Discussion: Biking through US - company, maps or tips?

Hi,
We are two orienteers from Sweden biking from Washington DC to San Francisco this summer. We are currently in Kentucky and will continue trough Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California. Are there any people out there who wants a visit and maybe a training session or who knows any nice maps worth visiting along the route?

Joakim Svensk and Erik Blomgren

You are probably already west of Carter Caves State Park in eastern Kentucky where this year's US Championships were held. Orienteering Louisville (olou.org) has many maps and a sprint race every Tuesday evening.

Tjena grabbar! Kul att läsa om era äventyr. Hoppas allt går bra även i fortsättningen.

...and for those of you who know me but don't understand Swedish:
I highly recommend that you contact these guys from my club Stora Tuna OK if you happen to be along their route to San Francisco. I don't know the exact route but guess that St. Louis, KC/Lawrence and Denver among others may be on the way.

You're welcome to visit us in Chicago and stay overnight and see the City. Not as nice as Stockholm, but a very bikeable town. I've been living here many years with no car. Come up from Indiana on the Lake Michigan Lakefront Bike Trail and into Lincoln Park. We live a few blocks west.

I've also ridden to the Pacific from my back door here. Lots of wonderful experiences await you. If you haven't yet used the Adventure Cycling bike routes across the US, you should order a set.

If you are planning on biking near St Louis:
Best ways to cross Mississippi River are: 1. Old Chain of Rocks Bridge: bike&walk only; historic part of Route 66; or 2. McKinley Bridge (bike lane). If using either of these, use Madison County (paved) Trails in Illinois to 'get close' http://www.mcttrails.org/

If you intend to bike along the Mississippi River anytime soon, check water levels -- minor flooding has closed some nice bike paths & some roads.

I'll be back in Saint Louis July 4. I'd enjoy riding with you one day perhaps and could offer a place to stay (south Saint Louis City, 8 km from Arch).
rickarmstrongpi@gmail.com (aka Zan's dad; :) )

Crossing state of Missouri:
Northern: farmland, open, some rolling hills;
Southern: Ozark 'mountains' - small but steep ups and downs, oak forests.
OR KATY Trail (390 km): not paved but firm gravel/dirt -- converted railroad bed: http://www.bikekatytrail.com/
BUT flooding (Missouri River) is a concern: http://mostateparks.com/advisory/62709/affected-fl...
Waters can recede quickly but trail may have been damaged.

We have some good O' maps but summers in midwest US bring wood ticks, chiggers, and poison ivy along with heat, humidity, and thicker vegetation. MO does have very nice State Parks - heavily used especially on weekends. Mark Twain National Forest campgrounds are harder to find and much less used.

When do you expect to arrive in San Francisco? BAOC has a couple of events in August you might be interested in, and maybe we can arrange something

There are some nice maps in the Lake Tahoe area if you will be going through there. Our meet there isn't until late September.

Let me know if you are coming through Lawrence, KS. You're welcome to stay in our orienteer-guest-room and we can get you some orienteering maps to check out. This time of year, the maps that we can use are park/campus/sprint maps.

Thanks for the advices! We are mostly following the ACA trails (http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/ad...) , first the TransAmerica Trail and then the Western Express Trail.
chitownclark>>Chigaco is unfortunatley too much off route to have time for but thanks anyway!
Ricka>>St Louis is pretty close, I'll send you an email about that!
Spike>>Lawrence is a bit off the planned route, but we are not very bound to the ACA routes so a norther route through Kansas could do as well. We will check it up at least!
origamiguy>> We'll fly home 10th of August and arrive some days before hopefully. We are passing Lake Tahoe so some map training there would be awesome if its possible.

There are some nice maps in Colorado, not on the route shown, but not too far away, on US24 in and near Lake George.

Good route choices! For instance, in Colorado, your route will cover much of the same roads as last week's Ride the Rockies...one of the US's most famous mass bike rides.

Except that you won't have to contend with roads crowded with thousands of cyclists and their support vehicles! The video at the bottom of that linked page will give you a preview of some of the beautiful Colorado country you'll be enjoying...just in case you get a bit discouraged coming across Kansas! (Hi OK!)

It looks like you go from Nevada to California on US 50. You'll go right past Spooner Lake, which is the only A-meet quality O map in Nevada. There are also some nice locations mapped in the Sacramento area, but it will be really hot in August (around 40C).

Riding east to west across North America? That takes balls!!!
Years ago I biked from the east to west across just New Jersey (in a triathlon bucking 25 mi/hr winds) and I was fried for days afterwards.

I did east to west from Connecticut to San Francisco in 1983. No big deal. The winds seemed to be out of the south all summer, it was just hot.

Other useful resources:

http://www.warmshowers.org for nice people to stay with

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com for good travel reports

JJ perhaps could have chosen a better year; August 1983 was then, and is now, the hottest August on record for the US.

Hot though it was, I have no complaints. Didn't rain much, which worked out well.

Looks like you will be going through Falls of Rough SP in KY. OLOU has an Orienteering map of that park with Permanent controls. They are only available on our Google Drive so contact me if you want a little diversion from your ride. Sounds like you are a bit too far away to attend one of our Tues evening Sprints

Joakim and Erik, if you make it to Tahoe in July and want to stay with us in Truckee, let me know. My email's in my profile. Truckee's a bit off your route though. We're away from August 1-24 so if you're planning on being here then, we can email or mail you some maps.

If you want to stay over a few nights near the Colorado maps, let me know. Several good maps nearby, and apparently some good mountain biking too (if you haven't had enough biking).

Thanks again for advices! We have just crossed into southern Illinois now. It has been hot but not extremely hot so far. The winds have been kind of random but we're little afraid of headwinds in Kansas..
If anyone of you wants to follow the ride we have a blog, joakimocherikcyklar.wordpress.com
Its in swedish though, but google translate could do.
cwalker>>Sounds very nice, but we will be there just in the beginning of august probably. But if we are there earlier or would like a map I'll send you an email later.
JimBaker>>That sounds great actually, even though we dont know yet when we will be there or if we have time for extra stops. But I'll send you too an email a little later about that.
origamiguy>> Spooner lake seems nice indeed. Do you know how to get/buy that map, and if we are allowed to run there then? Actually, I think we can fix printing if there are a image file to get somewhere :)

Hej, såg just att ni besökt Garden of the Gods...

Det finns faktiskt ett ställe till med samma namn längre västerut (Colorado Springs) som kan vara värt ett besök. Jag sprang orientering där 1984 så det finns en gammal karta också som inte används längre... (kan scanna och lägga upp en bildfil om behov finns).

You're welcome to stay with us in San Francisco. If you're interested, just reply to the email I sent you.

Contact the BAOC mapping director, Bob Cooley, for the Spooner Lake map. His email is maps@baoc.org. Going off trail there has never been a big issue to my knowledge. It's actually the Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, at the junction of highways 50 and 28.

There's another map in the South Lake Tahoe area, Fallen Leaf Lake, but we haven't been able to have an event there for some years.

Garden of the Gods is indeed fun orienteering (and even just seeing, with dramatic rock fins). The club doesn't hold events there any more, but I suspect that the old map is adequate for a pleasant o run on your own. (I'm about 20 km and 700 m climb west from there.). Enjoy the fireworks this weekend (almost anywhere you are by then).