Many years ago I met an individual who shared a brief story of traveling across the country by bike. At the time I was already investigating the possibility of doing such a ride. I had only briefly read about the TransAmerica Trail and seen a few posts of individuals who took on the challenge of such an adventure. Through the posts, I came to an organization, Adventure Cycling which had an extensive network of mapped bike routes all across the United States.
As I continued to explore the possibilities, I purchased a few of the Adventure Cycling maps along the coast of Florida. I wanted to what these maps looked like and how they might help. I had already spent many days & weeks riding in Florida, so I wanted to compare what I deemed as safe roads / routes to the maps. The maps turned out to be excellent. I found they matched my real world experience and so my confidence level rose in exploring more of their routes.
This of course was long before Google Maps was introduced. So this source was an excellent find for areas that I had not previously been. Today of course we have so many fabulous options for creating, exploring, and sharing routes.
- Google Maps
- Ride with GPS
- Strava
- Komoot
So now years later …
After raising a family, having a career, completing countless races, marathons, triathlons, and bike packing trips. Its now time to cycle coast to coast.
The seed of an idea has grown into a plan which of course, anyone who’s done bike packing knows, it’s a nice reference. The journey on a bike is experienced each day as you come across the different challenges of the weather, the terrain, the wind, “UGH” the wind, resources, people you meet, and just plain how you feel. All of those things come into play each day.
As a good friend always said…
Just shut up and pedal
