rail trails across USA

Mr. Coffee said:
There are significant sections of that trail that are not yet complete, and some of them have no good alternates. One important example is the Beverly Bridge over the Columbia River, which is now due for completion on 21 September 2021 (it was supposed to be completed this year, but that is one more thing that went wrong in 2020). There is no good or safe detour.

There is a similar problematic issue with the Spruce Railroad Trail which will not be open until May of 2021 at the earliest. Again there is no safe detour.
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Bummer, for the Spruce section; it´s been ´problematic´ b4. I wuz thinking about that ride again. Not as bad as the fire on
the Historic Columbia River trail I hope. That was a real mess. I´d like a shot at that Beverly Bridge section, looks fun.
 
Art Deco said:
But knowing where to ride and when to drive is a huge deal when it's going to be only one time.
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I've often been disappointed when visiting distant trails only to find them closed or under construction. Most of us who ride these trails use Traillink.com for information. Check out their user reviews which are often a tip off as to local problems. Many of these trails also have their own web pages which post information on current trail conditions. A little research can save a lot of wasted "windshield" time.
 
Here is a site for the Warshington section. Note that registration is needed. Not sure about now but there were gates on the trail that required knowledge of the combination for the locks. The bridge across the Columbia is supposed to be completed this year. There is also a large trestle/overpass (the one that conceals radar aiming cops) between Kittitas and the river which, I think, is also supposed to be finished in March and ready to ride. It crosses over I-90. I'm thinking that there were also some bridges, trestles that burned up in the Labor Day fire.

I am wanting to ride this thing so have been reading up on it. As Mr. Coffee stated, the eastern part is problematic. I'd also be wanting a comfy acoustical bike or an extra battery or two. Eastern WA is desert and remote. What creeks there are in that country are most likely laden with chemicals from farming. It gets quite hot in the summer and cold in the winter. From my reading, there are detours around swampy land, some missing trestles and rocky trail. Here is the state parks site.

Palouse to Cascades

Another place to look is the Palouse to Cascades Trail Coalition site.
 
I somehow missed this thread until now. I'm nearing retirement so this is inspirational. Even for some of the relatively short loops discussed here, let alone hundreds of miles of Trans-America riding, it seems like support would be a big issue. I'm thinking mostly of charging batteries. But carrying 2 spare batteries plus food, water, sleeping bag, a tent.... whew! It's great in the east where there may be plenty of little towns with great restaurants and even hotels, but it doesn't seem like you can count on that. Seems like a lot of logistics and planning and it would be nice to have someone driving a support van not too far away. Regardless of that, for anything more than a day trip, it definitely seems like something for two or more people to do together.

TT
 
Art Deco said:
Yeah. Lots of planning needed. Two or maybe three bikers, and someone to drive the sagwagon would be about right. Old joke : If three fourths of Americans rode bikes, we would need the other 25 percent just to drive the vans ...
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Nah, you don't need the support van after a bit of practice and working up to longer trips. Once you can run self-contained for about two weeks you've basically learned to live off of your bike.
 
Two weeks of living with only what I could carry on a bike would probably kill me, TBH. But doing the trip is still possible with lots of support.
 
Cowlitz said:
Here is a site for the Warshington section. Note that registration is needed. Not sure about now but there were gates on the trail that required knowledge of the combination for the locks. The bridge across the Columbia is supposed to be completed this year. There is also a large trestle/overpass (the one that conceals radar aiming cops) between Kittitas and the river which, I think, is also supposed to be finished in March and ready to ride. It crosses over I-90. I'm thinking that there were also some bridges, trestles that burned up in the Labor Day fire.

I am wanting to ride this thing so have been reading up on it. As Mr. Coffee stated, the eastern part is problematic. I'd also be wanting a comfy acoustical bike or an extra battery or two. Eastern WA is desert and remote. What creeks there are in that country are most likely laden with chemicals from farming. It gets quite hot in the summer and cold in the winter. From my reading, there are detours around swampy land, some missing trestles and rocky trail. Here is the state parks site.

Palouse to Cascades

Another place to look is the Palouse to Cascades Trail Coalition site.
Click to expand...
So spring or fall is the best (maybe only) time to ride it.
 
Mr. Coffee said:
Nah, you don't need the support van after a bit of practice and working up to longer trips. Once you can run self-contained for about two weeks you've basically learned to live off of your bike.
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Yeah, maybe. I think it might be easier with an analog bike. I'm going to need 2 extra batteries to ride 75 to 100 miles in a day. And I have to have some way to charge those batteries overnight, which means electricity and 2 or 3 chargers. That's a lot without even adding any food, water, or camping gear. I'm not sure which would be more trouble, the planning necessary to do a ride like this without a support vehicle or just bringing along a support vehicle.

Still, definitely something to think about!

TT
 
Art Deco said:
Two weeks of living with only what I could carry on a bike would probably kill me, TBH. But doing the trip is still possible with lots of support.
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You should do a series of shorter trips where it won't kill you or ruin your trip when you overpack. Then you can learn from that and build on it and also have the confidence needed for longer trips. The interesting thing is that the amount of stuff you "need" to carry doesn't change very much from a three-day weekend to a two-week adventure to months-long expedition. You learn to live off the land.
 
Mr. Coffee said:
You should do a series of shorter trips where it won't kill you or ruin your trip when you overpack. Then you can learn from that and build on it and also have the confidence needed for longer trips. The interesting thing is that the amount of stuff you "need" to carry doesn't change very much from a three-day weekend to a two-week adventure to months-long expedition. You learn to live off the land.
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Living off the land for me means grocery stores and breweries are on the land I'm living off of.
 
Tars Tarkas said:
Yeah, maybe. I think it might be easier with an analog bike. I'm going to need 2 extra batteries to ride 75 to 100 miles in a day. And I have to have some way to charge those batteries overnight, which means electricity and 2 or 3 chargers. That's a lot without even adding any food, water, or camping gear. I'm not sure which would be more trouble, the planning necessary to do a ride like this without a support vehicle or just bringing along a support vehicle.
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I carry three batteries and one charger and things work just fine. I can charge two batteries at a time on the bike and usually charge the third battery to 80 percent (so it charges fast) unless I know I am committing to a monster day the next day. Usually I can easily manage to charge all three batteries between dinner and breakfast. On the average I camp out about half of all nights on journey and the other half I sleep in a room. But that is very much an average.

You can usually find outlets at most developed campgrounds, and of course nearly all hotels and hostels won't have a problem charging your batteries. Often the challenge in a hotel room is finding enough decent outlets to charge the bike, GPS, phone, blinky, &c.

Route planning is one of those things that can seem intimidating but once you get a bit of practice isn't that hard. Usually that works out to a few hours on Google maps and a number of phone calls to plan a week's trip. You'll be doing laundry frequently anyway so you can do most of your planning at the laundromat (especially if they have wi-fi).

As for water, even in dry country you will be unlikely to need more than about four good-sized bottles (about five liters) of water over the course of a day. That is heavy but you'll be drinking it and soon after getting rid of it. And for food it would be a very rare situation in the States where you'd need to carry more than a day's worth of food. I generally try to hit a grocery store late in the day and purchase what I need for dinner and breakfast. So in practice for 90 percent of the distance I'm just carrying snacks.
 
AlanDB said:
There are several segments in Iowa that are complete, but also many gaps. The segment near me is the Cedar Valley Nature trail. It connects to the Hoover Trail to the south and east, making about a 75 mile segment from Iowa City to Waterloo that is complete.
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I’m not far from the Heart of Iowa to High Trestle portion. Lots of miles completed, lots in planning stages, and still some gaps. But really pretty impressive. If the missing links in Iowa get completed is should be celebrated with a Ragbrai.
www.railstotrails.org

Great American Rail-Trail in Iowa - Rails to Trails Conservancy

The first state to put the Railbanking Act to use, Iowa has a history of trail development leadership including the Great American Rail-Trail.
www.railstotrails.org www.railstotrails.org
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D15D8150-E8D0-4F6A-95AD-00F083216705.png
 
I've been doing my long haul trail rides by staying at a hotel. B&B or campground situated near the trail. I ride 50 to 60 miles out and back in one direction, stay the night then do the same thing the next day in the opposite direction. Then, I drive to another hotel, B&B or campground further down the trail and repeat the process. Yes, this means riding the same section of trail twice but it's in the opposite direction and often provides a different perspective. It takes twice the time to cover a long trail doing it this way but being retired gives me that luxury.
 
Mr. Coffee said:
On journey I am a connoisseur of mini-marts.
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Seriously, though...

Usually grocery stores aren't well-configured to guarantee the security of your bike, and there is enough traffic there that bikes parked there are a good target of opportunity. Mini-marts are smaller and it is easier to keep watch on your bike while resupplying.

Generally I hit larger grocery stores only when I have a hotel stay within walking distance. With a little bit of planning you can choose lodging pretty close to a grocery store. Again, I only rarely purchase more than dinner for the night, breakfast for the next morning, and some snacks for the next day's ride on any one visit to a grocery store.

Fun hint: when you stay at a hotel loot the coffeemaker in your room for the non-decaf coffee. Usually I can get enough from one of the little coffee packets for several nights camping with the small brewer I use. So again I'm not carrying a pound of Peet's with me, rather just a tiny ziplock with a few spoonfuls of ground coffee of questionable vintage.
 
I've ridden some of these bike routes in OR and WA, mostly on a regular non-assist bike, only one (Old West Scenic Bikeway) on a ebike. I drove to an additional two of the Oregon routes that I intended to ride but after pre-driving the route didn't because of either dangerous narrow roads with blind curves and too fast (really reckless in some areas) rural car traffic and/or because of very deteriorated roads, one obviously not maintained at all.
Some of the routes in Travel Oregon are really just chamber of commerce dreams to bring business into the areas.
I looked into the Steen's mountain gravel route before but the most interesting mountain loop part is only open a couple months of the year and includes a ~5000ft climb over only a few miles with the route described as "grueling but extreme-adventurous". The flat portions aren't that spectacular IMO and the heat can be brutal in eastern OR and WA in the summer. I also rode the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene from Plummer to Wallace and back which was about 120 miles - nice but certainly not spectacular. I would like to ride the Cascades to Palouse portion but there are several significant difficulties including bridges out, unfriendly land owners who block access etc, so maybe not. The coast has great scenery but sections that aren't safe, high speed traffic and long boring sections.
Your opinion might vary from mine but just a heads up - do some research to avoid possible disappointment. There are many spectacular sections. I'm planning to ride a few routes in OR and WA this spring/summer despite not being in any of the early COVID vaccination groups.
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