Prairies to Pacific: Copey Rides West

Here's the goal for the summer — two wheels, 3,000 miles and 267,700 feet of climbing from Salida, Colorado to Santa Monica, California. I plan to do about 50 days of riding with a target average mileage of 60 miles a day, a good rule of thumb for a loaded touring bike and plenty of downtime. The route passes through six states: Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and California I'll be riding the western third of the Adventure Cycling Association's TransAmerica Trail, a route created for the 1976 bicentennial going from Virginia to Oregon using low-traffic roads, along which bike-friendly services have sprung up in subsequent decades. It's the most popular route for going from coast to coast, and one I had intended to do in its entirety until I took a closer look at trip reports from the Midwest section! (Heat, headwinds, scenery so repetitive it can drive people insane — maybe another time 😇)  Instead of starting in Virginia I'll pick up the Trail just nor...

It's less than a month until I catch a plane to Denver (🎵 I'm leaving on a jet plane 🎵) for the start of an epic journey through the American West and to a new life in California. It's been a long time coming — I started thinking about this trip in 2022 and planned to do it after I graduated from Edinburgh in 2023, but broke my elbow a few days before leaving Scotland, ironically while riding my bike to get it adjusted to stop knee pain. Instead, I had an amazing time with Jules (hi Jules!) as we road-tripped around the Southwest while my elbow recovered. Once back in the UK, I ran an overnight test ride in Southern Scotland before heading out our front door, bound for Switzerland. The European route I rode from London to Zürich, camping and staying in Paris, Dijon and Geneva for a total of 115 hours riding and 900 miles. There were a few magical moments on the bike, like riding by a field of purple flowers on the edge of a lake on a cool morning, after an awful day of ri...