AP reporter Calvin Woodward recently biked across the United States on the TransAmerica Trail. Starting here in DC, he biked down to catch the trail in Charlottesville and from there rode it all the way to Pueblo, CO and then to the Pacific on the Western Express Trail. Both trails are part of the Adventure Cycling Association's route system.
Crossing the country at 12 mph to 15 mph, loaded down, takes about three months. It's hard. This is an enormous country. Who knew? One astonishing thing about this trip is that it can be done at all in this day and age. In this land of congested suburbs, clogged highways and city clatter, it's possible to go from Washington, D.C., to the Pacific on roads less traveled.
It's a good little travel story. Another DC resident, author and journalist David Lamb, rode his bike across country and wrote a book about it that's received mixed reviews.
Besides the routes on the ACA's page two other cross country trails/routes pass through the DC area. The American Discovery Trail - which differs from the TransAmerica because it tries to use only trails, crosses the Bay Bridge, connects to the Anacostia Trails, and then hooks up with the C&O via Rock Creek Park. The East Coast Greenway, the "urban Appalachian Trail", crosses Arlington Memorial Bridge and the mall before escaping DC on the Met Branch Trail.
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