Route

Alright, so a little about the route we'll follow. We'll be riding most of our way along one of the classic transam routes mapped by Adventure Cycling. That means we'll stick mostly to secondary and back roads, we'll ride through many national forest areas and availability of services, food, camping and other lodging is pretty much laid out in front of us. We'll follow their route across Oregon, across Idaho, into Montana where we'll go through Missoula and then down through the Bitterroot Valley to Yellowstone National Park. We've wanted to ride through the Bitterroot since 2000 when we were scheduled to ride there with Cycle Montana and much of the area was on fire. Rode up and around Flathead Lake instead, watching ash fall like snow on our tents. Now we'll have our chance. Our daughter Leah will join us for this Montana section.
After Yellowstone, we'll leave the standard route for a while and cross Wyoming towards Devils Tower in the North East corner of the state. From there we'll head into South Dakota and ride the Black Hills and parts of the Badlands. These choices were made in part to see these pieces of special land and landscapes and also to visit some sites with Lakota and other Native American significance.
After South Dakota, we'll work our way down to Iowa and cross Iowa to Fairfield where we have some history and some friends that we would like to see. Iowa down to Missouri (in and out of Illinois), into Kentucky and though Virginia to the Atlantic along a standard transam route. Parts of South Dakota into Iowa will be on the Adventure Cycle Lewis & Clark route and the Iowa to Kentucky will be on their Great Rivers route.
We're thankful (in advance) for this system of maps and also to many people who have previously blogged their own similar trips. The availability of riders diaries full of camping and eating tips as well as journals of daily experiences, good and bad, is a huge advantage and lets us feel somewhat prepared for what is in many ways a sort of daunting departure. Nothing like Lewis & Clark of course, but compared to our regular daily routine, this is radical. We're excited, a little nervous and getting more ready by the day.
More soon on equipment and other prep.
Michael