Do you like cycling and have sporting ambitions and a sense of adventure? In this case, the crossing of the US - that is, a bike ride from the Atlantic to the Pacific or vice versa- is just the right thing for you. There are many reasons for this:
• The USA offers an optimal infrastructure for cycling.
• The country offers an abundance of natural beauty that you can experience and enjoy intensely while cycling.
• Depending on the route chosen, the journey (from 4,500 - 5,500 km) can be accomplished in just 6 weeks or less.
• The kilometers put into the required training and the trip itself will ensure that all superfluous body fat is removed and your body’s aging clock is set back by 10 years.
To briefly summarize: a USA crossing by bicycle is an adventure for anyone looking for a sporting challenge. Physical and spiritual restoration is guaranteed on this trip.
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Copyright © 2012 Original Edition, Oliver Gritz
Copyright © 2019 eBook, editionfredebold
Production: fredebold&partner gmbh, Cologne
Cover design: büropecher, Köln
Editorial office: Lekshmi Dinachandran
Translation: Catherine Gritz
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ISBN: 978-3-944607-34-4
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Across the USA by Bicycle
A guide to crossing the USA by bicycle. It contains information on the planning and preparation as well as a detailed description of the route, including stage suggestions, accommodation recommendations, and GPS tracks.
Dedicated to my wife Catherine and my children Max, Alex and Justin
About the Author
Oliver Gritz is a German entrepreneur and author. He is the founder and chairman of the charity organization “Run & Ride for Reading” (www.run-ride.com) that promotes the learning and reading ability in children and young people. Every year Run & Ride for Reading organizes a one-week charity cycling tour (www.rideforreading.de/en/) in order to raise funds and awareness for the organization’s work. Oliver Gritz is married, has three children and lives in Bonn, Germany and London, UK.
Table of Contents
A. Foreword to the New Edition
B. Purpose, and Structure of this Book
C. Forward: Motivation and Insights
D. The Route
E. How to Undertake the Tour
1. Choosing the Travel Route
2. Preparation
a. Choosing a Bike
b. Luggage and Luggage Transport
c. Technical Equipment
d. Accompanying Vehicle
e. Travel Partners
f. Training
g. Body Care, Sun Protection, Nutrition, and First-Aid Kit
h. Insurance
i. Costs and Payments
3. Travel to the USA
a. Entry Requirements
b. Flight Options
c. Luggage and Bicycle Transport
4. Cycling in the USA
a. Detailed Route Description, Road Conditions, and Traffic
b. Altitude Profile
c. Stage Suggestions, Overnight Accommodation, and Food
d. Flora and Fauna
F. Conclusion
Appendix
Stage Alternative A. (via Hebgen Lake)
Stage Alternative B. (via Gallatin Canyon)
Overnight Stops 2010
Overnight Stops 2014
A. Foreword to the New Edition
My crossing of the United States by bicycle, which I completed in 2010, was in many regards, an extremely important, impressive, and wonderful project for me. It was the trip of a lifetime. For this reason, I wrote a book about it in 2012. I wanted to share my experiences from the bike tour with as many people as possible and also make it possible for them to undertake such a tour themselves at some point. A group of my friends became “infected” by my enthusiasm in 2014. We returned as a group to this lovely stretch and biked from Seattle to Yellowstone National Park and from there, continued on to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. My friends were as enthused about the tour as I was.
Based on the knowledge gained during this second tour, I updated my book from the 2012 edition. From my experience in internet marketing, I developed the idea of marketing my book as an Ebook. New revelations and additional information can be easily added to the relevant section by putting in additional blocks of text apart from the main text. In this way, I need not rewrite the original in its entirety. Ideally, this creates a working document that can be updated continuously without much effort. To this end, I welcome feedback from cyclists who have themselves biked the routes described. The best ways to provide such feedback would be by e-mail to oliver.gritz@run-ride.com or via the Facebook page “Ride for Reading” (https://www.facebook.com/rideforreadingKoel).
I have updated and added to the original text as follows:
• In some parts I have refined the text; corrected mistakes, made slight additions, and updated it in certain parts.
• Manfred Orthmann, my friend and biking compatriot, enriched the text with new technological possibilities in terms of route planning and navigation. Manfred is very competent in cycling and training. As a result, a few tips from him are also included in the “Training” chapter.
• The route planning contained some additional tips and alternatives to the route that I cycled in 2010. I have now made corresponding adaptations and additions in the respective stage recommendations. This section with the recommended routes and accommodation options has been reworked and combined with the “Food and Accommodation Options”.
• I have revised the representation of the elevation profile and replaced it with a summarized graphical representation of the profile. This gives a much better overall view. In addition, this Ebook now contains summarized information about the inclines of daily stages, such as the total altitude, average climb, maximum climb, and longest climb.
• I have greatly reduced the number of photos. There is ample photo documentation on the Internet. On our website https://cyclingacrossusa.com you can watch a short presentation of the tour. You need only enter your name and e-mail address. Additionally, there is a televised report (unfortunately only in German) of the 2014 Tour on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwLWUdMkhuA
Bonn, September 2020
B. Purpose, and Structure of this Book
Do you like cycling and have sporting ambitions and a sense of adventure? In this case, the crossing of the US - that is, a bike ride from the Atlantic to the Pacific or vice versa- is just the right thing for you. There are many reasons for this:
▪ The USA offers an optimal infrastructure for cycling.
▪ The country offers an abundance of natural beauty that you can experience and enjoy intensely while cycling.
▪ Depending on the route chosen, the journey (from 4,500 - 5,500 km) can be accomplished in just 6 weeks or less. This allows students to complete this tour during their summer or semester breaks, and employees can complete the tour in a six-week vacation period.
▪ The kilometers put into the required training and the trip itself will ensure that all superfluous body fat is removed, and your body’s aging clock is set back by10 years or more.
▪ To briefly summarize: a USA crossing by bicycle is an adventure for anyone looking for a sporting challenge. Physical and spiritual restoration is guaranteed on this trip.
My own US Coast-to-Coast tours in 2010 and 2014 completely confirmed these claims. The experiences of these journeys still inspire me. Therefore, I would like to enable you to complete the same tour without any problems. Like any long voyage, a US cross-country bicycle ride requires a certain amount of preparation. This book should make that preparation easier. It contains a detailed, cookie-cutter guide on how you can do a US crossing by bicycle. This includes detailed route-planning suggestions (including GPS tracks), accommodation options, comments on road quality, climate, flora and fauna, as well as equipment and training tips.
This book is also interesting for all those who want to complete only a part of the route or who are looking for a nice route for a longer bike tour in the USA.
C. Forward: Motivation and Insights
When I went on this trip during August and September of 2010, I was 44 years old. Until then, I was a career-oriented manager in a large corporation. My life plan was to be employed in a managerial position until the age of 45. I wanted to create a solid economic base for the “second half of life” with this. From then on, I wanted to work independently and devote myself increasingly to charitable causes. For this purpose, among other things, I founded the charity organization "Run & Ride for Reading" in 2008, which works to promote reading skills in children (www.run-ride.com). As luck would have it, circumstances in my company allowed me to start this new phase of my life a year earlier than planned.
The USA bicycle tour marked the beginning of this new stage of my life. I had wanted to go on this tour for 25 years. It was my greatest dream and symbolized my newly gained freedom. When I was 22 years old, I had the time and money to undertake this project. Unfortunately, I was not "mature" enough at the time to organize and implement such a project. Now and again, I had the hope that the opportunity for this bike trip had come. However, this hope would vanish in the next professional challenge. In this respect, I was glad when, at the beginning of 2010, the opportunity finally came to realize my dream.
The realization of my dream presented me with a challenge, however, in the form of a tendon inflammation in my left knee caused by overwork during training. Some of the doctors I consulted were skeptical whether I would be able to undertake the tour at all due to this inflammation. With the help of very focused physiotherapy and numerous other measures, I was able to start the trip with a delay of almost three months. This was a very difficult time. My family had not only to bear the consequences of my almost seven-week-long absence during the tour, but they also had to put up with me during the long, strenuous period of preparation when I could hardly focus on family affairs because of constant physiotherapy, intense bike training, and outbursts stemming from feelings of frustration. I would like to thank my family members and friends for supporting me during this time.
The tour itself went perfectly smoothly. We were spared accidents, and any other serious mishaps. During the 42-day tour it rained on only three days. The landscape along the route was often spectacularly beautiful. It was a great pleasure to be so close to this beautiful landscape as a cyclist. The stages through Idaho and Montana especially presented an outstanding experience of nature. The constant movement in fresh air day after day over a period of six weeks is also a unique physical experience. I have never been as fit in my life as I was after this tour. The combination of sport and nature provided me with an unusually large number of joyous moments. In short, it was a fantastic and joyful adventure that I wish everyone can experience. I hope this book will motivate and enable you to do this tour as well.
Oliver Gritz, August 2012
D. The Route
The 5,100 km long cycling tour started south of Seattle, Washington in the Marine State Park near Des Moines on the Puget Sound. It ended exactly 42 days later in Mantoloking on the beach in New Jersey. We traversed 11 American and one Canadian state. These were: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario (Canada), New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. We biked through three National Parks and visited a National Memorial: Mount Rainier, Yellowstone, Wind Cave, and Mount Rushmore. The highest elevation that we crossed was the 2,753 m high Granite Pass in the Big Horn Mountains.
GPS tracks are available for download under https://cyclingacrossusa.com. Please refer to the last chapter for further instructions.