The Adventure Cycling Association today launched a new 3,804-mile gravel cycling route stretching from the Mississippi River in Missouri to the Oregon Coast, marking the nonprofit’s 50th anniversary and expanding one of the largest mapped bike-touring networks in the United States.
Called the Golden Gravel Trail (GGT), the route winds through eight states and is roughly 70 per cent unpaved. Endurance cyclist Sarah Swallow, whose 2015 ride on the Trans-America Trail helped shape the route, assisted with its development.
The new route adds to the ACA’s network of more than 57,300 miles of mapped rides nationwide, which the organisation has developed since its founding in 1976 to promote long-distance bicycle travel.
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Inspired by a record-setting route
(Image credit: Ruglie Kaladyte (location: Idaho))
The GGT was inspired by professional bikepacker Sarah Swallow’s 2015 Trans-America Trail (TAT) ride. The TAT is a 5,000-mile, cross-country route typically traversed by motorcycle.
Swallow became the first cyclist to cover the route by bike. Little did she know at the time that it would inspire another multi-thousand-mile route more than a decade later.
“More than a year ago, [the ACA team] sat down and started to plan what we wanted to do for our 50th anniversary,” says Amy Wally, Cartography Program Manager at the ACA. “We started throwing out ideas for what a mostly gravel, more than 1,000-mile route could be…[We] recalled Sarah Swallow’s 2015 Trans-America Trail ride and thought it would be a great starting point [for a new ACA route].”
Thus, the idea for the Golden Gravel Trail was born.
The creation of such a long and varied route involved far more than stitching together segments via online route-building tech, although digital resources played a large part in mapping the GGT, too.
“I created the GGT route using Ride with GPS heat maps, Google Maps and Street View, county maps, and sometimes I would even watch YouTube videos of areas I couldn’t find on Google Street View,” Wally says. “Creating a new route is like a giant puzzle, and I love putting the pieces all together while balancing things like access to [water and food].”
The GGT took about a year to fully map, and it was vetted for rideability and safety by volunteers who drove the route by car and by Swallow, whose TAT ride inspired the GGT route.
Swallow worked alongside Wally to test ride sections of the trail to ensure its safety and rideability. Swallow rode west to east on the GGT, traversing the route from Oregon to Colorado over the course of about 50 days.
“By the time I set out, the route had been thoroughly researched and scouted, but it had never been tested by bicycle. That final step is still essential,” Swallow says. “Only from the saddle can you understand the lived experience of a route—its true difficulty, the time spent between resupply points, and whether access to water is realistic. For the most part, this was the easiest route I’ve ever scouted because so much work had already been done in advance.”
Riders invited to join Drop-In rides
(Image credit: Carl Gable (location: Colorado))
Not only can riders now download the GGT route for free, but they can also take advantage of various “Drop-In Rides.”
“With Drop-In Rides, [the ACA is] encouraging and empowering people to ride one or part of our three iconic routes on their own time,” Zephyrs says. “Whatever section riders want to do, whether that’s an overnight along the route or the whole darn thing, [the ACA] will support you in that through informative materials, helping you find a companion to ride with, and offering use of our online cyclist tracker.”
Registration for Drop-In Rides is free, and to date, more than 800 registrants have signed up for a Drop-In Ride, with more than one-third choosing the Golden Gravel Trail as their route.
“I think the launch of the GGT opens a new era for dirt road bicycle touring in the U.S.,” Swallow says. “When I look at how thoughtfully the route was designed and how accessible it is, I believe it will make dirt road touring more approachable for more people.”
