HI,
I am a newcomer to touring so learning a lot from this forum and loving it.
I'm from England and for my first tour it was my plan to break myself in riding the west coast from North to South.
However, for a couple of reasons my plans have now completely changed.
I'm going to fly into either Los Angeles or San Francisco on the 1st of May 2013. I'm then giving myself approximately 3 and a half months to get to the east coast, namely Portland in Maine, arriving sometime in August.
There are a few choice places that I really want to see along the way. Yosemite, Sequoia, The Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls
I will be riding Solo the whole route and hopefully meeting family from the UK when arriving in Maine (I can see them all waving me in now)
Can't wait to make some friends along the way too.
My big questions are regarding climate and route.
Given my dates of travel, do you think I will run into any areas that it's not wise to tackle? For example death Valley!
Can I get to the grand canyon from Sequoia through May/June without running through inhospitable desert?
Should I bus or train through this area? I would rather ride the whole distance.
Can anyone suggest a good route to stick to bearing in mind I don't want to zig zag too much?
In my initial research in google maps I have typed in San Fran, Yosemite, Sequoia, grand canyon, and then Maine.
From the comfort of my home in the UK it looks like a great route that is not too back and forth.. but is this a bad idea? Can anyone fill in the gaps and tell me what I simply can't miss or must avoid!
Looking forward to hearing your learned thoughts
Ben