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It turns out it's actually 350 feet less climbing if you take the back roads to Fordsville instead of the highways!
6 years agoSo happy and so beautiful
6 years agoGreat read. You manage to sink to the bottom of the despair well and then crank yourself out again. I did this section of the TA Aug ' 12 and also used the shop in Damascus for help. At that time it seemed limited. Can't wait to read how you two climb out of this " fix" you are in.
6 years agoI would like to heart this photo x 1,000,000,000.
6 years agoOur favorite expression " it was a good value". Honey buns at that price are a " must eat " Blue Bell ice cream sandwich " Mississippi Mud" at any price below 1.50 are a required eating anytime past 9AM.
6 years agoSo happy you are returning to a trail with such excellent memories and that you are sharing it with Kristen.
6 years ago"That stuff didn't bother me quite so much when I started riding a decade ago. Now it does. I think it's because I have so much more to lose now than I did back then."
So true. I did the TransAm only a year after I started riding, when I didn't know anything. The first few days of the route through Virginia didn't seem bad to me at the time (except for a few hours of rush hour traffic around Mechanicsville), but I suspect that I would not like it at all now, because I have years of experience finding low-traffic roads.
One of the things that has occasionally annoyed me about Adventure Cycling is their reluctance to change their routes as conditions change over the years. Although I will give them credit for changing one of their (less popular) routes in Michigan after Joy and I had a terrible experience with busy, scary roads there in 2012. It might have helped that Joy knows some of the people in the ACA office personally.
They DID do a "realignment" of some of the Kentucky portion of the TransAm a while back, some of which I found to be a major improvement when I did four days of it a few weeks ago. For example, it no longer goes into Bardstown, which had some of the worst traffic when I rode the route back in 2006.
If you decide to do some of your own routing in Kentucky, the trick is to stick to roads with four-digit (or three-digit) numbers as much as possible. The best roads of all don't have a yellow line the middle. The TransAm uses state highways a lot. Some of them are OK, some are too busy.
For example, when you get to Falls of Rough, instead of following the TransAm route on 110 and then onto the potentially very busy 54, turn right onto Tickville Road soon after crossing the Rough River. Follow it about 13 winding miles to the outskirts of Fordsville and get back on the TransAm. It's actually slightly SHORTER than the TransAm route, and is certainly much more pleasant. Probably hillier, but that never bothers me.
You're obviously an accomplished route-maker at this point, but if you need any assistance with off-TransAm routing in my hold home state of KY, don't hesitate to get in touch.
Oldest brewery in America!
6 years agoAnd on the third day God answered my wishes that Jeff Arnim would write another cycle journal about attempting to cross America. Now the next few months of my life will be more enjoyable. Thank you.
6 years agoCongrats on finishing the Southern Tier! Of the three ACA cross-country routes, to my mind it's by far the hardest. California and Arizona can be totally brutal. We loved West Texas, but I know a lot of people don't feel that way. And the Deep South is, well, you've been there now; you know.
No shame about staying in motels. Whatever gets you out on the road, you know? Kristen and I are camping as much as we can on this trip, but we know it won't always be that way. And when it's time for a motel night, we treasure it. Riding a bike all day is hard work.
Look forward to more updates. We have cell service almost every day, so it's not nearly as hard to keep things current. Thanks for following along, as always.
We're going to travel the TransAm as much as we can. I rode about half of it six years ago, but that still leaves a lot of new places. And I'd like to see how the places I enjoyed back then have changed. That said, we've run into some terribly busy and unsafe roads in the last few days in Virginia, so we've done some re-routing, like tomorrow when we're circling south around Charlottesville.
6 years agoJeff and Kristen,
Whew that was one hell of a night. Too many "Breaking Bad" scenes in your head. I finished the ST yesterday and catching up on things I wonder about which includes your travels.
Will you continue with some updates?
My recent tour phased into a credit card trip after our leader who loves to camp pulled up lame and left at El Paso. I discovered that at age 70 and on my fourth XC trip I want a more cushy end to the day assuming it does not mess up the group. My two " bike wife " companions also prefer a room with a/c, shower etc. And so it goes.
I'm looking forward to reading more about your encounters with less remote wild settings than your Breaking Bad camp
Yeah, the Great Divide last year kicked my ass, and left me crying by the side of (or in the middle of) dirt roads multiple times. I blame the lack of cold drinks, snacks, ice cream and pizza every 20 or 30 miles.
Are you going to stick with the official TransAm route the entire time?
Glad it worked out... but how did you verify that it was less climbing? Did you go back and ride it again on the official route, just for comparison?
6 years ago;)