Sunset at Big Sur (View on flickr)

The US Pacific Coast is one of the most popular tours in the world. Despite our plans, we ended up doing the whole thing (just under 2000 miles), and I wanted to write a few notes about this incredibly beautiful trip and the wonderful resources that are provided for touring cyclists.

You just can't believe how well-set-up the Pacific Coast is for the touring cyclist. There are books on how to do it, there are wonderful state parks all the way with hiker-biker sites at ridiculously cheap prices and with a shower every night. You never have to buy food ahead of time or plan your food carefully or carry any - there's another town with a nice grocery where you can buy it.

One other unique characteristic: It's so nicely set up for touring cyclists that there are an enormous number of them. And since everybody is in the hiker-biker sites, you get to meet all the touring cyclists. Whereas in the north country we might meet the occasional cyclist, and might end up camping with them, on the coast it's every night you're meeting a bunch of people. It was so intense that there was a night in California that I hid in my tent because I just couldn't seek out the stories of all those people and tell them our story. There were too many.

And it's so beautiful. Riding along the rugged coast, watching the seaside birds playing in the waves, walking along the quite giant redwood ancient forest, pedaling in the foggy morning past the working lighthouse, wandering along the tidal pools, are just a few incredible moments we enjoyed while bicycling down the Pacific Coast Bike Route. We met so many more bicycle tourists and incredible people then we could have every imagined also enjoying the magic of the Western United States Coast. We loved the ride and highly recommend this bicycle adventure.

There are 3 major guides to the coast:

• Bicycling the Pacific Coast. This is the book we used. It's useful, sometimes out of date when it shouldn't be. Tells you why you should go a particular way, and discusses the route, and alternative routes. This seems to be the most popular route book used. We found it's heavy and probably too wordy. It ignores resources they don't approve of, like campsites that don't have showers. If they don't have a shower and a hiker-biker site, they probably won't show up. We went to a few campsites which where not recommended in the book because they did not have facilities such as the inexpensive hiker/biker sites or warm showers or where just not mentioned as an option. We found that several campgrounds listed as "no hiker-biker" or "no hot showers" did have these wonderful features because of recent improvements. Also, most commercial campsites are ignored and were mentioned only if there was no other options such as State Parks, National Parks, U.S. Forest parks, County or Regional Parks.
• Lonely Planet's Cycling USA West Coast, which covers more than just the Pacific Coast route - has several other loops in it, etc. A friend used this successfully. It's a bit smaller. I think it has less info, but more density. It's older than the latest revision of Bicycling the Pacific Coast, but that didn't really get a full update on the last revision, I don't think.
• Adventure Cycling's maps. These get updated continually by comments from members and users, so they're probably the most up-to-date. They also seem to take you off a busy highway at every single opportunity. They don't tell you why, or let you think about whether it's worth it. But knowing that a detour is available is a very nice thing. Bicycling the Pacific Coast seemed to keep us on the highway a few times when it would have been better to take an odd route around.

Finally, there are a couple of simple maps that are outstanding.

• Oregon publishes a great map that shows it all - probably everything you need for that state. You can order a hard-copy of the map.
• Krebs Cycle Products has a number of maps of northern California that are concise, light, and quite excellent.

Our comments about the coast:

• The whole coast is intensely beautiful. You just can't keep riding because there's so much to see and photograph.
• We had incredibly good weather. We started down the coast from Port Angeles, Washington on August 25 and finished in San Diego on October 22. If every year is like 2006, you should try to go this time of year. We had mostly sunny days, very few rainy days, and overall delightful weather. Almost always we had a tailwind through Washington and Oregon which is why most folks cycle from the North to the South. A few days we rode into the strong Santa Anna winds in Southern California which usually pick up in the late fall
• This is not an easy ride. There are difficult places with the traffic, including tunnels and bridges in Oregon and some pretty tricky traffic spots in Washington, Oregon and California. There are plenty of logging trucks in Washington and parts of Oregon which you can hear grumbling up the hills and coming down your back. That's the bad news. The good news is, you can hear them from a long distance away and can get off the road in plenty of time if situation requires it. If you're not comfortable riding with traffic or are bothered by traffic noise, some of the sections will really irritate you. There are lots of sections that are quiet and safe, but there are a number of exceptions. You will need a mirror that works for you and if you wear obnoxiously bright clothes, to be as visible to drivers in every way.

If you'd rather have a bit more detail, the pdf version is here for the Pacific Coast segment.