Touring - 4,000 mile route

Any thoughts on this route? http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/across

Phoenix to Death Valley ... Carson City and the lake, Up to the crater lake, cross Idaho and find all the stop signs, hit Yellowstone and wander up to a glacier, come back through Spokane WA, and head to Portland, then cruise the coast down to LA> bus back

I figure start smaller and go bigger. I have options to take the bus back home from anywhere right :).

I can only say that the Pacific coast route is great, a real classic. Just make sure your bike has very low gearing.

And yes, you can quite likely catch a bus home at any time.

Depends -

Depends on when you plan to do it.
As it stands, there are some lousy sections - like US 97 and I-84.
What's more - the "road" on the Nev/Cal border doesn't exist.
Plus the "route" from Glacier NP isn't detailed.

Be forewarned that roads thru the passes at Yosemite, Lassen, and Crater Lake
Do not open until late May/June, mid June, and late June, respectively.

Death valley, yosemite, lake tahoe, lassen , and crater lake all on your route? That would be amazing. I spent a few days in lassen last month and it was spectacular. I am not really sure how the timing would work because as stated above the passes through some of those areas are closed until summer, and death valley could be too hot to tie it all together at that time of year.

Sorry can't help you with most of the route but I do agree with Bacciagalupe. The Pacific Coast is unbelievable. Some of the other areas you have planned, aren't too shabby either.

If it were me, I would end the trip in SLO. There is little need to make the trek all the way to LA. In fact since it is mostly freeway past that point, it is not a whole lot of fun.

I've heard Adventure Cycling (ACA) might be working on a route thru Cal on the eastern side of the state like your route shows, I hope you ride this so we can here all about it.

Keep an eye on crater lake conditions as you do your tour. The road to the park is kept open year round, but the park loop itself has a very short open season.

Some good thoughts going on here.

SLO Yea I was thinking San Fran when coming back.

Mt passes I usually have to wait till I get there. I am starting to plan for a summer starting in May, so it will get more detailed. I also am looking alternate routes so I don't have to do the whole death valley etc.

I would go up through Utah and Colorado, but I already did that once. Nevada is rather remote and desert ( I live in a desert). Yea this looks like a great route some windy twist and turns.

I heard all the rave about the coast going south so I wanted to do that. But there is a lot of fun things to do on the eastern side to, looks a little more remote.

Yea some people picked up the Parks which is how I plan my original route. I will tweak it with bicycle maps, and services.
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/trip2

I threw that together as reference to what I did last trip.

That's quite the haul. You may want to look at taking the Norther Tier bike route across from Kalispell to the Pacific coast route. Check out the maps here: http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/

I'm only getting a very small portion of the route on bikely; is there a new link?

fixed

Looks pretty cool!

I just finished some of your route (the Oregon part) so, some suggestions...

Highway 395 to Burns is very desolate. There is a stretch of about 100 miles without food, and about 70 without water. It is amazingly beautiful and quiet though (if you like the desert). Bring LOTS of sunscreen for this section...there is desert, and then there is desert at 4,000 feet. I looked over the route, and I don't think there is a way to do it, but the ride from Burns-John Day-Highway 19 was the most breathtaking riding I've ever done.

There really isn't much along the Columbia River Gorge that is worth riding on I84 for before Rufus (where you can take a frontage road for a while, but then you have to get back on for about 8 miles to The Dalles). Also, the winds can be absolutely brutal and relentless. If I re-did it I would have swung up into Washington and taken lower traffic roads until The Dalles (where Historic Highway 30 starts).

There is a very cool road called Nestucca River Road (?) with a route that starts near Hillsboro outside of Portland, but that would dump you at further North on the coast than your plan. .

After riding the 101 in Oregon I described it as, "beautiful, but equally as treacherous," and I still think that. I'm not sure if I would do it again. Many sections were mostly missed while concentrating on keeping the bike on the road while cars, rain, and high winds made it difficult to do so. Most sections had no shoulder.

Turning inland at Reedsport on Highway 38 to Sutherlin (as opposed to turning at Coos Bay) will give you some spectacular scenery and lower traffic roads, along with a more gradual climb, without missing much scenery, or at least nothing that you hadn't experienced on the earlier part of the coast. There are not as many services this way though.

Crater Lake can be very cold, snowy, and windy, but probably worth it (it was for me).

Cheers!

Thanks just wanted I needed. I will check them out.

I modified some of that route. This is a work progress
Havasu State Park
Moabi Regional Park
Lake Meed Recerational
Mojave National Presersve
Tecopa Hot springs Park
Death Valley
Hendreson Park
Humbult Toiyabe NF
Mono Lake Tufa reserve
Yosemite NP
Eldorado NF
Lake Tahoe
LT Nevada state park
Plumas Eureka state park CA
Lassen NF
Lassen Volcanic NP
Ahjumawl lava springs State park




Goose Lake Rec OR
Chandler State park OR
Craters of the Moon National Moument.
Grand Teton National Park
Yellow stone NP
Sluice Boxes State park MT
Glacier NP


Hells Cannyon rec area
Becon Rock SP Or
Devils Lake SP
Fogarty creek SP OR
Beverly beach SP OR
Ona Beach SP OR
Suslaw NF




Driftwood wilderness
Rock Creek wilderness
Delvis elbow SP OR
Umpqua light sp OR


Crater Lake
Rough and ready creek SP or
Jedadiah smith Redwoods SP
Del norte coast Redwoods SP
Parine creeek redwoods SP
Redwood NP
Humboldt Redwoods SP
Russian Gultch SP
Narrow River Redwoods SP
Sonoma Coast State beach

Here are some parks I found on google. I make several swipes at this so it will change slightly to moderate. sorry for the cut off.

You're leaving out Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier National Park, and the ride over the North Cascades National Park....you could pick up Olympic National Park while you are at it....some epic scenery.