Trip Summary Trip Dates: Mar 22 - May 25 Start - End Locations: San Diego, CA - St. Augustine, FL Days: 65   Rest Days: 9   Level of Support: Self-contained Miles: 3160 Average Miles Per Day: 57 Surface: Road Riders: 14 Type: Self-Contained   Meals: Shared cooking Accommodations: Camping Physical Difficulty: Advanced   Airport: San Diego, CA/Jacksonville, FL Cost: $3249 Booking Status: Closed

Question: Can you bicycle 3,100 miles and not lose any weight? Answer: Possibly so, if it’s the Southern Tier Route you’re riding. Or, as one past participant said, “This trip lends new meaning to the phrase ‘eating up the miles.’”

It may be true that the Southern Tier, at “only” 3,160 miles in length, covers just 75 percent of the distance spanned by our other pair of cross-country routes, the TransAm and the Northern Tier. However, don’t think you’ll be selling yourself short by choosing this option: It’s long on scenery, great shoulder-season weather, terrific cycling…and the promise of treasured memories, many of them centered on scrumptious food.

The American Southwest and South—and Texas, which is sort of a mix of both regions—are culturally rich and diverse. Beginning at the home of California surfers and Spanish missions, you’ll visit the lands of the Pueblo Indians, and then explore the cultures of the Tex-Mex, Cajun, and Deep South. Notably, these all have delectable food dishes associated with them; from enchiladas to Texas barbecue; alligator po’ boys to biscuits and gravy.

After pedaling through the Arizona desert, with its population of friendly and always-waving saguaro cacti, you’ll enter New Mexico, soon arriving at Silver City. This is the storied land of outlaws and renegades like Billy the Kid and Geronimo. Here you may choose to tack on the very hilly side trip to the ruins of Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, where you’ll garner a glimpse back in time at the homes and life ways of the Mogollon people, who lived in the region around the turn of the fourteenth century.

Continuing eastward, from your two-wheeled perch you’ll “see miles and miles of Texas,” as the popular western-swing song goes. More than a thousand miles of Texas, in fact. You can hear western swing and many other tuneful genres in Austin, the “live music capital of the world,” but only after pedaling along the low-traffic farm and ranch roads of the legendary Hill Country.

In tongue-twisting Louisiana towns like Opelousas and Bogalusa, you can sample the spicy tastes and sounds of Cajun culture. After that, it’s a short ride along the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast to Florida’s panhandle and northern forests. The frosting on the cake of your history-steeped tour is the route’s terminus in ancient St. Augustine, the oldest city in America. Here you’ll find more than enough sand beaches and fascinating historic attractions to keep you relaxed and/or busy for as long as you care to hang out.

It’s impossible to describe the sense of accomplishment one earns by moving across the entire North American continent self-propelled. To get an inkling of the power it can hold, you need only talk to someone who's done it, and study the distant look in their eyes as they reflect on the adventure. You’ll be privileged to wear that look after two months of bicycling on the Southern Tier.

For more detailed information, see Self Contained trip logistics.

READY TO GO?
You can sign up for the Southern Tier now. Go to our online sign-up.

EXTRAS
To learn more about the Southern Tier Route, visit our Southern Tier maps page.