Across the US in 2008

On Oct 3, 10:45 pm, "Mike Kruger" wrote:
Ron Wallenfang wrote:

5. Crossing the Mississippi River can be an issue. Many bridges are
closed to bicycles. Investigate before committing!

There's a web page somewhere that has a detailed list of Mississippi River
crossing info for bicycles, but I can't find it.

I do know that I-72 at Hannibal MO is open to bicycles (used it this
summer). There are also bridges in the St. Louis area at Alton (and farther
south, at Chain of Rocks). In the St. Louis area there are also two bridges
allowing bicycles that cross the Missouri (370 and 364). There are ferries
at Winfield, MO and Golden Eagle, IL

According to this,http://www.liveri.com/backyard/BikePaths_53.htmlthere's
a bridge at Quad Cities IL-IA.

I went across the bridge at Clinton, IA many years ago, but don't know its
current status.

Ron's comment is certainly well taken. Plan ahead and check. (Or, you can
sit and look pitiful until somebody in a pickup truck offers you a ride.
This probably wouldn't take long.)

FWIW, I've crossed the Mississippi at Bemidji (where the river is a
brook), the Twin Cities, Prairie du Chien, Dubuque, Cape Girardeau and
Helena. I learned I couldn't cross at Memphis or Vicksburg.

On Oct 4, 10:04 am, "Ken Roberts"
wrote:

New York City is one of the most interesting bicycling places in the
USA.
Central Park at mid-day might be the best urban cycling loop in the
world.
And there's a set of cycle paths most (but not all) of the way around
Manhattan island. And how could "riding the USA" be a complete
achievement
without including a demonstration of handling the "streets of New York
City"
.. . . Fifth Avenue, Broadway, Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge -- how
can
you claim to have "ridden the USA" without riding those?

What is a more fitting conclusion to a ride starting from San
Francisco than
to finish by riding across the George Washington Bridge across the big
Hudson river into New York City?

Very eloquently stated. I've biked all of those except Wall St.
There's one minor detail. To enjoy Manhattan, you either have to
start and end there or else cross either the CT or NJ suburbs and
exurbs for 50 or so miles. I did both, in order to cross metro NYC on
my 2004 ride. And both are a real bummer.

wrote:
Ken Roberts wrote:

* Colorado's western half is generally full of "highest X" and "highest Y",
so if you want to "check off" some of those, e.g. highest paved road,
highest paved pass crossing, highest year-round inhabited town, most
pretentious over-priced ski resort, etc.


Whew? Choose just one from so many? Aspen? Vail? Telluride?


* what's the highest paved-road crossing of the Continental Divide? (or
perhaps better, what's the most _interesting_ high crossing of the Divide?)


Highest, I believe, is Trail Rider Pass in Rocky Mountain NP. Most
interesting is IMHO a three-way toss-up: Trail Rider, Loveland, or
Independence.


No bid deal, but since I live here ....

It's Trail Ridge Road, and it's the highest *continuous* paved road as
well as the highest paved pass (Mt. Evans is the highest paved road, but
it ends at the top and doesn't take you anywhere else).

Independence Pass is indeed interesting - and very scenic - especially
when it reduces to a lane and a half. ô¿Ô¬

Here's more than you probably need to know:
http://cyclepass.com/t_e_colo_passtables.html

And my favorite (paved on the east side, dirt on the west) is Cottonwood
Pass:
http://cyclepass.com/t_p_Cottonwood_Sawatch.html
It is little traveled and makes for a wonderfully serene climb on
pavement to over 12,000 feet.

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
The world is my country,
Science, my religion.
*****************************

Ron Wallenfang wrote
To enjoy Manhattan, you either have to
start and end there or else cross either the CT or NJ suburbs and
exurbs for 50 or so miles.

Yes I think the nicest way in or out of NYC is the north (with the most
popular on-road route running on the west side of Hudson River). Which sorta
leaves East or West as the other directions for planning a long-distance
route _through_ NYC.

But there's a new refinement: There is now on the east side a rail trail
going most of the way (mostly off-road, with some gaps which might require
local knowledge to connect) from a New York City subway terminal in the
Bronx thru Van Cortlandt Park and Westchester county to northern Putnam
county, and after a few miles which might have substantial traffic (on Rt
22, parts of which might have been incorporated into an official road-signed
bicycle route) or navigational complexity, then connects with some quiet
pretty roads in farmland (? or alternatively on Rt 22 ?) in Dutchess county
which connect to northern CT (or to Columbia county NY and then western MA)
for going east toward Boston. (I think the riding on east side and west
side of the Hudson are kinda different, so a trans-continental rider could
perhaps consider the "east north" and "west north" access to NYC as a route
continually progressing into new terrain, but with a "hairpin" turn at NYC.)

And both are a real bummer.

Actually I think New Jersey has lots of pleasant riding. The problem is that
finding that pleasant riding -- and connecting enough pieces of it to go
a long distance in some desired direction -- usually requires detailed local
knowledge and a complicated route. (I recall I thought you did pretty well
at finding a crossing of the Hackensack River).

So I can see how a long-distance cycle-tourist would get easily frustrated
trying to cross northern NJ east-west to connect NYC with PA. And I don't
have a simple solution to offer. (Though I now feel pretty comfortable with
connecting across northwestern NJ between upstate New York and PA.)

Ken

Thanks to Bill and Chuck for those ideas for Colorado.

Once in late May, Sharon and I were skiing the backcountry, with our car
parked at Independence Pass, and a solo cyclist arrived at the top of his
climb from the west. He was from Italy and asked us to use his camera to
take his picture with the pass marker sign. I remember being surprised that
he had no panniers on his bike -- everything was in a (non-large) backpack.
Lotsa snow around close to the road.

Chuck Anderson wrote
my favorite (paved on the east side, dirt on the west) is Cottonwood Pass:
http://cyclepass.com/t_p_Cottonwood_Sawatch.html

Some of my most memorable pass crossings in Europe have been on roads
unpaved on at least one side. I usually try to arrange my route to climb up
the unpaved or rougher side, so I can enjoy the less-bumpy descent. (For
reports from a guy who really got into taking his racer road bike across
little-known unpaved passes of the Alps, see
http://www.cycloclimbing.com
I just noticed that he's added a recent Colorado tour, and he indeed hit
Cottonwood Pass (with photos different from the link above), and some others
.. . .

Ken

On Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:03:30 -0700 in rec.bicycles.rides, Ron
Wallenfang wrote:

4. The loneliest stretch on I-80 is in Utah west of SLC. The first
99 miles of Utah offered only a single gas station at mile 71.

this area is the salt flats, a famous area used for setting
automotive high speed records because it's so flat. also VERY
hot, and the white salt just reflects the heat, so you really
bake.