculously roundabout. If Poopiedoodle was in a hurry, he'd take a plane from San Diego and be done in a couple of hours. He could even drive a car (one-way rentals aren't that expensive) in much less time. That, however, isn't the point. I wouldn't travel by rail but it's not up to me to judge Poopiedoodle's plan.

The most convenient routes from San Diego are the Southwest Chief and the Sunset Limited. The Sunset Limited doesn't go anywhere that a "normal" person would want to ride a bike in July.

Another route for a Colorado tour to use if you want the shortest possible train ride and least amount of hassle would be to get off in Santa Fe and use the "trainy" alternative. At Montrose turn east to Gunnison then over Monarch Pass and down the Arkansas River to Canon City (there's a tilda over the 'n' by the way to make it "Canyon" for those of you who don't know) then out to La Junta with a return on the Southwest Chief to LA. It would still be a spectacular ride even with the plains ride out to La Junta.

jamawani 

The problem with any trip starting in Santa Fe heading into Colorado is that you have to get from Lamy (the train stop) to Santa Fe on a pretty busy stretch of US 285 then a service road along I-25 and then head towards Espanola on an extremely busy US 285 expressway with only sporadic service roads. The OP said he wanted to avoid bus connections, but I would certainly take a connecting bus up to Taos and start from there.

staehpj1

I remember that as being a pleasant ride. Granted that I am pretty traffic tolerant, but I don't remember all that much traffic.

According to Rails-to-Trails Conservancy: Trail of the Month: New Mexico's Santa Fe Rail Trail it looks like you could ride a train from Santa Fe to Lamy. I remember that train showing up when I was waiting for my Amtrak train. I think I remember folks wheeling bikes off of it. It seemed to just be a recreational spur used mostly by folks picnicking at Lamy. Quoting from that web site about a wedding there, "The rest of their guests rode on the Santa Fe Southern Railway, which offers passenger service to Lamy, including one-way tickets and room for bicycles".

Also there is apparently a rail trail that gets you out of Santa Fe almost to Lamy. Santa Fe Rail-Trail | New Mexico Trails | TrailLink.com

I have not used the Santa Fe Rail Trail or the Santa Fe Southern Railway, but did see both when I was there and they looked like likely options. Still, I thought the ride was nice enough on the roads.

cyccommute 

Every silver lining has a cloud if you look hard enough US285 out of the train station isn't the best road but it's not impossible to ride. The Old Las Vegas Highway that takes you from US285 to Santa Fe may follow I-25 but it is well separated from I-25. US84/285 to from Santa Fe to Espinola has a frontage road that runs most the way. This is the "West". There are lots and lots and lots of times when you have to ride on roads that are less then optimal. If you avoid all the frontage roads on the Interstates, you'll never go anywhere by bicycle. Hell, you have to ride on the Interstate sometimes.

I assume that Poopiedoodle kind of knows how to ride in traffic. If Poopiedoodle doesn't or if high volume roads bother him (her, don't know which) then maybe bicycle touring isn't the right activity.