So.
This coming summer i would like to pedal the Pacific Crest Bicycle trail. It's long, about 2,400 miles and follows the mountain range most of the way. I am planning to do this on my Cadd3 touring frame with the fattest tires i can squeeze in the frame. I know Bill Paul wrote a book about the trail but I hear its out of date. Does anybody have ANY info about this trail/route or maybe knowledge of a website that does? I have been searching and cant find much of anything that will help.

Also any info on extended solo tours roughly long as this will help.

Have you checked out Adventure Cycling's Sierra Crest route? See https://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...racascades.cfm for details.

FWIW, Bil Paul did the route planning for Adventure Cycling.

My daughter and I rode the southern portion of it last year. I found it to be extremely beautiful and extremely difficult. You are either climbing a long steep grade or descending one at pretty much any spot on the portion of the route that I have seen. There are almost no flat spots for the whole section we rode. Combine that with 100F + temps and it makes for a difficult ride.

On the other hand, the scenery is breathtaking. Sequoia was pretty amazing and Yosemite was worth taking several days off to see properly. I usually do not take rest days but found it worth doing so there.

One of the hardest things about the route is that you are likely to be stuck weather wise, because once the passes are open the desert is likely to be extremely hot. I am not sure what the best way to handle that would be. We started in San Diego in the beginning of June just after Tioga Pass opened and had a lot of 100F + heat in the desert and even at that time the only facilities open in Yosemite were in the Valley. We had a high of 115F and a low of 32F just a couple days apart so be prepared for a wide range of weather.

I have speculated that starting in the North as late as you can get over Tioga Pass before the snow flies might yield a cooler ride in the Desert. That is only speculation on my part and it would be hard to pick the time well.

I have a trip journal at https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/MountainMan if you are interested. You can also find other journals for the route on the same web site.

How wide a tire do you plan on using? I did the Oregon section 10+ years ago, I could probably map out the section from Hood River to Crater Lake fairly easily from memory if you can't find the book. I'll ask my buddy if he still owns the book. We were able to comfortably do about 80-85 miles a day. There is lots of climbing involved.

Do you want to avoid gravel roads? I'd avoid the Windigo Pass option. We did it based on the books recommendation and decided it would have been better to suffer through the 10 miles on Hwy 99.

The stretch in the Sierra Nevada's must be breath taking. I've only visited there by car - beautiful country!


On Amazon.com

The AC maps follow 100% paved roads at least for the portion we rode and I think the rest is paved as well. I highly recommend the AC maps, they were well worth the extra expense and the book is probably pretty badly out of date.

I left SB from Sumas WA August 29 and would have gotten snowed on in Big Bear on October 2 if I hadn't bailed a few days earlier at Cajon Junction. Temperatures southbound were under 95F even in the Mojave desert. Also, almost no rain.

Some of the alternate routes are gravel.

Other than long climbs, followed by brief, but screaming descents - sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, you'll have to contend with the traffic on often-shoulderless Hwy 89 from Mount Shasta to Truckee. Very dangerous.

+1 on the ACA maps.

As far as scenery goes, the Icefields and the GDMBR were much better.

They must be pretty amazing then!

Here's a link to a Googlemap of Adventure Cycling's Sierra Cascades route.

Hey, folks, new here. Just registered to necropost about this, if that's cool.

I rode it from about Antelope Valley to Tioga Pass, phew, a long time ago. I used Avocet Cross 1.5 (I think) tires, on my mountain bike (a Specialized Stumpjumper). I had a full front and back rack, plus tent and bag on the thing, and it was pretty brutal at times, yeah. Went up and down the Sierras about ... four or five times, I think. I then rode over to Mammoth for a few days, and then back across Tioga and over the San Francisco, and down the coast. It was pretty fun. I figured once that I spent about 15% of my time on dirt roads. Camped in some pretty primitive places, too.