Good day; Riders.

I am preparing for a ride next year that will take me from the West Coast, (Victoria, BC) to the Blue Ridge Mountain Range and back.
I've had little trouble using BaseCamp to get me to South Dakota as I have ridden a large majority of those roads and know what I'm dealing with.
My problem lies in trying to "route plan" from South Dakota to West Virginia where I want to start my exploration.
I have only 6 weeks to travel but I really want to stay off the Interstates if possible.
I've tried looking at a state by state layout but can't quite bring the puzzle together.
Would love to read of any tricks you might use when planning a long trip in a place where you never have been.

Thanks
G

 

my trick to planning a long trip is to not plan it. just go.

 

I'm sure that there are better ways, but what I do is start with a list of places I want to see based on
general knowledge, peoples' recommendations, etc. I then plot a default route using Google Maps and save
the result for reference.This is almost certainly NOT the route I'm going to take, but it is a framework.

I then take a rough cut at distances / ride times assuming an 8 hour max each day for "transitional" areas /
places that do not have direct significance to my ride and are just between me and where I want to go.
I'll block them in with overnight stays modifying the original route map and saving it as a different map.

At this point I go back to the areas I AM interested in and block out rides that look good on the map. For
someplace like the Black Hills, there are hundreds of posts about cool rides so that's not very difficult.

I now have a rough route plan with some idea of mileage, time and overnight points and I start fine-tuning
each section based on what highlights there may be, road types, time frames, etc. saving multiple versions
of the route map so if I f**k it up, I can just go back to the last version and start over again..

I did this for a 4,300 mile, 14 day trip I took this June that went from Albuquerque over the Million Dollar Highway
to Moab, UT to explore Arches National Park, then through Salt Lake City and Jackson Hole to reach
Grand Teton and Yellowstone where I spent a few days, rode the Beartooth and Chief Joseph highways
and saw most of the major tourist points in the parks.

I then made a run to Sheridan, WY and spent a few days riding that area hitting Devil's Tower and some
really great riding roads before heading south to return to Albuquerque.

As much as possible I used "Blue Highways", non-interstates, for my planning and I only had a few sections
where I was forced to use interstates because there were no realistic options.

If I had unlimited time and budget, I could just fake it a lot more, but there are often some really cool things that
will be near your route that you've never heard of and that you'll never know about unless you take the time to do
some research and planning.

 

To bring the puzzle together:

Go to Mapqest.
Put in your start and end points and let the computer route it.

Now you have the most efficient route across all the states.

Determine what you want to see, or the highways you wish to travel.

Put your cursor on the route, hold down the button and drag the route to what you want to see or to the highways you want to ride, release the button.

It will automatically reroute you.

Work your way across country doing that.

Print and enter into your GPS.

 

The best trip I have had was one with very few plans. I am a planner my wife is the opposite and like to just go. She convinced me to try it her way last May. It was awesome we picked a few places and things we wanted to do and a start and finish day that was it. We would get up in the morning and start going in the direction we wanted to go took whatever road looked interesting and allowed the best weather. It was an 11 day trip with 2 different places we wanted to go 1 North Carolina and the other New Orleans we ended up riding 4200 miles in those 11 days we stayed 2 days in NC 2 days in Fl and 2 days in Arkansas. I think next year we are doing the same but heading west then again we will just wait and see on the day we leave.

 

Go to www.touringdepot.com start reading, "tons" of good travel info there. I long distance ride with a "point and shoot" method. I watch the weather and head to my destination the best way, mostly off the Interstate. If I have to ride in the rain for hours, I prefer the "big road"

 

Nothing like good old fashion paper maps. Go to AAA become a member and get all the maps you need.

 

I do something very similar to this.

I use either MapQuest or Google. Enter my beginning point and the ultimate destination point, then let the application draw the route, which as said above is the most efficient route. I use this route only as a reference and almost never use any of it. I use it to divide the trip into days, using it to estimate days of 300-600 miles depending on the terrain and expected scenery/attractions.

I then, using the mapping software, enter a beginning and ending point for each day and let the software draw the efficient route. I then drag that route line off the Interstate/major highways to the ones that look more fun.

I ultimately end up with a route for each day that's interesting and hopefully takes me by places/attractions I've read/heard about.

Examples of some of these trips can be seen on my website. I live in the DFW area and one trip was to Glacier Nat'l Park. That trip was about 4500 miles, so you can see how it broke down into separate days.

Good luck. Just stay off the Interstates and it's hard to go wrong when you get into pretty country.

 

Unlike some here, I like my trips planned in advance. I don't like surprises on the road. Here's how I do it...

Let's say I want to ride from Phoenix to a place that's 2000 miles away. I know that I like to ride about 500 miles a day. So instead of looking at it as a 2000 mile ride, I think of it as 4 rides of 500 miles each. I start by finding a destination for day 1 that is about 500 miles from Phoenix. Then I research motel availability. I like Best Western motels, so I will look for a BW in that area. For this exercise, let's say that's Roswell, NM. I reserve a room online, then move on. For day 2, I start looking for a town that's about 500 miles from Roswell in the same direction I am heading. And so on, and so on.

I make a spreadsheet for each trip and each worksheet page contains the information for one day of travel. I roughly plan out fuel and meal stops as well.

 

G,

Other than what has already been said, the only advice I would give you is to plan for 300 miles/day. This may seem low but here are my reasons:

1. If not riding the interstates (going back roads and through small towns) you will not average even 60 MPH. 300 miles will be more than five hours of riding per day on AVERAGE.
2. Depending on what you want to do, there will be days you will ride 600 mile but there may be days you will want to stay in the same location and you will not ride any. You may ride many miles in that area but you will not ride any miles toward the completion of your trip.
3. We are the type of people that love to meet people, take pictures of the the sights we see and try the local eateries. 5 hours in the saddle seems to allow us to do that and not feel rushed. This is only my rule of thumb. YMMV

Have fun on your trip. I would love to take a 6 week trip. I am green with envy.