Your Turn: Researching a Route

During my cross-country trip, many people I came across expressed an interest in someday embarking on their own long distance bike ride. I spent the better part of two years thinking about my trip and preparing for it - thinking about routes, developing road cycling skills, and accumulating the gear I would need. Over the next three posts, I will offer some thoughts on preparing for a cross-country ride.

Mapping a route:

Studying and thinking about your route is key for any cross-country ride. The vast majority of cross-country cyclists follow the routes designed by the Adventure Cycling Association. Their maps are well-researched and frequently updated based on the feedback they receive from cyclists. However, their routes carry a couple of disadvantages: they typically avoid major cities and their cross-country routes are not the most direct adding hundreds of miles to a cross-country journey.

Primarily in order to create the most direct transcontinental route, I designed my own route from New York to Miles City, MT before picking up the Lewis and Clark trail. Even after, I followed my own route for a couple days from Three Forks, MT to Lincoln, MT. 

I mapped these routes using the bike routes feature on Google maps, and then manually adjusting these maps to avoid finding myself on gravel roads or spending excessive time on gravel bike trails. The street view feature is invaluable for giving you a sense of the road traffic and size of the shoulder, and it's best to avoid selecting routes without street view. Beware that out West, Google bike routes will put you on dirt fire trails or logging roads to keep you off the Interstate, so each route needs to be studied carefully. All my routes are available online by clicking on the "Stage Summary" link at the end of each post.

Using bike trails:

In the East and around many cities, Google maps frequently puts you on dedicated bike trails. The city trails are often paved, but longer trails are either gravel, dirt or crushed limestone. As a road cyclist, I was initially leery of spending much time on these trails - it is much easier to lose control of your bike in ruts on these trails and increases rolling resistance. However, typically these trails are well maintained and suitable for a road bike. Moreover, rail trails have gentler gradients and are quiet and scenic. Traillink.com is a great resource for getting feedback from riders on whether a given trail is suitable for a road bike.

Which direction?

The great debate over traveling from east to west or west to east is unlikely to be resolved. It is certainly true that near the coasts prevailing winds blow west to east, and it is also true that a stiff headwind is more frustrating and dispiriting than heat or rain or cold or climbing. That said, either direction you travel, you will encounter both days with headwinds and days with tailwinds.

It's also worth noting that heading east often involves hours of cycling into the sun. Over my entire trip, I never needed sunglasses since I was cycling west and was finished in the afternoon. The glare from a rising sun probably makes it harder for traffic to see you in the mornings if you are traveling east.

River crossings:
Roadways typically narrow on bridges and otherwise comfortable shoulders may disappear when crossing a major river. In most large cities, many but not all river crossings will have a dedicated bike route. However, major river crossings outside of cities can be quite long and fairly narrow (see Astoria-Megler Bridge) Again, the street view feature of Google maps is fairly useful in determining the size of the shoulder and figuring out traffic volumes on the roadway.