After a bit more research I have decided on the Route. Yorktown, Virginia to San Francisco, California. I will ride the TransAmerica trail for about 2k miles, then jump on the Western Express to San Francisco total trip: 3785 miles. (see route: http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/RouteNetwork.pdf)
I have also decided it would be wise for me to join a group in this effort, prefferably with a support vehicle. However, I have not completely put the solo trip out of the question. I have found one group called Bike the US for MS (http://www.biketheusforms.org/) . These guys really seem to have it together. They have regular video, picture and blog updates, I figgure it would be nice to forge some lifelong friendships and get some encouragement along the way.
I have also put up a Pay-pal donation button for donations by credit card. If you want to donate via cash or check I suggest you hand those to me personally. I have also opened a separate bank account today to keep the funds to prevent any sort of mix up. This trip will depend heavily on the support of friends, family, and hopefully strangers. Please donate! Any ammount is greatly appreciated!
Donations? Have you chosen a charity or are you just looking for people to pay for your holiday?
ReplyDeleteIn regards to solo/group - go solo. You can plan your own days, own mileage, you decide where to stop during the day, where to camp - more often than not riding in an organised group means you have no say in anything, you'll enjoy it more solo. Depending on when you leave Yorktown you'll also join up with plenty of other TransAm riders doing the same route (typically mid/late may is the most common departure time) and the opportunity is always there to ride with others - DO NOT take the easy way out and ride with a support vehicle - riding across the US is not as hard as you think and you don't need a support vehicle !
Finally, think about doing the TransAm route the entire way, you'll miss out on a lot of amazing stuff if you depart onto the western Express @ Pueblo - you miss most of the best Colorado has to offer, not to mention the Tetons & Yellowstone. The western express is mostly hills and hot desert terrain.
All the bike/gear I'm paying for out of pocket, I would also like to pay for food and places to stay if need be on my own. The donation button is mostly for charity, though I may dip into it if I run out of funds for food, etc. It really depends on how much I can personally set aside.
ReplyDeleteI will decide on group/solo as I do more research on this.
I origionally wanted to do Transam the whole way, but since I am taking time off from work and will have bills while I'm gone I think I may take the shorter route so I will have time to enjoy the sights I do see.