Touring across Texas
 

Anybody here done this? What routes to take? I would be starting in Dallas where I live I guess.

Alan Guo just finished riding from Beaumont to El Paso. Across Texas and California (Feb 2015): Day 13 - El Paso: TRAIN to LA and then SF Many others have done this too. The crazyguyonabike.com: Bicycle Touring: A place for bicycle tourists and their journals website has numerous journals you can read to see their routes and equipment.

A tour could be done from the north west corner of Texas, a bit north of Texline, TX, down to Brownsville. There are roads all the way up there to the TX NM border just west of where TX, OK, and NM meet. Not all paved. I think that's a greater distance than Beaumont to El Paso, but I'm not sure. Texline has an elevation of almost 4700' and Brownsville is less (about 4700' less) so it should be a coast.

I've thought about trying that for many years but never got beyond just looking at maps.

Where do you want to go?

It does depend on where you want to go, as well as what time of year...

I've cycled the ACA route from El Paso across to LA. I've also gone from Brownsville to Dallas - and just over Christmas cycled from Brownsville to Laredo to San Antonio to Austin. A few more general thoughts:

- Texas west of the Pecos River is much more of the West Texas, with dry and wide open spaces. I believe it has a certain beauty and so enjoyed that ride from El Paso further East. However, also a bit of acquired taste and Alan Guo recently decided to bail on wide open spaces (of NM/AZ) after riding through it.
- If you are looking for a bigger mix of occasional cities, then starting in Brownsville and coming up the center and going via Laredo, San Antonio, Austin, Waco, etc will give you a somewhat different slice.
- The Panhandle is a bit cold now, but a different type of wide space and just slightly cooler on shoulder seasons
- Texas Hill Country great place to go, and upcoming Texas Hell Week in middle of March is a great time to visit and explore that area

I just moved here two and a half years ago, but have been making a point of cycling to different state parks within riding distance of Austin. Not a long tour but right now is good time to explore (July/August just a bit too hot for me - I'd rather escape elsewhere).

Not sure where to go...I guess start from dallas and go, doesn't necessarily havevto be Texas.

If I were to ride across Texas again, I think I'd consider using US 90 except for West of Van Horn since US 90 ends there. US 90 is pretty far South of Dallas though so it may not work for you.

If you aren't quite sure where you want to go - it is a bit more difficult for folks to suggest routes to take to get there.

One way you can explore the possibilities is to browse a site like crazyguyonabike.com: Bicycle Touring: A place for bicycle tourists and their journals and see where others have gone. For example, a quick browse brought up this traveler: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/dire...nethercott&v=K who documented two overnight rides and a week long ride he did from Dallas. I am sure there are others.