My brother and I are talking about starting some small expedition trips that will develop into longer trips on dual sports. The first of these trips will be using my jeep in order to build experience and not have to wait until we can both afford the bikes we want. I have done a lot of searching with minimal success on this. Everything shows motorcycles or UTV's.

I live in northern VA he is in South FL so the thought is for him to fly up and we start from here.

Has anyone here done any trips on the TAT in their expedition vehicles specifically the eastern portion?

Is this trail worth planning something like a weeks trip if not any suggestions?

Are there map sources other than www.transamtrail.com?

Also has the trail been extended all the way to the Atlantic?

tons of info on the TAT over on advrider. mostly bike knowledge, but tons of infocom

I'm hoping to hit a portion of it next month in my jeep. I was told a small jeep could do a good portion of it.

I've ridden it from NM to OR, the east side looks flat and boring to me. I heard that Sam is working on changing the TN section as what he put into the route originally has been paved since.

I went back and did the Nevada section again last year. Now I want to go back to Moab and start there since Black Dragon Wash got torn to hell recently, it was too easy last time.

That would be great if he updates the Tennessee section. I talked to a friend who is a forest ranger just outside of DC about joining us on some trips that way there is another truck. He knows of some other trails through the Appalachians which might be a little more challenging. I was reading some of the trips on expedition portal describing George Washington National Forest which has more trails than I knew of so with his connections we may be able to find some trips through there at least to get started.

http://www.transamtrail.com/

http://www.transamtrail.com/

As I said in the first post I have been all through that site and was looking for more information from other sources.

I live in southern Va, but a trip to GW national forest is no big deal. What have you found for cool trails? I have been up shoe creek, but nothing else.

As I said in the first post I have been all through that site and was looking for more information from other sources.

Then try contacting the person on that site. I'm sure he has more answers then you have time to listen to.

I emailed Sam about it a couple of years ago, he said you could run the trail from east coast to Colorado in a truck , some portions west of the rockies were single track.

I have done the trail from tenn to ark/miss boarder on a Ural sidecar rig with my 16 yr old son. Don't want to discourage you but not much dirt roads in tenn and by the time we reached miss. boarder my son was ready to go home. He said he had seen enough back roads and trees. I was also a little disappointed, we kept cris crossing the same state routes. We could of easily seen the same scenery from the state rt. just to say you traveled dirt roads across the USA was not our thing. I bought all the maps with intentions of doing the entire trail but my son was not so enthusiastic. He at least let me get to colorado. Made it to Trinidad. If your from the east then you may want to consider going straight to Colorado but that has to be done on bikes on certain sections. A GPS or good maps can get you around those. PM me if you would like to talk over the phone about the trail, I have more insight. We were gone for two weeks.

Thanks for the info, I have heard that the east side isn’t as exciting but no one with firsthand experience has described it.

I am jealous of the Ural I have wanted one forever hopefully I will pick one up at some point. Unfortunately my fiancé doesn’t like the thought of riding in the sidecar, I told her that was just for the dog and she can ride on the back but I am not sure that will help convince her it's a good idea. :flipoff2:

The TN section has now been rerouted, it shares nothing with the origional route. It now starts in Tellico Plains and has lots of gravel and dirt.
98% of the TAT can be done in a 4x4 with a good set of MT's and a winch just in case.

My best friend and I have been talking about doing this trail for years when we get a chance. Got any pics from these trips?

My best friend and I have been talking about doing this trail for years when we get a chance. Got any pics from these trips?

Yeah, tons...

http://cdalejef.smugmug.com/Travel/Trans-America-Trail/3228351_5Vdpfv#!i=178371751&k=wf94g

Thanks for the pics! We plan to take trucks/jeeps whenever we go, but waiting until we get all the bugs worked out and vacation time built up. How long did the trip take?

To do the entire trip will take 3-4 weeks in a 4x4.

Thanks for the info. What all states did you go through?

Tn ms ar ok nm co ut nv ca or

Man I'm jealous that you got to do the whole thing! Whenever we both get ready we may start out small by just doing TN, but I know that once I go that far I'll want to do the whole thing!

A short vid
Trans American Trail Mississippi - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Y7enRrBtU&feature=plcp&context=C417120bVDvjVQa1PpcFNZ_2l9awLCxM6dM39eYGUh bD0MmmDJMFs%3D)
and another:
Trans America Trail Oklahoma - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4IKhUP4w_0&feature=channel)
one more:
Trans American Trail Tennessee - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy-kph5sMNQ&feature=plcp&context=C4ab8629VDvjVQa1PpcFNZ_2l9awLCxKs8mFrnfLso Hs-DiXcH4po%3D)