Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-06-07
FROM THE PACIFIC 10 TRE
ATLANTIC ON A BICYCLE.
A Wheel Track Now Being Prepared With Chart for Point
ing Out the Straight Course.
THE TRIP CAN BE MADE QUICKLY IN FORTY DAYS.
Route Leads Through Twelve States Takes in the Great Lakes
And the Best Water Courses
PRAIRIES MAKE THE BEST RIDING IN THE WORLD.
Legislation to Be Asked Macadame the Connecting Places
Where Roads Break.
GETTING OYER THE ROCKIES AND ACROSS Big RIVERS
.PRAIRIES MAKE THE BEST RIDING IN THE WORLD.
Legislation to Be Asked Macadame the Connecting Places
Where Roads Break
GETTING OYER THE ROCKIES AND ACROSS BIG RIVERS.

State from which they were unwilling
~ absent.
The Illinois track lies far south OF
the railroads, for you are in State so
thickly populated that, to ride pleas
antly. you must seek the country. where
you have before sought the towns and
villages. The elearest way is by hoop
path from Rock Island to Chicago. You
touch Ottawa and Aurora, but as far as
possible you inquire your way along
the country roads. You find your path
very level and the roads we'll kept; and
when you reach Chicago you put up
your wheel for dozen Of the side trips
that are part Of the expedition. There
is a good wheel path north to Milwau-
kee. Ii skirts Lake Michigan and is
the most romantic jolt of the journey
if you choose to make it.
AT Milwaukee you can pocket your
pride ald your ambition, and slowing
away your wheel upon lake steamer
you can go across to Detroit, where the
best roads await you. You can now go
directly south again. and strike the trail
fifty miles beyond Chicago, and just so
much nearer the Atlantic coast toward
which you are aiming.
TO LAKE ERIE.
'You are now in Indiana, where there
are good roads along the railroad, and
these you follow across the State, and
into Ohio. AT Toledo you begin to
breathe the air of Lake Erie; and from
there to Cleveland. and on to Buffalo,
YOU have the satisfaction of wheeling
daily along a path that keeps the rail-
road in sight, yet lies along lake that
cools you by DAY and sings to you by
night
AT Buffalo you start to cut New York
State in two pieces. You go through it
at Rochester and Syracuse. and bring
up at Saratoga. From there you might
keep on your way across New Hamp-
shire and Vermont, to the Maine coast,
where Portland would be your nearest
point. But if you do this you must
cross the Green mountains of Vermont
and the White Mountains of New Hamp-
shire and run your risk of a rocky ap-
proaeh to Portland So the best way is
to find the railroad at Saratoga. and
start south for New York. 1t is less
than 200 miles now to the sea. and as the
roads are good, you should fetch UP in
New York City in four or five days.
That tours you from the Pacific to the
Atl9ntic.
Nov" said the cycling gentleman.
laying down the map, you see the path
is a feasible one. Personally ! do not
believe in the bicycle track l think
good roads are good enough for the
wheelman. and | oppose all legislation
to make macadamized or asphalt roads
for wheelmen. The trouble with these
is that they are never permanent. and
wheeling is too important matter to
consider in the light of something soon
TO pass away.
What am aiming at. and what do
think possible is bicycle path across
the country which shall be simply
good road. Each State can take care
of its own roads, and the result will be
one long stretch of good wheeling.
My aim is to get legislation through
to make the roads good first. And the
second to connect the different paths.
For example, there is one very fine
stretch of road in Indiana. Every
wheelman who goes through ii speaks
of it. But approaching this good stretch
and leading from it. is a very heavy.
rough piece of country. This could be
easily fixed, as there are only a few
miles Of ii. Now, with bicycle legisla-
ton we would get that attended to-,
ROAD QUESTION.
What has hampered us more than
ANYTHING in this cross-country project
are the wheeling enthusiasts. These
gentlemen insist upon bicycle paths and
so we get nothing. "A macadamized
bicycle path costs in a rocky locality
SIS. 900 per mile. Now take this same
locality and use the road that is already
In IL BY merely improving 1t and the
cost viii not be $4,000 You can make
a mile Of very bad road into very good
road for that sum. That is what [
mean by intelligent wheeling legisla-
ton
"The time TO take such trip is what
Is against IT, But people are not actu-
ally Obliged to 90 from the Golden Gate
10 New York Harbor in one trip. They
can meet each other half way, if it is
matter Of family meeting. or people on
both sides of the country can take trips
as they please.
"The time for the journey would be