About The Route
3100 Miles From San Diego to St. Augustine, FL-Beginning March 24, 2013
After we climb away from San Diego on the California coast and
topping out at 3,800 feet, the desert will appear. The route travels through
the Yuha Desert and the below-sea-level, irrigated Imperial Valley, before
splitting the Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area in half. In Arizona, we travel
through Phoenix, the copper-mining towns of Miami and Globe, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park east of
Superior and the Besh Ba Gowah Archeological Park in Globe. Here we will be riding though dry, sparsely
populated ranch country where every town will be a welcome sight and a chance
to top off the water bottles. New Mexico offers the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, some of the best
preserved Mogollon cliff dwellings around.
Riding along the Rio Grande into El Paso, we may
be treated to visions of migrating birds flying north for the summer. Texas
dominates this route, taking up an entire third of the mileage. Starting in El
Paso, the route follows
the river southward before turning east and heading through the Davis
Mountains. We'll pass the McDonald
Observatory atop 6,800-foot Mt. In the
Davis Mountains, towns are few and the country desolate, full of sagebrush and
tumbling tumbleweeds. As we travel through central Texas, the terrain starts to
feel like the Alps, but this is actually the famous "hill country."
This diverse area is said to serve some great barbeque.
Louisiana is like no other state in the United States due to its
history, language, culture, and food. Traveling right through the middle of
Cajun country, in places like Mamou, We look forward to some great Cajun music.
Mississippi offers rural riding all the way into Alabama, where the route
crosses a bridge to Dauphin Island. From there it's a ferry ride across Mobile
Bay to Gulf Shores and some of the whitest beaches in the world. The scenery
varies greatly across Florida, from the historic coastal city of Pensacola to
the alligator-filled waters of the area around Palatka. The route ends in St.
Augustine, a city full of interesting buildings and the Castillo de San Marcos,
a fort that has guarded the city's waterfront for over three centuries.
The route offers challenging terrain right from the start, with
some longer climbs leaving San Diego all the way up to In-ko-pah Pass, about 70
miles east of the Pacific coast. There are two mountain passes in New Mexico,
the highest being Emory Pass at 8,228 feet, which is also the route's highest
point. The route just north of Silver City, New Mexico, which goes to the Gila
Cliff Dwellings National Monument, offers some steep, challenging, rolling
mountains, as does the hill country west of Austin, Texas. East of Austin the
route flattens out as it meanders through piney woods, by bayous, along
farmlands and woodlots, and past the Gulf Coast all the way to the Atlantic
Ocean.
Isolated stretches, especially in the western states of
California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas are not uncommon. Services are
infrequent and can dictate long miles on some days. The 144-mile stretch from
Marathon to Comstock, Texas, calls for specific planning and carrying of food
and water.
[Courtesy of Adventure Cyclist Association]
