Well, after the Barcelona bike I’m craving for another ride so here it is.
San Diego, CA to Jacksonville, FL.
Roughly 2700miles, over 28 days I estimate. See the route page for a detailed breakdown of mileage and altitudes.
The rough plan:
Fly in to San Diego with bike case (if so, ship to location in Jacksonville on arrival), alternatively a disposable box.
Aim to cover 100+miles a day, which would leave a few spare days for any problems that crop up.
The route is somewhat flat as it skips the mountains in Utah. Roughly, the hilliest section of the trip is Phoenix to El Paso, 400 miles with a total of 18,500 feet or ~4600 feet per 100miles. Whereas most of the rest of the route will be ~600-1000 feet per 100miles (based of 200 miles from Baton Rouge to Mobile, at 1600 feet total).
Also this is based off roughly 80% of the Southern Tier ACA route, so generally the roads should be cycle suitable.
Regarding accommodation, the cheaper the better!
- Camping (stealth camping maybe)
- Local facilities, it seems people have quite a bit of luck camping at Fire stations etc, which is great.
- Cheap motels if forced to.
Totally self reliance is the key to not getting stranded, particularly the longer, hotter stretches in New Mexico and Arizona. Although we’ll be skipping Death Valley and other hot spots, up to 10 litres of water each may be required for some days. Although the route caters for not too many long stretches between small towns at least. Obvious items such as spare tubes, a spare folding tyre, ability to fix broken chains and at worst a derailleur or gear hanger.
Rough costings:
Flights:
London -> San Diego & Jacksonville -> London: £550 including bike transport.
Day to day costings, various on the group size, but expecting to be as small as possible: $30-40/day. Larger the group, the costs would come down significantly.
Anyhow, if anyone’s interesting in joining us on the trip, hit me up @easyjo or jo@easyjo.com. Thinking either October 2011, or early in 2012.
