Photo Essay: Biking Cross Country

The idea to bike cross country came to me merely on a whim, during the summer of 2006. I didn't know anyone who had done it before or even how someone goes about doing it. A few Google searches quickly led me to The Adventure Cycling Association, which has a variety of bike maps detailing bike routes across the entire country. I choose to do the Northern Tier route because I like the cooler climate of the northern United States.

I am not really a biker, so don't think that this kind of trip is limited to the ultra-fit, because that is completely false. Along my journey I ran into a lot of older couples (I was seventeen at the time so everyone seemed old) who also shared no previous biking experience. Granted they did peddle along at a slightly slower pace, but if anything that is a blessing; they get to experience every wheat field just that much more. If anything, I was biking to go slow (I also didn't have a car or even a license...). My dad and brother both joined me for a few states along the way and neither of them had any previous road biking experience. They were able to keep up and just kept peddling right along with me. I really enjoyed there company even if their butts did ache a little. You can always choose to bike as little or as much as you want and are not food limited like when you backpack, because a simple convenience store is never too far away. It is great physical exercise and a great way to travel and "see the world".

I loaded my bike up into a cardboard bike box in my garage in Lincoln, Massachusetts the day we were to leave for Seattle, Washington. I am never one to plan ahead so it was a rush to find a bike box from a local bike store and try to fit the bike into the small box. I would recommend that you plan ahead and miss some of the last minute stress, if you ever have to send your bike anywhere by plane. After I got my bike packed away nicely we loaded everything up into my dad's Volvo, drove out to Boston, and flew out of Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, for Seattle, Washington. My mom flew out with me for the start of my trip to make sure I at least made it there all right. After we landed in Seattle we rented a car and drove up to Anacortes, Washington on the lovely Puget Sound for the start of my cross country adventure.

I then set out eastward, following the Adventure Cycling directions as closely as possible. The route winded along a variety of terrain from dirt bike paths to well traveled multi-lane highways. Not all the roads had large shoulders, but when you are cutting through the Cascades in Washington, you don’t have much choice but grin and bear the RV’s and logging trucks whizzing dangerously close to your handlebars, nearly blowing you off steep mountain roads.

The Adventure Cycling route continues across Washington to scenic Montana, with the absolutely marvelous Glacier National Park. The route after Glacier is largely boring and straight along U.S. Route 2, but if you enjoy wheat and canola fields, the highway can be fun. After the straight roads of Montana, North Dakota is filled with relatively more twists and turns and a surprising number of beautiful sunflowers and ferocious wolverines. Crossing the river from Fargo, North Dakota to Moorhead, Minnesota you can smell the difference as you leave the agricultural for the touristy. Minnesota is a lovely state filled with more lakes than you could ever visit and with relatively more hilly roads than North Dakota. After Minneapolis, my route differed greatly from the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route. In the interest of time, I decided to head directly east across Wisconsin to Michigan rather than go south through Iowa and Illinois. Wisconsin was nice, but strangely filled with these gigantic indoor water parks. I then took the S.S. Badger from Wisconsin across Lake Michigan to Michigan, where I was greeted with a long bike path that led me safely across much of the Lower Peninsula. I continued across some heavily trafficked side roads to the Canadian border, where I took the smallest car ferry I have ever seen to Ontario. I was delighted as I ventured into a supermarket to find new names and new designs for all my favorite snacks. After I loaded up on chocolate and Tim Horton’s I continued hugging the coast of Lake Ontario to Niagra Falls, where I was greeted with more tourist attractions than I have ever seen in my life. The plethora of people and cars was too much for me though and after the border crossing into New York, I didn’t even stop to see the falls. I continued instead along the Erie Canal as far as it could carry me and then took back roads to Massachusetts. Crossing the border into Western Massachusetts I was happily greeted back into my home state with the steepest grades of the whole trip. The hills continued as I crossed the Appalachian trail with my brother. The steep windy back roads did allow me to hit my highest speed of the entire trip (a whopping 45mph). I continued across Massachusetts, following the Pan Mass Challenge for a significant portion of my trip to Hyannis where I took my final ferry to Nantucket. As soon as I took my bike off the ferry, I noticed that I had two flat tires. I stopped riding my bike at this point and didn’t ride it again for some time. Even if I did end up with 5 flats on my last day (I only had one other flat the rest of the trip...) I would encourage everyone to "Slow the Hell Down :(" as a sign so bravely told me in Haydenville, Massachusetts.

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