Long Distance bike riding across Louisiana can be a fun proposition and quite challenging. Depending on what time of the year you go there can also be a lot of pesky Mosquitoes too. One route is to take Shreveport to Vicksburg, Mississippi and as a crow flies it is about 175 miles, but remember we are riding a bike. The I-20 is about 178 miles and a straight shot, but remember we are not a car and cannot ride on the Freeway, nor would you want to. Another route would be to Orange, TX at the border to Waveland, Mississippi and that is about 265 plus the extra 15 miles into Mississippi on Hwy 90 or you could choose a pick-up like the big rest stop and vistors center just over the border. For all practical purposed 265 is a lot of miles and could easily take you into nightfall when the bugs are biting at their worst, so lets re-look at the Northern Route to cross the state and consider the 178 plus journey shall we? We will start out at one the River Casino or I actually recommend the Science Port Discovery Center down the street from the Expo Center and then go North one mile to Texas Ave, which is also the 79/80 Hwy. This road is well maintained and will take us right out of Shreveport safely and across the 220 Loop without incident about 5 miles and we are warmed up for our ride and out of town riding thru beautiful Louisiana. Then it is an easy ride to Minden, LA about another 21.5 miles or so and then Hwy 79 cuts off and goes to Claireborne, LA another nice ride to a place with a lot of nice folks, but we will remain on the Hwy 80 at this point. After about 8 miles the Highway dips under I-20 for about another 28 miles into Ruston, LA. This rounds out 61 miles for a good breaking point and then we continue on Hwy 80 to Monroe, LA for 20 miles and then staying on Hwy 80 we travel once again out of town to Tallulah driving thru the towns of Rayville, Holy Ridge, Dunn and Delhi. This is about 60 miles. Next we take a quick breather and then a nice 20-mile ride into Mississippi cross over the Mississippi River Bridge into Vicksburg. Excellent work! On this leg of our journey biking across America. |
