The Route

Our route goes from Washington, DC, to Astoria, Oregon. An interactive map of the route is available on Ride With GPS, a navigation and tracking tool for cyclists. The entire route is somewhat unmanageable on that site, and impossible to use on my bicycle computer, so I divided it into segments in collection on Ride With GPS

We are following the route of the Trans Am Bike Nonstop US, an annual race from Astoria to Washington. However, we are old men who have never been on an overnight bicycle tour, much less a tour across a continent, so we are not racing, and of course we are doing it in reverse.

Bike Nonstop US is organized by Nathan Jones, who planned this route. He developed the race and route as a lower-traffic alternative to the older TransAm Bike Race. It uses existing bicycle infrastructure as much as possible, including rail trails and canal towpaths.

The route is 3,534 miles long with 117,300 feet of total elevation gain. Approximately 23% of the route (826 miles) is unpaved. After leaving the District of Columbia it travels through 12 states: Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon.

Major bicycle trails include:

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