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ACTIVITIES
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Top Ten Epic Bike Rides
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Ethan Gelber
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Coast-to-Coast USA
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Big Sky country like no other
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There are only a few places in the world where a single country spans an entire continent as the United States does North America. No matter where you turn, you are still two feet in the same land, two eyes peering out at the notion of a nation indivisible. And what better way is there to appreciate America's mountains and prairies, movements and people than on a coast-to-coast bike trip? The cyclists of the Big Ride Across America learned this firsthand. Powering their own passages over the Continental Divide brought home the intensity of the struggle of previous centuries' westward-bound settlers. Endless hours under a merciless prairie sun beat into meaning the labor that has made America America. And at the speed of a turning wheel, they couldn't help but meet the people — an amazing variety of people — that define American character. Contact America's foremost bicycle touring organization — the American Cycling Association (see their Web site) — and plan to tackle the 4,250-mile TransAmerican Trail, the 4,315-mile Northern Tier, or the 3,180-mile Southern Tier. You will never be the same when you are done.
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Great Divide Route
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On the Great Divide Trail
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Some people never take the low, paved road. Especially not if there is a remote, mountain-ridge, single-track trail that takes twice the amount of time, requires three times the expense of energy, and guarantees four times as much fun. So it is with the Great Divide Mountain Biking Route, a 2,470-mile off-road adventure that runs along or near America's craggy cleft dividing the watersheds east and west. From Roosville, Montana, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, this beast climbs a total of 200,000 feet and passes through the natural, frontier-land America that is steadily disappearing. It's a challenging, equipment-battering skirmish with the elements that has been described as nothing short of spiritual. Sounds like reason enough to get away.
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Pacific Coast Highway
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A sunrise seen from the Pacific Coast Highway
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We're not just talking about California's Highway 1, and Oregon and Washington's Route 101. Even adding the barren stretches of the Alaskan highways and the long road through British Columbia wouldn't complete the picture. We're talking about the whole Pacific Coast Highway running from Alaska down through the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the length of the Andes to its terminus at Puerto Montt in southern Chile. With Panama's impassable Dariin gap the only built-in obstacle to tip-to-tip cycling, Alaska-to-Tierra del Fuego devotees will want to tackle the tough, southern Chilean back roads and Argentinian Patagonian pampa to claim full coastal credit. That said, stopping short does nothing to diminish the impact of this odyssey.
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[from Outside magazine]
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