The Ride Details

The ride I'm embarking on is the van-supported TransAm ride organized by Adventure Cycling Association.  Their website provides more details of the ride.  Van Supported means we don't have to haul our gear on our bikes.  Every day we load our gear on the support van which will drive to the next day's destination.  We're left to just ride the miles.  This is much more appealing to me than riding fully loaded.  I'd like to try fully loaded, unsupported touring someday, but not for this TransAm trip.

The route we'll be taking is shown here.

 

It's mostly due west from Virginia to Colorado where it takes a pronounced jog to the north into Wyoming and Montana.  In Montana we'll stop in Missoula and visit the Adventure Cycling Association headquarters.  This is the original TransAm route, first mapped out for the Bikecentennial '76 rides.  I always wondered whether the route passed through Missoula because that's where the organization established their headquarters, or it they picked Missoula for their headquarters because it was on the TransAm route.

In any case, the total route of ~4300 miles is significantly longer than a straight-line cross country route might be.  Hopefully this route across the Rockies is easier than a more direct route.  It also includes visits to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, a highlight of the trip.

Overnight accommodations will be a mix of campgrounds, churches and civic buildings and small local motels.  Every 6 to 8 days there's a rest day with no riding required.  That gives time for laundry, bike maintenance, sightseeing and catching up on things.

The average riding distance is about 60 miles for every riding day.  The longest single riding day is about 85 miles.  The total trip lasts 83 days, 72 riding days and 11 rest days.

We will depart from Williamsburg, VA and ride to Yorktown, VA for a ceremonial wheel dipping in the Atlantic - it's actually the York River which flows into the Chesapeake Bay, but close enough.  We'll finish in Florence, OR after dipping our wheels in the Pacific Ocean just north of there.

We start on May 19th and finish on August 9th.  I can't wait to get started.