A Double Crossing of the States
Summary: 10,000 Miles Through 28 States in 207 Days
Adventure Cycling has a great interactive image-map that names and links to information detailing the individual bicycle routes. Click on the link: 'ACA ROUTE NETWORK' found here. Basically, I headed south to Florida from Birmingham, Alabama to catch the eastern end of AdventureCycling's Southern Tier. Then eastward across Florida's panhandle over to Jacksonville to connect with AC's Atlantic Coast route. Then I travelled up the coast to north of Richmond, Virginia then west on the famous TransAmerica route.
I stopped in Damascus Virginia for the Trail Days weekend followed by three days work with Bob People's Hardcore trail maintenance crew, my third year to work.
I continued on a slightly southern variation of the TA, traveling through mostly through Tennessee rather than Kentucky. Getting near the Mississippi River and wanting to tag Kentucky, I crossed northwest to connect to the Lewis & Clark Trail in St. Louis.
I followed the LCT and Missouri River northwest through the Dakota's then west across Montana connecting with AC's Northern Tier. The LCT and NT run together for miles before the LCT drops southwest to Portland Oregon while the NT continues to hold north. I stayed on the NT across the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park then re-joined the LCT. I followed the easy parts of AC's Sierra Cascade route from Portland through northern California and east to Reno Nevada to connect to the Western Express.
The WE follows Highway 50, 287 miles known as 'the Loneliest Road in America' with ONLY 5 towns(?), across Nevada into Utah.
There I followed the Grand Canyon Connection from Utah southward to Arizona. South of the Grand Canyon I cut southeast through Flagstaff to Globe Arizona to join the western end of the Southern Tier which I followed eastward across Texas to Mississippi's Natchez Trace. After a it's-getting-cold ride up the Trace to Tupelo I finally turned east on Corridor X, heading home to Birmingham, covering almost 10,000 miles through 27 states in 207 days.
