There's a new long way across America, and it's mostly dirt. The Adventure Cycling Association has marked its 50th birthday by opening the Golden Gravel Trail, a 6,124km bikepacking route running from Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River in Missouri to Port Orford, a small town on the Oregon coast. It crosses eight states — Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon — and about 70% of it is unpaved, making it the organisation's longest off-road cycling route. For scale: it runs 1,120km longer than the celebrated Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

The trail already has its first big proof of concept. Colorado couple Jules Stennes and Patch Doyle rode the entire thing in 73 days, covering roughly 80km and around 12 hours in the saddle daily. Both are seasoned ultra-endurance riders — they once finished Montana's 1,400km self-supported Big Sky Spectaculaire race in six days and nine hours — and their verdict on gravel touring across a continent: about 90% of it is mental. Their trip threw in thunderstorms, countless hills and the odd confrontational farm dog.

The route's profile is serious. Through Colorado, Utah and Idaho it threads along subranges of the Rockies, topping out at Cumberland Pass in Colorado at 3,668m — genuine high-altitude riding, not a rolling rail trail. And while the midwestern sections pass through settled farmland, the western stretches get properly remote. The Adventure Cycling Association recommends riders go fully self-supported, carrying two to three days of food through the most isolated stretches and up to a full day's water, especially in the arid high desert of eastern Oregon.

So who is this for? Not casual weekend cyclists — the combination of distance, elevation and resupply gaps demands bikepacking experience, solid navigation and a tolerance for long days. But that's precisely the point: the trail opens up vast swaths of the American interior that road cyclists blast past and drivers never see, from Kansas prairie to Rocky Mountain passes to Oregon's coast range. Anyone who has ridden the Great Divide or the Tour Divide and wants a fresh challenge now has a new line to draw on the map, and unlike race-format routes, this one is meant to be toured at your own pace. For bikepackers planning a 2025 or 2026 big trip, the Golden Gravel Trail is the most significant new option in North America this year.

ExplorersWeb reported the story first.