UPDATED AS OF JUNE 25, 2021

Donita is now changing routes. She feels it best to have 5 extra days to play with to make sure she is back home in the allotted time she has set aside for the trip. She is going to do the original map she had planned back in 2016 before she had her accident. She is excited to see a part of the country that she hasn’t seen before. She will now be pedaling through CO going west, UT, NV, and CA ending in San Francisco. She has already completed VA, KY, IL, MO, and KS. Below is the new map.

This is our planned route for our 2021 Coast to Coast tour. We will start in Yorktown, VA on May 24, 2021 and end in Florence, OR ( now San Francisco, CA as of June 25,2021) around Aug 4, 2021. We will be following the TransAmerica Trail and then in Pueblo, CO we will follow the Western Express route to CA. These routes are from the Adventure Cycling Association maps. We have allotted 10 weeks for the trip and plan to average 65 miles a day on the days we ride. Our rest days will be set aside for keeping up the journal, bike maintenance, sight seeing, laundry, and bad weather. We will mostly be camping in ‘da Palace’ which is on top of the ‘Silver Bullet’. We will also stay in a few hotels along the way. The key to a successful trip is flexibility. Donita, and Jocelynn are very excited about the this little adventure and are looking forward to sharing it with you. We would love for you to follow our progress over on instagram and our Facebook page. Internet will be an issue in many places so we will try and update our progress as often as we can. We would love to hear from you along the way. Email, text, Facebook, Instagram message, Snapchat us…Please! We need your encouragement along the way.

Below are some of the things we will be looking forward to in each state we cycle through.

‘The Silver Bullet and Da Palace’… Home away from Home

VIRGINIA

We start our tour with dipping our back bike tire in the Chesapeake Bay in Yorktown, VA. Then we will be riding through places that are rich in history of the American Revolution like Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. We will the ride through lush plantations and farmlands. Day 5’s hills will turn into climbing the part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the pretty Appalachian Mountains.

KENTUCKY

Kentucky we will spend some time ascending and descending the mountains of the Appalachians. We will be climbing more and staying alert because the dogs on this route are not well behaved and don’t like cyclist. Once we get past Berea, we will say good-bye to the Appalachians. Kentucky will then offer us rolling white-fenced farms and woodlands. We are looking forward to the horse farms throughout this beautiful state.

ILLINOIS

A ferry will take us across the Ohio River into Illinois. We will visit a state park there and then we will wind our way along the Ohio River for a little bit as we head to Carbondale, a fun college town. We will cross the Mississippi River at Chester, Illinois.

MISSOURI

Missouri will offer us a very long roller coaster ride (around 300 plus miles) as we ascend and descend the many many hills and ride through the Ozark Plateau. We will start with the Saint Francois Mountains and enjoy a few state parks along the way. From previous riders it sounds like we will welcome the flat-as-a-pancake and windy Great Plains of Kansas with open arms and stronger legs.

KANSAS

This is hot, barren country. We definitely will be bring extra water on our rides in Kansas. We will probably have to do some early morning and early evening riding to escape the midday heat. We will expect to hit headwinds as we will be amongst the wheat fields and no mountains. We will be doing a lot of overnights at city parks during this stretch due to no state parks or big cities with hotels close to the route. They will offer us city swimming pools for a refreshing dip after a hot days ride. Though this is relatively flat riding, the Great Plains will not be easy.

COLORADO

Right around Haswell, Colorado, we’ll see our first hazy glimpse of the Rocky Mountains. Pueblo, CO will be our first largest city we pass through since Carbondale, IL. We will do a little celebration once we get there since it will mark our halfway point of the TransAm Trail. As the route nears the Rockies, we will see the Royal Gorge Park and hang out at the Arkansas River bridge maybe even take a raft trip through the gorge. We will begin a long climb to crest the Continental Divide at Hoosier Pass, 11,542 feet, up amongst snow-covered peaks. Then towards Breckenridge and Frisco for a few days of rest at Donita’s cabin. When we pass Kremmling, Colorado we will leave he alpine mountain air and head into the dry high desert toward Wyoming.

UTAH

The route passes through some of the nation’s most isolated communities and several of its most spectacular scenic wonders. We will take some time to explore Cedar Breaks, Escalante, and Natural Bridges National Monuments; Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks; Glen Canyon National Recreation Area; with hopefully a side trip and a full day off in Zion National Park. These natural sculptures, spires, buttes, and canyons will be no less than humbling. We are eager to see this barren land.

NEVADA

The route joins U.S. Highway 50 in Baker, NV where the challenging part begins. A dozen climbs will await her on “The Loneliest Road in America”. There will be large desolate areas with few or no signs of civilization. One of the towns she will stop at only has a population of 17. She will cross several large desert valleys separated by numerous mountain ranges towering over the basin floors. This route will pass by the Great Basin National Park and be paralleling the route of the famous Pony Express which she will see remnants of it along the way. It also passes the Sand Mountain Rec area. She will pass through the towns of Baker, Ely, Eureka, Austin, Fallon, and Carson City. She will end her Nevada portion of the trip in Nevada Beach on Lake Tahoe.

CALIFORNIA

Donita will leave the historic mining region of Carson City, Nevada and begin her accent over the Sierra Nevadas. The route takes her though the very busy South Lake Tahoe and then winds her up and over Carson Pass at 8,573 ft.  This will be her last pass and big climb of her trip.  From there she will race down the Sierra Nevada foothills and see lush agricultural valleys before hitting the hustle and bustle of several cities. Gone are the days of the quiet solitude of Nevada riding. Urban riding conditions will be the last 3 days of Donita’s journey.  Folsom, Sacramento and Davis will provide her with a welcome relief of separate bike paths. She will follow along the American River on a bike path for over 20 miles.  Many who ride this path say they didn’t feel like they were in a major city. From there, Donita will parallel an interstate on a bike path and wind through suburbs and undulating  agricultural areas before hitting the big metropolis of San Francisco where she will end her journey.