The Adventure Cycling blog covers bicycle-travel news, touring tips and gear, bicycle routes, organizational news, membership highlights, guided tours, and more. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for daily updates. Interested in becoming a guest blogger for Adventure Cycling? Share your story with us.
Photo by Colt Fetters
I recently sat down with Adventure Cycling’s GIS Specialist/Cartographer Melissa Moser to chat about the project that has been occupying the cartography department for the past three years: the creation of a versatile digital products for the Adventure Cycling Route Network. Last week, enhanced GPX data was released for sale for the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail.
I recently sat down with Adventure Cycling Cartographer Nathan Taylor to chat with him about the project that has been occupying his time for the past year, the development of Adventure Cycling’s exciting new Texas Hill Country Loop.
The 310-mile Texas Hill Country Loop route offers flat to rolling hill terrain and plenty of beauty to boot. This post just might get you pointed toward Texas ...
We are excited to announce we have released enhanced GPX data for sale for the TransAmerica Trail!
We continue to move forward to offer Adventure Cycling Route information in track format for higher accuracy, ease of use, and compatibility across multiple devices. This is where we stand right now.
Adventure Cycling’s Routes & Mapping Department was recently alerted to a change coming to the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route in Southern California. Beginning March 1, 2016, Camp Pendleton will require all cyclists to be pre-registered to ride across the base. Non-U.S. citizens require a sponsor.
This week, Jenn Milyko writes about a reroute conducted on Adventure Cycling's North Lakes bicycle route in Michigan and Indiana.
The Adventure Cycling strategic plan directs the Routes & Mapping department to, “Improve and update the Adventure Cycling Route Network.” In the past, this has included many route changes, minor and some major. This week Jenn Milyko writes about a reroute conducted on the Southern Tier route, primarily in Arizona.
The Adventure Cycling strategic plan directs the Routes & Mapping department to, “Improve and update the Adventure Cycling Route Network.” In the past this has included many route changes, minor and some major. This week Jenn Milyko writes about a reroute conducted on the Great Rivers South Route in Missouri.
Adventure Cycling staffer Jenn Milyko was invited to take part in a media trip sponsored by Travel Oregon. The goal of the event was to explore the wonders and bounties of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway (WVSB). It was an awesome four days filled with food, fun, and cycling.
Adventure Cycling staffer Jenn Milyko recently took advantage of our fabulous employee benefit, paid time off for bicycle travel. She shares some pictures from a beautiful trip in the San Juan Islands.
The creation of three new federally-designated Wilderness areas in Idaho impacts the White Cloud Option found on the Singletrack Options Map of Adventure Cycling's Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route (IHSMBR). Read all about these changes, effective immediately...
Cycling season is construction season for highway departments. Now is the time to check Department of Transportation (DOT) websites for construction projects in the states on your intended route. Read more for alerts in Idaho, construction related travel resources, and ways to share construction information with your fellow bicycle travelers.
We have more time to push for and negotiate changes in proposed rumble strip applications on the Northern Tier and TransAm in Montana – well over 1,000 people contacted Montana DOT and made a BIG difference – we will keep pressing for change and may need your help again in the near future.
In April 2015, Adventure Cycling's Jenn Milyko traveled to New Mexico, "Land of Enchantment," for business and a look at Bicycle Route 66.
In the summer of 2014 we conducted a test of GPX data on one of the routes in the Adventure Cycling Route Network. Over the winter we combed through the feedback and distilled it to new downloadable products released on April 27, 2015.
Last week we sent out an unusual alert about pending rumble strip applications on the Northern Tier and TransAm cycling routes. Based on your feedback, we are clarifying our message to "Wrong Way on Rumble Strips." While we fully understand the value and importance of rumble strips, these proposed rumble strips could force cyclists into high speed travel lanes with trucks and other motor traffic. We look forward to hearing from the Montana Department of Transportation but until we do, please keep contacting them.
Many state Departments of Transportation use rumble strips as a way to improve safety on highways with high numbers of run-off-the-road crashes. Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is in the process of updating their rumble strip guidance policy, and while they are working with us and Bike Walk Montana to ensure that bicyclists are represented, when it comes to actual implementation of rumble strips they are not taking cyclists’ needs and safety into account.
Besides all the nostalgia and scenery encompassed by Bicycle Route 66, another of my favorite features of this route are the multiple entry and exit points. While the main route beginning and endpoints of Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California are well covered by convenient entry points of, there are many others scattered at reasonable distances all along Bicycle Route 66.
A benefit of adding the newly minted Bicycle Route 66 maps to our existing route network is its intersections with that network. This post lays out three examples.
We are happy to announce that our conversations with District 8 of Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) regarding the use of I-40 for Bicycle Route 66 have reached a successful conclusion!
Over the next few days we are sending the Bicycle Route 66 maps to the printer. Unfortunately, we still do not have a satisfactory resolution with District 8 of Caltrans over access to the stretch of Interstate 40 between Needles and Barstow, California, where it is illegal to ride a bicycle.
In November 2014, I wrote about the conversation we were conducting with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) regarding the use of Interstate 40 east of Barstow, California, for our soon-to-be-released Bicycle Route 66 maps. This entry is a follow-up on the situation.
From the moment in November 2012 when we first announced the timeline for our next big route, Bicycle Route 66, we have been working to create a world-class bicycle route following the legendary Route 66 travel corridor. Over the course of doing route research, a trouble spot was uncovered in California where we had hoped to use the National Trails Highway (NTH).
While Travel Initiatives staff Ginny Sullivan and Saara Snow had five two-wheeled reasons to visit Pittsburgh this September, Routes & Mapping staff had a cartographic one in October.