About the Ride

I am starting my adventure from McLean (Virginia) on May 4, 2013, aiming for a total of approximately 4’200 Miles (6'800km) from East to West and will follow the trail through Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Oregon, finishing at the Pacific coast in Florence. 

The bicycle route across the country is mapped by the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) and was developed as the Bikecentennial in 1976 and ridden in one or other direction by scores of cyclists every year.  The original trail starts from Yorktown (Virginia), then passes through Williamsburg and around the northern edge of Richmond, through Charlottesville, from where I catch up the trail. Then the route goes up the Blue Ridge Mountains, which separate the Shenandoah Valley to the West from the larger part of Virginia. There is a great deal of steep climbing in the Appalachian Mountains, continuing through eastern Kentucky (notorious for coal trucks and uncontrolled barking dogs) as far as Berea, where the terrain becomes more rolling. At the Western end of Kentucky lies the Ohio river and, a ferry ride away, Illinois. The route continues in that state to Carbondale and Chester where it bridges the Mississippi river into the state of Missouri. Although Virginia has the largest elevation gain along the way and the Appalachians are nothing to be sneezed at, the steeply-pitched hills of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri present another major challenge. 

Pueblo in Colorado is the approximate halfway point of the TransAm route, which having proceeded westwards up to now here takes a turn to the north-west and follows the line of the Rocky Mountains. Here begins the long climb to crest the Continental Divide with the highest altitude reached at Hoosier Pass (11'539 feet = 3'517meters). The route continues through Wyoming and the magnificent Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks into Montana. The city of Missoula, on a spur off the route, featuring Adventure Cycling headquarters. The TransAm Trail turns south at Kooskia, then west into Oregon over the Cascade Mountains, through the city of Eugene and then to the coast at Florence, my end point. 

My intention is to complete the ride unsupported and take all the equipment I intend to use with me on my bike trailer. I plan to overnight most days with a motel stop or B&B and rely on service stations (diners and cafes) along the way to keep me fueled. I will follow the maps and information supplied by ACA together with my GPS where I uploaded all the stages manually.  I have estimated to complete my journey between approximately 40 to 50 days with an average of 80-100 Miles a day and maybe 2-6 rest stops along the way. However, as they say ‘best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry’ I shall just ride and see how the journey goes, hopefully seeing the sun setting in the Pacific.