Alaska to Argentina – de arriba abajo

they treat Idaho the way basic white British people treat Spain.

I didn't see a single 2for1 fried breakfast ad nor any "6 pints for 5EU" signs. Are you quite sure they're that bad?

Western Oregon is incredible, but SE Oregon, ie 1/4 of the entire state, is boring and grim. Burns was AWFUL 20 years ago

Yeah, I've only done what's on the TABR route and hung around Portland and Astoria so my knowledge is very limited. It's lovely though.

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What's a bummer about that is this bit might be one of the most beautiful places in the US. Lot of up tho

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Yeah, I didn't make the route though :)

You find that with a lot of events. Just glimpsing possibilities. But that glimpse is still nice to have.

In full support of this. If you’d like an intro to the polo crew in Seattle, just let me know. They love hosting people and would show you and Suzy a good time. Dusty and Mckenzie now own a bike shop/cafe/restaurant there, which is guaranteed to be good.

That would be great, thanks

I’ll WhatsApp you to sort details, we’ll be in Seattle early / mid July .

Same goes for Vancouver, etc. But I don’t know that lot so well. Max does.

That looks like an amazing trip.

Another book to look at would be The Hungry Cyclist who takes a similar route at least part way. Plenty of tips in there including how to enjoy the local cuisine.

Can't go wrong for less than £3. It's an easy read.

Good luck Ed! Will pop-in regularly to see how you're gettin on.

Crater Lake and Mackenzie River were unreal locations in Oregon. The loop of the lake is a lovely ride. Oregon is class, saw whales on the coast too.

Goonies coast...

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McKenzie Pass

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If I remember, the couple who came up with the original idea for the Trans America Bicycle Route in the 1970s were inspired to do so during their bike trip from Alaska to Argentina. Their ACA routes include the Pacific Coast which you are probably using to cross the US, so quite fitting.

Been following this pair as they went north to south (Covid meant a temporary hault and they're currently back in NZ) - they're definitely more on a bikepacking/off road tip but their stories and photos should be interesting/useful

https://www.highlux.co.nz/alaska-to-argentina/

I cycled Central America from Mexico to Panama City a few years ago. Happy to answer any questions, but a few top of head things:

• State of roads is generally way better than we expected.
  
• Roads are generally way emptier than expected - we had thought the Trans-American Highway would be pretty fearsome at times, but definitely not. One day I had to move a sleeping tortoise out of the middle of the road.
  
• Exception - Guatemala, road from Morales to Rio Honda. We started on it, but it was a constant stream of lorries close-passing (not that they had much choice, it wasn't a wide road). We chucked the bikes on a coach for a couple of hours there.
  
• Mexico - stop every time you see a sign for a cenote. They never disappoint.
  
• Sights - Tulum (obvious one, Mexico), Lamanai (Belize), Tikal (Guatemala) for historical ruins. Tikal tip - you get off the bus and the tours all walk off one direction round the site in big groups, seeing ruins. We went the other way on our own, and saw about a jillion animals, insects, birds that the others didn't.
  
• Safety - never felt unsafe, but your coffee shop having a guard with a sub-machine gun takes getting used to. We did, however, skip thru Honduras as we'd spent too long in El Salvador.
  
• Nicaragua - just the best place, so much to see and so much beauty. Troubled country without many tourists - some backpackers were offering places £1 a night when it should have been $10. Don't be a cunt.
  
• Costa Rica - we kicked off to the Pacific coast soon after the Nicaraguan border, and camped on a huge empty beach for a few days - saw literally nobody (tho were repeatedly robbed by monkeys, racoons and iguanas). Further down the coast is still beautiful, but very much developed for tourism.
  

Also, don't bother with the capital cities.

Yep i'm sure we can find someone to give you a place to stay in Vancouver and probably Portland as well.

Ali did Vancouver to mexico so could probably give some good tips, i'll ask her to write some down. I know she used warmshowers.com a lot and said it was great and met some lovely people.

We’re coming up to 3 weeks in Alaska and have pedalled 980km so far. Flying to Fairbanks with giant airport queues and the hassle of bike boxes was a fairly hellish affair but we arrived in one piece.

My partner had a nasty cold on arrival so we parked up at the hostel for a few extra days before hitting the road down to Denali National Park. The roads were pretty big but wide shoulders made for nice cycling, and the views straight out the gate have been amazing. Once we got to the park we headed up the park road. It’s mainly gravel and closed to private traffic (tour buses only) - the whole road is 90 miles long but due to a big landslide it’s closed at mile 42. We did a 3 day out and back, camping around mile 30. No bear sightings but we saw some fresh-looking footprints in our campsite which was close enough for me…

After the park we headed down to the Denali Highway, 217km of remote road with 115km of gravel. A pretty amazing place to ride through with such a range of scenery - camping on the high plateau surrounded by snow was special.

We then routed south to Glennallen and along the Tok Cutoff - we’re currently having a rest day in Tok with 140km to the Canadian border and 700km to Haines. On the 25th we’re getting a 3 day ferry to Bellingham, WA - we’ll be camping on the deck and hopefully will spot some whales.

If you want to see more photos I’m posting bits on instagram.com/ed_win

My partner is also writing a newsletter every few weeks http://tinyletter.com/suzieandedwin

I’m struggling to upload photos at the moment but will try when I next have Wi-Fi.

Reading and dreaming here, great pictures on your Instagram

Cannon bay?

I think so. Haystack rock: https://goo.gl/maps/UCMD6Z57osSvTpxj9

We visited the Goonies House (even though there's a million signs saying "piss off")

Ah man, I'm so jealous of all this, hope you carry on having a great time.

Thanks for the update!