from DC to klamath
 

Hi,

I'm - more or less- french,

My daughter is living in DC, litteraly a few feets away from the beginning of the C&O canal.

I'm planning a cross USA drive beginning in DC and finishing near the Klamath river (provided I find an airport nearby to go back to Paris...)

I made contacts with the ACA who gave me many useful infos and next year I will buy maps from them.

As you may imagine I want to avoid big freeways as most as possible. The second problem is the timing to cross the rockies without too much risk. I've already had many advices : do not do it too early because of snow, nor too late because of traffic. and so on.

I do have the chance to be able to take 90 days of vacations whenever I like.

I'm a seasoned wild camper with equipment permitting to sleep comfortably to -5 celcius degrees.

The google map gives me an itinerary called the "cow boy trails", but my experience with google map for biking in europe makes me think it's not really optimal at all.

Any advice will be extremely welcome !

for instance for regular camping with amenities to take a shower and wash my clothes, for places where I can buy food avoiding big supermarkets in suburbian areas, and places where I can refill water bottles. In europe for water, the place to go is the cimetary : may be in the US it's not the best place to go?


I plan to bring my trusted Santos Travel Master by plane because it's a really bomb proof bike.

As for GPS tracking I will probably take the little Garmin and my samsung A5 2017 (what about local cheap sim cards with internet acces)

Thank you for your help

Yves

Sounds like you are planning the easy way so far. The ACA is a good idea.
If you don't want to follow the ACA route. You can also google each state in the US to download their highway map, which shows traffic volumes. Most of them also have a downloadable bicycle map. Both of which usually show shoulder width.

I've done it with as little as a state highway map you buy at a local gas station. Traffic is a concern but less so the farther west you go.

Camping gets considerably easier in the western half of the U.S.
You might not always get a shower, though.

Where do you plan on reaching the Klamath River?

Although I have nothing to offer, I just wanted to say that my daughter is French (ever since she lived in Angers) and lives a few blocks from The Hill. Small world.

The C&O is supposed to be the beginning of a cross-country off-highway cycling route linking several such trails. I do not know if the route is complete yet but it might be an interesting alternate to a conventional paved road tour.

I'd start by finding an airport to fly back from. I'm not aware of any big airports close to the Klamath river. Once you know which airport you're going to be flying out of, you'll want to plan based on how much time you have and how many miles you could reasonably ride in that amount of time..

Salut,

Voici un lien d'un recit de voyage en francais et anglais d'un couple Quebecois qui traversaient le nord des Etats-Unis et le sud du Canada a velo (tandem).

2014: Chapitre 2: A travers les Amériques en Tandem - Riding through the Americas on a tandem, by Normand Pion and Helene Giguere

The Klamath River is a very long river starting in south central Oregon and entering the Pacific Ocean at the town of Klamath in north west Caifornia.

If you end your trip in Oregon there is a train station in Klamath Falls that will take you to Eugene or Portland, Oregon. If you end it in Klamath, California, rent a car and drive to an airport in California or Oregon.

My wife and I had a family emergency while rididng down the Pacific when we were a short distance north of Klamath, California. It required us to get home as soon as possible. We rented a car in Klamath and drove home to Oregon. It was pretty reasonable.

Amtrak coast Starlight does stop in Klamath falls middle of the night, northbound ..

Once you get into the middle part of the USA, most small towns will happily let you camp in the city park. Following an ACA route will really help you out here. Then in the West, there are many government campgrounds along with a lot of public land where you can camp whereever you want. (if the coyotes and jackalopes leave you alone)

I don't know if you're cutting across northeastern California, but there are a few state parks there with cheap hike and bike sites and showers. I'd also recommend riding S to N across Lassen National Park there, even if it does mean going out of your way. It's a good climb to 8500", with an optional hike to the summit of the 10,500' volcano, but has little traffic and great scenery. I can recommend some campgrounds and side routes in that part of California. Lake Tahoe to Klamath is great altogether, but I don't know if you want to cut as far south as Tahoe.

probably near Klamath and the beaches
sorry for my late answer !

One of mybrothers live in Angers, so it's a really small world / international transportation changed a lot

The provided link goes to the BBC !
But it's a really good idea : I will probably reach the pacific side approximately in nowheretown and from there, go to Oakland or San Francisco airport by train.

I'm commuting daily since 40 years in big cities, so I'm not afraid of traffic ; much much more by bike stealers !
That's why I bought a Brompton : we sleep together in hotel rooms and we work together in the same office during the day.

It's going to be Klamath California.
In France one way renting is almost impossible and extremely costly : that could the simplest way to go from Klamath (Ca) to San Fransisco, even if I would prefer the "possibly" lower carbon solution of the Amtrak line.

The middle part of the trip through remote places is the least problematic for the logistical part. I would prefer to start from DC to be able to rest a bit from the jet lag and I'm expecting my daughter to take a bit of her soo precious time to come to the airport, that way I will have more time to rebuid my bike.

thanks for all these ideas !

I've been in Lassen in october 2 years ago : it's an absolutely stunning place and less crowded than the Yosemite in august. In bear places I plan to go to campgrounds equipped with steel lockers or cheap motels. I don't want to have to buy a bear proof box.
Tahoe is too much south for my timing and I imagine the place as a sort of "chic" ski resort like Chamonix, but I'm probably wrong ?

Merci, je vais relire ça et prendre des notes, plutôt que de rêver aux "Stans" sur CGOAB: je dois avouer que mon expérience au Maroc où on ne peut pas s'acheter une "petite mousse" le soir, ça me fait hésiter quant aux pays musulmans... parce que le "jaja" au bivouac du soir, c'est indispensable pour moi, juste comme le capitaine Haddock dans Tintin !
Quant au Canada, j'ai vraiment peur que ça soit trop froid pour moi !
mais c'est peut être faux en été et au sud ?

One day car rental is usually less than $100/day. Klamath to SF is about a 6-hour drive.

It's the dropoff charges that can kill you in many one-way rentals.

Riding East to West means head winds most of the way. I'd suggest taking Amtrak to the west, bike back to DC and fly home from there. Going west could add 50% to the travel time.

In 2016 I had 20 to 25 mph tail winds for 1000 miles from Portland Oregon to Bismark North Dakota. that would have been really hard going the wrong way.

West of the Missouri river, you can ride on the Interstate highway shoulders. it is legal to ride on interstate highway shoulders in the majority of states in the USA. Each state sets their own highway laws, not the federal government. Those shoulders are very wide and actually okay to ride on. The older highways were mostly built before the invention of bulldozers so they tend to follow the terrain. Interstates are newer and are leveled out. . On an interstate shoulder, you are father away from traffic than you would be on a shoulder on a 2 lane road. Many of western highways have shoulders although many are only 1 meter wide.. East of the Missouri, few roads have shoulders. In some areas, interstates are the only option.

In 2016, everyone I met going west asked me the same thing: "Why didn't anyone tell me about the wind?". Well I'm telling you. They were all first time cross USA riders or just new to cycling.

If you use a smart phone, google maps has the bike route option that will reveal all the nearby bike paths. That's pretty handy east of the mississippi river. I found and rode on 32 trails from the Mississippi river to DC including the GAP, C&O and Henepin in Illinois.

The Strava Heat Map can be good too. Shows where others have ridden.

Verizon phone service has more coverage in the USA than any other provider. You can get a sim card and get monthly data. No need to sign a long term contract. I used a 7" tablet with broadband data access. I used my flip phone for telephone. I had 3 days of no coverage in the Bitterroot mountains in Idaho/Montana. The rest of crossing the USA I had good coverage. My verizon service worked where others' ATT had no service. Most discount providers only work in large cities.

Had plenty of days or headwind riding across the country W-E. Plenty of days. Plenty of other days of headwind riding W-E on various portions of the TA and Northern Tier.

Ahh this wind thing ... it was "go west young man" during the gold rush, but nowadays it's probably more appropriate to say "go east old man, with your Visa Gold Card" !
There are 3 things problematic for a departure from San Fransico :
1) I'm going to stay in an awfully costly and small airBnB/Hostel thing !
2) I will have to cross the rockies early in the season, snow is highly probable.
3) The hardest part of the trip will come first !
Decisions decisions ...

The National Park and State Park campgrounds in the Tahoe and Lassens area are equipped with steel bear boxes. The Tahoe area is not at all completely chic and overpriced, and does have several State Parks on the California side with cheap hike 'n' bike sites including Grover Hot Springs south of the Lake, DL Bliss along the lake, and Donner State Park north of the lake, in Truckee. In the Lassen area, MacArthur-Burney Falls State Park also has HB sites about 45 miles north of the park boundary. North of that toward Klamath is pretty much unknown by me, though..you could cut across rather unpopulated country on direct routes toward Klamath, or follow the ACA route to Mt Shasta and then along I5...I do know some of the camping between Donner and Lassen, though. I did do at least ten weeks total touring in bear country in northern CA, and the only bear I ever saw was in a KFC parking lot in Mammoth Lakes after a tour was over. Go figure.

I favor the west to east route. Some chance of snow in the Rockies but usually there is sufficient forewarning so that one would not be caught in the middle of a storm. Also in the west the spring/early summer bright sun often melts the snow quickly. In the east late spring/early summer can be quite rainy, later it's a bit hot & humid but usually fairly tolerable. Washington DC hotels etc are not cheap though less than San Francisco. Western folks are friendlier & more polite, perhaps worth the extra money to stay a few days in San Francisco.