Devil's Advocate time... Unless you *really* like riding on the Interstate, one month to do all you plan to do is pretty aggressive. Charles Kuralt, an American journalist, once said, "Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything." He was 100% right. My suggestion, scale back your mileage goals. Plan to focus on a given area. The area can be pretty large and still give you plenty of time to get to/from Toronto via major highways. Doing the loop you have mapped would be an Iron Butt adventure. Doing back to back 500+ mile days will leave you tired and missing much of what makes a motorcycle trip fun, meeting folks and seeing daily life in a place I will probably never be again. I learned this the hard way. I'm right across the lake from Toronto in Rochester. PM me if you want any Western NY suggetions. Safe Joruneys...
thanks LE TRainer for your feedback :) I really do appreciate it and I agree with you. It's a heck of a long way but that's partly the reason to do it :) I'll be riding solo and, with luck, avoiding interstates. Can I do it? heh, no idea, I'll tell you in October :). BTW, if I were riding with someone else no way I'd even attempt this.
I didn't see this mentioned, so I'll toss it out there. Apologies if it's off topic. At least on the Western part of your route, the weather can vary a lot over the same day. In September, don't be surprised up in the mountains to see morning temps of 25F/-4C and possibly a snow squall or two if a weather front moves through. Later in the same afternoon the temps riding down on the plains or in the desert could still be getting up to 95F/35C (maybe higher across parts of Arizona and Nevada). In the mountains (out West anyway), rain showers seem to pop up out of nowhere after 2 p.m. and the there are some days when the wind on the plains can be pretty wicked. It's good to have some pretty flexible gear you can mix and match to handle the changes.
alzyck makes a good point... I didn't even get into that in my post but here's an experience I had last year: Mid September 2009 I took a ride out to New Mexico planning to go South to North on the Continental Divide Trail. I knew weather might become an issue so I planned to bail out to lower altitudes if it got nasty. Never made it out of Southern Colorado. Spent 2 nights in 14 deg F temps in a 25 deg bag. BBBRRRRR. After the second night I spent an entire day at Pagosa Springs thawing out. Lots of snow at higher elevations so I bailed on that plan and saw some more New Mexico. The northern part of your route might be perfect weather in the first week of September. It might also be really awe inspiring crappy. Have flexible plans and don't beat yourself up if you don't hit every place on that map.
heya all :) just doing a monthly bump :) I've added some more detail to my route (see first post) and have also added invidual maps for each of the 26 legs. By my reckoning I have abou 10 days of contingency so I'm pretty comfortable about the milage. What I'm after right now is feedback on the leg routes and some suggestions as to where to eat/drink and sleep (prefer to camp, but hotels no issue) at each of the stopping points. Thanks in advance, Cat
You're going to be seeing lots of Florida coastline already and South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia coastlines not very exciting trust me. Maybe cut up North through Georgia and Western North Carolina/Eastern Tennessee and run up the Appalachians?
Interesting :) my existing route certainly isn't set in stone and, tbh, I chose the coastal route out of ignorance. How would you route from Miami to NY if using the Appalachians? Jacksonville, Augustak, Knoxville and then NE to NYC or is there a sweeter way?
Jacksonville, Greenville SC (not NC there's two of them), Asheville, NC, Damascus VA, Roanoke, VA, Front Royal VA, then 81 up to Harrisburg PA before cutting east on the Turnpike to NYC. DEFINATELY AVOID I-95 NORTH going through NC VA MD NJ NY - its a rat race once you hit DC. Look west and head up I-81 if you have to use the slab. Don't speed anywhere in VA, they're dicks. Otherwise the Blue Ridge parkway is very nice and hard to get lost on, it'll take you all the way from Georgia to Front Royal VA, but not very quickly. You can always jump off and grab 81 if you're behind and trying to make up time.
thanks :) I've re-routed and come up with the proposal below...If you can find some time to check it out, I'd appreciate it :) Leg 22 - Miami to Jesup (LINK to route) (754km/ Leg 23 - Jesup to Ashville (LINK to route) 544km/ Leg 24 - Ashville to Front Royale (LINK to route) 759km/ Leg 25 - Front Royale to New York City (LINK to route) 534km/
Thumbs UP! I like this route much better, and remember you can always jump on 81 at any time to cut things shorter if you're behind on time. Avoiding DC and Baltimore is a good idea, there is pretty nasty traffic if you don't time it right and the roads aren't very great anyway.
thanks man, always good to get a route validation from a local :) and woot woot! 7 weeks ish till D-Day :)
I've only been east of Denver as a kid, but the west route looks pretty good. The only place I would change is south out of Boise. Take the road from Mt Home to Eureka NV then hwy 50 west to Reno. A much nicer ride. Mt Home is less than 50 mi from Boise. Most all of these roads qualify as the long lonely road, but some are interesting because of terrain or small town. Mt Home to Eureka is a good one. 95, South of Boise, and I-80 to Reno are HOT!!! and BORING!!! Unless you like akaline desert. Take the north route, you have marked, thru south Idaho. 84 is an abysmal interstate thru ID and UT. Remember Canyon de Chelly, when you get to 4-corners area.
thanks again :) I've made the changes I think you suggested (LINK). Now i'm pretty much heading south from Boise to Eureka (cool name btw) and then headed west (young man...) to San Fran. As for Canyon de Chelly..I didn't even know about that and it seems a much nice route to take (from looking at the map) so I've rerouted (LINK). Gotta love the internet and the kindness of strangers. Thanks again! :)
You can't do it all in one trip. Hopefully you'll be back again sometime to fill in the gaps. I'd recommend a set of Metzeler ME880s for your bike. They'll probably last the whole trip. You may want to consider a bit of a loop into Southwestern Colorado between Monument Valley and Santa Fe. There is some mighty fine scenery and riding in that little corner of the USA. Map Link You might want to break this 560 mile section into two days, overnighting in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It's epic!
how would you route to Punxsutawny from NYC but via a bit of New England? It's a bloody shame, btw, that Maine is a billion miles away, I'd love to pop in for tea with Stephen King :)
hmm, that could be a hard go up to New England and then off to PA. you'll miss a bit of nice riding, but maybe next time? if you're into it though, you could divert slightly north to Bethel NY on your way west. That's the location of the Woodstock Concert.... have a great rip, and if your plans change for the north east, let me know, the local guys here will stand you a few pints!
Your St Petersburg to Miami via Key West ride is a LONG ride, unless you plan to get to Key West and turn right around and go back. It's about a 6-hour roundtrip from Miami Beach to Key West and back by itself. If you intend to have lunch in Key West, then you're going to have to leave St Petersburg REAL early! Unless you really want to sleep over in Miami, you could think about grabbing one of the nice campgrounds along the Keys.....there are quite a few places to stay over. Some of them have glass bottom boat trips over the reefs and snorkeling. Regarding the credit cards, I've never experienced problems as long as I remembered to call the bank first, and have them CONFIRM that they have noted your international travels on your account, to avoid the presumed theft lockdown on the account. Would be wise to have 2 or 3 cards just in case. Visa and Mastercard will get you just about everywhere. Don;t even think about doing traveler's checks (cheques)...they are NOT well received in the USA. If you're planning on camping in bear country, you could consider getting some bear pepper spray. I always feel more comfortable having something with me for those nights where you know there can be some activity. Don't keep any food/fruit or strong cosmetics in your tent.