In the final phases of planning for my 2nd cross country ride. This year we will be riding from Portland, OR to home in CT. Our plan is to hit as many national parks as as we can. Down to 2 riders from our last year's 4 rider cross country group. Our bikes ship west Monday followed by us later this month. The plan is 17 days, meeting up with another group of friends in TN to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway north on the way back home. Not sure if this link will work but we have a rough route as we are trying to keep things open to change if we see something we want to do along the way.

2016 Trip planning Map:
https://a.rever.co/embed/rides/82575

Last years trip hit Crater Lake, everything in and around the black hills of SD and north to the great lakes. With that out of the way we are looking to go south out of Montana to the Grand Canyon and east from there. We will be camping in the National Parks and anywhere else the scenery is nice. Any thought on things that we missed? There is so much to see in the country trying to make the best of the 17 days!!

-Jason

 

Jason - Nice looking route! You've included a lot of my favorite places and national parks. Hope you enjoy the ride.

 

Thanks! I can't wait, the next two weeks at work will be long ones with my bike away A bunch of bucket list parks / roads are planned this year. Working on final prep and packing of the bikes now, I learned a TON from last year's cross country trip, and yep I way over packed last year!!! This year I have tweaked the camping gear and cut way back on the clothing.

I should have tons of pics when I get back, along with a few along the way hopefully.

-Jason

 

And my bike is officially on vacation... It's going to be a long few weeks until I fly west!

 

Thats one reason I like owning two bikes!

 

Same, I'll have to rough it with my Sportster for a few weeks

-Jason

 

Bike arrived a bit early, it's going to be a long week week and a half of work now..... The live tracking from Federal Motorcycle Transport is nice but I may have worn out my F5 key hitting refresh as it was going across the country lol!

 

Ah the anticipation of an adventure. How sweet it is!

 

Jason

Good luck on your trip. We are living in Danbury right now, and moving to Killington VT to start retirement on July 1st, and we have a 46 day cross country trip from Vermont to SF and back starting on July 7th, so I know your anticipation. Each day at work feels like a month. We are hitting several of the National Parks also

Badlands
Mt Rushmore
Wind Caves
Devils Monument
Yellowstone
Tetons
Yosemite
Bryce
Mesa

Safe Travels

Larry

 

I have extremely find memories of Killington. That is where I learned to ski in the 1960's. I use to go there all the time and stay at a local b and b. The beauty of that area is beyond description, and the people are super fine, too. Let me know if you have any questions about the SF Bay area and the northern California part of your ride.