The Spanish Biker wrote:Steve and Jenny,
Probably a dumb question: would it be possible/advisable to do the TAT in the two months July and August - using some good road sections as seems to be the consensus?
I'm asking as these are the only months I have free apary from january and February .- and I'm not so dumb as to ask about those in the Rockies!
Hi Simon - as Steve suggests, two months ought to be ample time to complete the TAT, particularly over the summer - and give you loads of time to pace yourself, take days off to sightsee etc.
My whole trip this summer was seven weeks (and three days) from the west coast to the east and back again, so you'll have plenty of time if you can devote two months to just crossing in one direction.
If you crack on, it's possible to ride the whole TAT in about three weeks, but that is kind of missing the point a little - it really is worth studying the route beforehand, and use it as a way to visit a lot of cool stuff either side of the route too - for example the TAT passes very close to the Jack Daniel's distillery (free tour - it's excellent!), and before you cross from Mississippi into Arkansas, you are not a million miles from Memphis either if you wanted to visit Graceland for example?
Once you get into Colorado, there are any number of side routes and trials you may want to spend a few extra days exploring - a run to the top of Pikes Peak (America's highest road at 14,110ft), and the alternative passes across the continental divide as Steve suggests (I can recommend Hancock and Tincup - Tomichi can be tricky as it is no long country maintained) which should all be open in July and August. I also thoroughly recommend heading down hwy 550 all the way to Durango, and taking the Durango Silverton railroad for a day - an utterly epic journey, and surely one of the top ten train rides in the world!
You also really ought to allow a few days when you get to Moab UT too - you could get lost there indefinitely on the huge trail network, and of course you also have the awesome Arches and Canyonlands National Parks to explore.
Finally the new route goes into northern Utah and up into Idaho now too - Golden Spike is certainly a fun excursion if you like steam trains (and US history in general) while there are a myriad of trails to explore around Trinity Lake, Rocky Bar and Idaho City in Idaho itself.
If I were to do the trip again, I would probably forfeit/simplify some of the eastern end perhaps - especially if I was limited on time, to give me a little more flexibility to take in a few tourist attractions and alternative trails - but at the same time every day there is a little gem to enjoy on the route itself, and it really does give you a unique insight into rural and small-town America.
To give you an idea of timing and distances, here is my
day-by-day report from the TAT this summer... It was my initial intention to try and reach the west coast again by the 1st of July, and ended up going a couple of day over that (25 in total) - but it was certainly worth the extra days, and if I did it again, I'd probably take another week.
Hope that helps,
Jenny x
