Kyle Casement

One of my favorite hobbies outside of bicycle touring is beach volleyball. I’m not very good, but I do enjoy the time at the beach and with old and new friends. Recently through an old friend, I found a group of other volleyball enthusiasts who took an interest in bicycle touring after hearing my stories and those of another in the group. The group started at about 15 people interested in participating but quickly whittled down to six or seven who were serious enough to commit.

In June of 1976, Adventure Cycling — then known as Bikecentennial — mapped and publicized their first route: the TransAmerica Trail. This cross-country route stretched over 4,000 miles from Astoria, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia and became an instant classic. But even as the TransAmerica Trail was being finalized, another idea was taking shape: a second route that would also cross the U.S. coast to coast, but this one would stay up north.

Picture this: You hop on your bike in Washington, D.C. and start pedaling on a series of bike paths and peaceful sections of rail-trails. You angle northwest through Pennsylvania and cross Ohio, continuing across the Midwest into Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho until you reach Washington and cycle all the way to the Pacific Ocean.