Advice wanted: biking on I-80

I'm planning to bicycle this coming August from San Francisco to
Milwaukee and currently am looking into routes. It is a must that I
cross WY and SD, as those are the last two of the 48 contiguous states
in which I have never bicycled. I'm likely to be posting a number of
inquiries before planning is over, but for openers, want to talk about
I-80, and especially from the Donner Pass area in CA all the way to
Rawlins WY (after which I need a more northerly route to hit SD.)
Aside from the lack of many good alternative routes, my thinking is
that the advantages of I-80 include more towns with more support
facilities like motels, food and water sources, and the like; less
serious climbing grades; more cell phone coverage; and a greater
ability to get help if needed. Downsides may include more debris on
the road shoulders, concerns about legality in places, and the speed
and amount of vehicle traffic.

I've crossed the mountains twice before, using I-84 for a couple
hundred miles on one trip, and I-15 for more than that on the other,
so I have some notion what it's all about. But I've never driven let
alone biked on I-80 in the western US. I take it as presupposed I'd
have to exit and take local streets in Reno and SLC.

Does anyone have sufficient familiarity with that road (and
alternative routes) to offer any advice, and if so, what is that
advice?

Aside from the lack of many good alternative routes, my thinking is
that the advantages of I-80 include more towns with more support
facilities like motels, food and water sources, and the like; less
serious climbing grades; more cell phone coverage; and a greater
ability to get help if needed. Downsides may include more debris on
the road shoulders, concerns about legality in places, and the speed
and amount of vehicle traffic.

If you've cycled I-84 and I-15 then you'll find similarity with I-80.
I-80
has a good share of cross country truck traffic with associated tire
debris but those parts of NV and WY also get to be rural and remote.
Both WY and NV seem to allow bicycles on interstates outside
the most urban areas. I've cycled smaller segments of I-15, I-80
and I-84 and prefer I-84 of the three.

An alternative to consider is US-50. I cycled that between Reno
and Salt Lake City in 2002 (http://www.mvermeulen.com/nevada/).
Use Motel Guide (http://www.motelguide.com/) to figure out what
towns have motels and you are ready to go. I found US-50 more
interesting than what I've seen driving I-80 multiple times.

From SLC, I took US-40 which is also a good alternative to consider
until Vernal, UT or Craig, CO along your route.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

Ron Wallenfang wrote:
I'm planning to bicycle this coming August from San Francisco to
Milwaukee and currently am looking into routes. It is a must that I
cross WY and SD, as those are the last two of the 48 contiguous states
in which I have never bicycled. I'm likely to be posting a number of
inquiries before planning is over, but for openers, want to talk about
I-80, and especially from the Donner Pass area in CA all the way to
Rawlins WY (after which I need a more northerly route to hit SD.)
Aside from the lack of many good alternative routes, my thinking is
that the advantages of I-80 include more towns with more support
facilities like motels, food and water sources, and the like; less
serious climbing grades; more cell phone coverage; and a greater
ability to get help if needed. Downsides may include more debris on
the road shoulders, concerns about legality in places, and the speed
and amount of vehicle traffic.

I've crossed the mountains twice before, using I-84 for a couple
hundred miles on one trip, and I-15 for more than that on the other,
so I have some notion what it's all about. But I've never driven let
alone biked on I-80 in the western US. I take it as presupposed I'd
have to exit and take local streets in Reno and SLC.

Does anyone have sufficient familiarity with that road (and
alternative routes) to offer any advice, and if so, what is that
advice?

If I were making the trip I would follow CA 120 (the Tioga Pass Road)
through Yosemite National Park to where it meets US 6 in Benton, then
follow US 6 to Ely and take US 93 north to Twin Falls, Idaho. From Twin
Falls you could head east into Wyoming on whichever route you choose,
and then head through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. From
there head to Billings via the Beartooth Highway, and then east across
Montana and into South Dakota. This might involve more climbing than you
like, and fewer modern amenities than you seem to want, but it strikes
me as infinitely more scenic and pleasant than following I-80 from the
Bay Area to somewhere in Wyoming.

Are you camping or staying in motels the whole way? How long are you
planning on taking for this trip?

mark

On Feb 12, 9:48 pm, mark wrote:
Ron Wallenfang wrote:
I'm planning to bicycle this coming August from San Francisco to
Milwaukee and currently am looking into routes. It is a must that I
cross WY and SD, as those are the last two of the 48 contiguous states
in which I have never bicycled. I'm likely to be posting a number of
inquiries before planning is over, but for openers, want to talk about
I-80, and especially from the Donner Pass area in CA all the way to
Rawlins WY (after which I need a more northerly route to hit SD.)
Aside from the lack of many good alternative routes, my thinking is
that the advantages of I-80 include more towns with more support
facilities like motels, food and water sources, and the like; less
serious climbing grades; more cell phone coverage; and a greater
ability to get help if needed. Downsides may include more debris on
the road shoulders, concerns about legality in places, and the speed
and amount of vehicle traffic.

I've crossed the mountains twice before, using I-84 for a couple
hundred miles on one trip, and I-15 for more than that on the other,
so I have some notion what it's all about. But I've never driven let
alone biked on I-80 in the western US. I take it as presupposed I'd
have to exit and take local streets in Reno and SLC.

Does anyone have sufficient familiarity with that road (and
alternative routes) to offer any advice, and if so, what is that
advice?

If I were making the trip I would follow CA 120 (the Tioga Pass Road)
through Yosemite National Park to where it meets US 6 in Benton, then
follow US 6 to Ely and take US 93 north to Twin Falls, Idaho. From Twin
Falls you could head east into Wyoming on whichever route you choose,
and then head through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. From
there head to Billings via the Beartooth Highway, and then east across
Montana and into South Dakota. This might involve more climbing than you
like, and fewer modern amenities than you seem to want, but it strikes
me as infinitely more scenic and pleasant than following I-80 from the
Bay Area to somewhere in Wyoming.

Are you camping or staying in motels the whole way? How long are you
planning on taking for this trip?

mark

Mark -

Thanks for taking the time to chart out a fascinating route through
the western US. In answer to your questions, I have 16 days
available and need to average 150 miles a day to make it, even if I
take a fairly direct route. I do my best to stay in motels. In 13
long trips, I've slept outside a total of 3 nights, twice in MT in
1996 and once in NM in 1998. Except in the west, I don't even carry
a tent or sleeping bag, and if I feel the least bit confident of not
getting caught outside, I won't carry them this year either. To carry
both is 8 extra pounds of baggage, which will cut my mileage per day,
probably more than I'd gain by riding until dark every day, instead of
having to stop where motels are available. I've come close more than
once to spending a night in the cold, but have lucked out so far.
E.g, in White River, ON, I got the last hotel room in town, and one
night in Germany, I didn't find a place with a room available until
after 10:00 p.m. In Marathon Key, FL (where outside at least wasn't
cold), the only available room cost $250 (ouch!)

The extra mileage of going almost straight north for many miles would
create difficulties, but I will take a closer look at the mileages.
Going through Yosemite will not happen for a reason I didn't state in
my initial post. Although I count myself as a lifelong Wisconsinite,
I was born in Nevada City CA and want to go through there to have a
look, which requires a northerly route out of San Francisco.

Ron

Ron wrote:
... In answer to your questions, I have 16 days
available and need to average 150 miles a day to make it,...

Eesh! How about launching yourself via plane train auto bus truck RV
about 200 miles, and take it easier the rest of the way? Smell the
flowers?

HTH

--Karen D.
who has hitched across motor vehicles only bridges, no worries

On Feb 12, 5:39 am, wrote:
Aside from the lack of many good alternative routes, my thinking is
that the advantages of I-80 include more towns with more support
facilities like motels, food and water sources, and the like; less
serious climbing grades; more cell phone coverage; and a greater
ability to get help if needed. Downsides may include more debris on
the road shoulders, concerns about legality in places, and the speed
and amount of vehicle traffic.

If you've cycled I-84 and I-15 then you'll find similarity with I-80.
I-80
has a good share of cross country truck traffic with associated tire
debris but those parts of NV and WY also get to be rural and remote.
Both WY and NV seem to allow bicycles on interstates outside
the most urban areas. I've cycled smaller segments of I-15, I-80
and I-84 and prefer I-84 of the three.

An alternative to consider is US-50. I cycled that between Reno
and Salt Lake City in 2002 (http://www.mvermeulen.com/nevada/).
Use Motel Guide (http://www.motelguide.com/) to figure out what
towns have motels and you are ready to go. I found US-50 more
interesting than what I've seen driving I-80 multiple times.

From SLC, I took US-40 which is also a good alternative to consider

until Vernal, UT or Craig, CO along your route.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

Mike -

I read with interest your report of your Reno- SLC trip on route 50.
It seems to be rare that I plan a trip where you haven't already been,
at least part of the way. BTW, I don't plan to try to imitate your
coming Amsterdam - Vladivostok trip, maybe Nordkapp - Gibralter, but
not east-west.

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of places on your route with
motels, but still think I'm a little better off on I-80; definitely
better off where climbing is concerned.

One question: did you ever need the 3 whole gallons of water you
carried? I was hoping to get by with a gallon or so. It appears your
temperatures were above normal; I hope I don't encounter the same.

Ron Wallenfang wrote:

Mark -

Thanks for taking the time to chart out a fascinating route through
the western US. In answer to your questions, I have 16 days
available and need to average 150 miles a day to make it, even if I
take a fairly direct route. I do my best to stay in motels. In 13
long trips, I've slept outside a total of 3 nights, twice in MT in
1996 and once in NM in 1998. Except in the west, I don't even carry
a tent or sleeping bag, and if I feel the least bit confident of not
getting caught outside, I won't carry them this year either. To carry
both is 8 extra pounds of baggage, which will cut my mileage per day,
probably more than I'd gain by riding until dark every day, instead of
having to stop where motels are available. I've come close more than
once to spending a night in the cold, but have lucked out so far.
E.g, in White River, ON, I got the last hotel room in town, and one
night in Germany, I didn't find a place with a room available until
after 10:00 p.m. In Marathon Key, FL (where outside at least wasn't
cold), the only available room cost $250 (ouch!)

The extra mileage of going almost straight north for many miles would
create difficulties, but I will take a closer look at the mileages.
Going through Yosemite will not happen for a reason I didn't state in
my initial post. Although I count myself as a lifelong Wisconsinite,
I was born in Nevada City CA and want to go through there to have a
look, which requires a northerly route out of San Francisco.

Ron


Sounds more like a really good randonnee ride than a tour. The extra
climbing involved in my proposed route would make it really difficult to
maintain your desired daily average mileage, and finding hotel/motel
accommodation in the Yosemite area in August would be quite an
accomplishment. I wonder, though, if circling around Salt Lake City to
the north wouldn't be faster than going straight through SLC.

A summer weight down sleeping bag (rated to ~25 deg F) and a cheap foam
pad should come in at less than 4 lbs, and a small butane/propane stove
(MSR Pocket Rocket/Snow Peak Giga Power)with one pot and a spoon would
add 1 lb tops, is that more than you're willing to carry?

If this is really your first visit to Wyoming, I still say you should
see the most scenic part, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks,
and use the Beartooth Highway to get into Montana. If the extra climbing
uses up too much time, use BART/Greyhound/Amtrak to launch yourself out
of the Bay Area and across the Central Valley at least.

I had one experience with finding accommodation that tilted the scales
in favor of carrying camping equipment, for me at least. I arrived at
the Ridgeway youth hostel (UK) in a drenching rainstorm, only to find
out the entire hostel had been booked by a school group and the next
hostel on my route (Windsor) was full as well. A kind hearted teenager
took me to every place he knew of that did B&B during the summer months,
and one B&B owner decided to rent me a room even though his season
hadn't started and he was busy enough without a dripping wet American
cyclist underfoot. The B&B was a beautiful old house, the breakfast was
the best I had the whole trip, but I still ended up deciding to haul
camping gear on future trips for situations like that.

mark

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of places on your route with
motels, but still think I'm a little better off on I-80; definitely
better off where climbing is concerned.

I would expect the gaps between motels to not be much different
between the two routes.

I would agree on climbing. Nevada has a series of north-south ranges
and
I-80 goes across some but not as many as US-50. They are western
mountains in the sense of long not too steep grades rather
than short steep little hills.

One question: did you ever need the 3 whole gallons of water you
carried? I was hoping to get by with a gallon or so. It appears your
temperatures were above normal; I hope I don't encounter the same.

I remember my max being about 2 gallons. On my trip it was
~10 degrees above average temperatures but not anywhere near
extremes. I needed enough water for an 83 mile gap with climbing.
The average high for August in Reno is 90 degrees:
http://www.weather.com/weather/wxcli...nav_undeclared

I believe one of the longest gaps between services on your
route will be Wendover to the Salt Lake. Flat terrain but
one you'll want enough water as well as enough on some
sections with climbs.

The I-80 guide http://www.rockymountainroads.com/i-080_nv.html
mentions some rumble
strips in Nevada. I've cycled I-15 in Nevada
but not I-80 so hopefully they've done a reasonable thing with the
rumble
strips on the shoulder (they did on I-15).

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

Ron Wallenfang wrote:

Does anyone have sufficient familiarity with that road (and
alternative routes) to offer any advice, and if so, what is that
advice?

Regarding the Utah and Wyoming segments of your ride:
First of all, you're going to be crossing the infamous Bonneville Salt
Flats, eighty miles of completely flat, straight, blindingly white
monotony. Wandering moterists may be a hazard. Heck, you might even
start hallucinating. (A lot of travelerss report seeing a surrealistic
object that looks something like a tree about ten miles east of the Nevada
border.) Take whatever precautions you feel are necessary. (The tree is
real.)
Utah law as I understand it is that bikes aren't allowed on interstates
if there's an alternative route available. That will mean that along the
south shore of the Great Salt Lake you will have to exit onto UT-201,
which itself turns into a freeway, so you have to bail again and take city
streets through the Salt Lake Valley. (Feel free to e-mail me at the
address mentioned below, and I'll suggest a route through town for you.)
East of SLC I-80 your best bet is a route one canyon north of I-80
called Emigration Canyon. Then follow UT-65 past East Canyon Reservoir to
Henefer, where you turn east on I-84, which quickly gets you back again to
I-80. (I think there's a parallel road for a few miles there.)
Once in Wyoming you could possibly leave the freeway as soon as about
six miles east of Evanston. You might be able to find a route via
Kemmerer and Fontanelle Reservoir. (My maps say inquire locally.) At any
rate, get off '80 at Rock Springs at the latest, ride north to Farson, and
head east over South Pass. Lots of history there, and far less traffic.


Good riding,
Bill

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On Feb 15, 4:14 pm, wrote:
Ron Wallenfang wrote:
Does anyone have sufficient familiarity with that road (and
alternative routes) to offer any advice, and if so, what is that
advice?

Regarding the Utah and Wyoming segments of your ride:
First of all, you're going to be crossing the infamous Bonneville Salt
Flats, eighty miles of completely flat, straight, blindingly white
monotony. Wandering moterists may be a hazard. Heck, you might even
start hallucinating. (A lot of travelerss report seeing a surrealistic
object that looks something like a tree about ten miles east of the Nevada
border.) Take whatever precautions you feel are necessary. (The tree is
real.)
Utah law as I understand it is that bikes aren't allowed on interstates
if there's an alternative route available. That will mean that along the
south shore of the Great Salt Lake you will have to exit onto UT-201,
which itself turns into a freeway, so you have to bail again and take city
streets through the Salt Lake Valley. (Feel free to e-mail me at the
address mentioned below, and I'll suggest a route through town for you.)
East of SLC I-80 your best bet is a route one canyon north of I-80
called Emigration Canyon. Then follow UT-65 past East Canyon Reservoir to
Henefer, where you turn east on I-84, which quickly gets you back again to
I-80. (I think there's a parallel road for a few miles there.)
Once in Wyoming you could possibly leave the freeway as soon as about
six miles east of Evanston. You might be able to find a route via
Kemmerer and Fontanelle Reservoir. (My maps say inquire locally.) At any
rate, get off '80 at Rock Springs at the latest, ride north to Farson, and
head east over South Pass. Lots of history there, and far less traffic.

Good riding,
Bill

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You're my third substantive response and my third helpful one! Thanks
much for the effort in looking things up.

1. Yes, I would like a routing through SLC from 201 to Emigration
Canyon.

2. You anticipated a future question I was going to have whether
Emigration Canyon road can get you back to I-80. My Utah map doesn't
show the road at all and my SLC map ends short after that road
begins. So you've answered that one; I can get through.

3. In WY, my thought had been to take I-80 to Rawlins, then 287 to
Muddy Gap and 220 to Casper. But I see both of your suggestions
through South Pass (which I understand is on the Oregon Trail and
does have some history) make quite a bit of sense. Do you have an
opinion whether from South Pass to Casper, it's better to go through
Lander and Riverton and then take 20, or to take 287/220 through Muddy
Gap? It looks like the former route might have more facilities; the
latter goes by Independence Rock, which I understand also has Oregon
Trail history. I'm likely to investigate the availability of the
services I want on all those routes and make a last minute decision
based on where I am and at what time of day, when I get there. The
route through Rawlins does look to be about 30-35 miles shorter, so if
I'm behind schedule, that could be a factor.