Finding My Route

In the ever-frustrating attempts I made to put together a good route for this thing, I found out a ton of things:  I have no patients when it comes to drawing lines on a map (I love looking at maps, just not drawing them out), I really don't know too much about what roads are legal to ride a bike on, America is freaking big when looking to cross it at a micro level, I needed help!

So, I found it.  I had found Adventure Cycling a while back when looking through adventure type of escapades, and I turned back to them for this situation; it just seemed perfect.  I promptly became a member, sowing my support for cyclists and the push to make cycling a more accessible thing to do all around the country.  Then I ordered a route.  This came to me in the form of 10 pamphlet style maps, 4 of them were part of the Western Express Route, 6 were part of the TransAmerica Route.  And talk about detail!  Each portion come fully detailing everything a cyclist would need to know:  distance, elevation, weather trends, points of interest, bike shops, camp grounds, food resources, water resources, emergency contacts, and trends of weather and road conditions based on any time of year.  Opening each panflit is a little overwhelming at first.  They are filled with detailed text and smaller sections of mapping, each section with turn by turn instructions.

Now, if I had myself 3-5 months, I would love to just get on my bike and have at it, see where the road takes me and just ride.  But with this pressure of 30 days, I needed some good guidance.  These maps are as close as one can get to a guarantee that the roads will not only be there, but they will be ridable as well.  I will know where I can stay, where I can refuel my food supply and where I can get water.  I'll know in advance if I have a campground nearby, or if I'll have to hid in the woods off the street for the night.And, if i get randomly attacked by a bear, a coyote or a cray truck driver, I'll have plenty of numbers to call if my jiu-jitsu skills fail me!


View Riding With Courage in a larger map

As you can already see on my site here, the course has been mapped out.  What I did was, using the detailed maps, I made a contact point on the google map of the cities I hit along the way.  Some 10 miles apart, others up to 40.  As I ride I will be highlighting the cities I pass, and I will add a little text of the day, time and other such details when I get there.  But to give you guys a little more information, I will also be taking the actual maps I will have on my bike as I ride, and pasting them up along side the google map, so you can see the details of each section I ride through.  If I had the money, time, and brain capacity, I would get a satellite navigation ordeal, so that everyone would literally be able to see my exact location at all times (this would prove very helpful if one of those beasts tries to get me in the middle of the night...).

So, that's the mapping/route situation.  Tonight and tomorrow I am going over the nutrition planning, and I will post that info the second I have it slightly figured out!

This time in two weeks, I'll be in San Francisco preparing!

Josh Courage