"Getting there isn't easy and that's the best part!"

February 19, 2012

The route is about set!  It's totaling 4,050 miles, 16 states, and 55 days!  We have ten days with 90 or more miles to pedal!  All a bit overwhelming!

This is how the planned route looks!!  After a three-day train ride to Oregon, we hope to arrive at Cape Lookout State Park where we'll camp on the Pacific Ocean.  Internet photos of Oregon look breathtaking, and I can't wait to see it!  On our first day of biking we can enjoy a leisurely ride along the Wilson River  with a short biking day of only 47 miles.  On day two, we will pedal into Portland.  After that we will bike along the stunning Columbia River Gorge, explored by Lewis and Clark and traversed by thousands of Oregon Trail pioneers.  The Columbia River is the second largest river in North America.  They say "The Gorge," home to the largest concentration of waterfalls in the world, is like no place on earth.  It is a spectacular river canyon – 85 miles long and 4,000 feet deep.  It  is the only sea-level route through the Cascade Mountains. The Gorge is also host to a unique diversity of plant and animal life, including over 800 species of wildflowers, 15 of which exist nowhere else on earth!

    As we pedal through the gorge, we will cross over the Columbia River and bike and camp on the Washington State side of the river for a day.  After returning to Oregon we turn South and head for the town of Joseph and Wallowa Lake State Park – images of both look like post cards!!

    We will bike along Hell's Canyon before crossing the Snake River into Idaho.  In Idaho we will begin our first major climb through the Bitterroot mountain range in the Northern Rockies by taking Route 12 up to Lolo Pass – 5233 ft above sea level!!

 Just over three weeks into our ride we should arrive at Yellowstone National Park and then onto the Grand Teton's National Park.  Hoping to see a herd of buffalo, a moose, a bear, elk, and big horn sheep as we pedal through these parks!

    Then as we cycle through the Jackson Hole Valley in Wyoming and cross the continental divide we climb Togwotee Pass at an elevation of 9658 feet!!!  OMG!! We'll then head for true cowboy land - the city of Dubois, Wyoming.  Wyoming is another state that I cannot wait to explore.  It's immense, wild, and beautiful!  They say that biking the Rockies are certainly challenging, but if you bike over the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming you have serious bragging rights!!  Can't say for sure that we'll do it!  Sure I want to, but we'll see how the Rockies go first.....Alternatively, we can take a southern route through Wyoming and avoid the mountains.

    After leaving the Wyoming desert, we'll bike into the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Hopefully, we'll be at Mount Rushmore for the 4th of July!  We will then head for the Bad Lands National Park.  We'll cross the Missouri River, North America's longest river as we leave South Dakota and arrive in Minnesota. 

    In Minnesota, we will spend several days biking back roads and sleeping at beautiful state parks.  We'll cross into Iowa and head for the Mississippi River.  We are hoping that we can cross the river into Wisconsin via the Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing.  If not, we'll head south along the Iowa side of the Mississippi.  Our backup plan is the ferry crossing in Casville or the bridge further south in Dubuque.  Next, we'll bike through the Midwest.  In Illinois we'll bike along the Hennepin Canal Parkway Trail and the Kankakee River Trail.  In Indiana, we hope to stay in Monroeville – a small town that they say is a cycling tourist's dream!!  They have a shelter house with laundry, kitchen, washrooms, showers, VCR w/movies, radio and the Whippy Dip ice cream stand a block away!  In Ohio, we hope to make time to ride all 17 roller coasters at Cedar Point Amusement Park (I really should have done all this when I was much younger!!)  We'll bike along the shores of Lake Erie and then head to Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Never knew that Ohio had a National Park!) 

    We bike a day along the Old Lincoln Highway, America's first transcontinental Highway, briefly biking through West Virginia.  Here we'll have to navigate the Allegheny mountains a bit before we make our way to the Montour trail and the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) near Pittsburgh.  We'll then bike the awesome GAP for two days.  We'll connect with the C&O canal trail in Maryland and then continue through PA.  Finally (hoping for August 1), we will find our way to Delaware  and to the Atlantic Ocean at Cape  Henlopen State Park!  I'm hoping for a HUGH welcome beach party, police escort, and band!!  

    With the route planned, we now need to concentrate on getting all our gear!  Only 104 days to go!! 

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This little character bike guy is adorable!  Ha!  I "stole" him from the eMail I received from BikeIowa!!