Last week I posted about how I was in the planning stage of the "Getting Pizza." trip. I'm not a 100% sure of why I keep referring to this trip as "Getting Pizza." but I'm going to keep doing it. This is going to be where I am at and how I start planning a trip that will take us 3500 miles, over 3 mountain ranges, during the hottest part of the summer in the Midwest. Lots of things to consider and think about. I'm not 100% sure if we will be able to get this all done, I might have bit off a little more than I can chew on this one.
I have been planning trips like this for a little bit now. I think it was my first bikepacking experience that I planned something from start to finish. No plans were made for me and I didn't go by a certain route. I am not sure what I was thinking at the time, but it worked out. I had a blast and it would be the future for me! More on this later.
I usually start building my trips by starting thinking about where I want to go and what I want to see. I was helping a customer out at a bike shop I used to work at, and we got talking about where she was most excited to head out to see. Her eyes lit up when I asked that question, almost like she had
been waiting all day to tell someone about it. She was going to head up north and see the Tulips fields in Skagit County, and they were in full bloom. She was stoked to say the least. She inspired me to take a train with a fully loaded bike, ride through the valleys, see all the pretty flowers, then take a ferry and sleep on an island for a couple of days. Could you ask for more?
Fast forward to today. since I already know where I want to go, I start to think about getting there. Since I would love to have our puppers with us, we plan on doing the ol' midwestern thing and drive. Loz and I have spent plenty of time in the car alone and although it gets a little spicy, it's always a blast. I started to map our way using a variety of websites, but the first is always a quick Google Maps search to see if a trip is even possible with the given time frame.
I will usually start with the furthest place that we have to visit. With this trip, it will be do visit my best friend who lives in Watertown, SD. When ever I am in the area, I make a point to stop by, which isn't as often as I would like. It also helps that he works for a car dealership and will be able to help me change the oil and make sure Stacey is running at tip top shape.
Looking that this map and the time and miles that we will need to cover to be able to do this, we should be able to add a couple of stops along the way. My train of thought on this is if you are in the area, you stop because who knows when you will be back.
We will be adding Glacier National Park in Montana and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota before heading to Aberdeen, From there we will head to Watertown.,SD. My hope is that we will be able to take gravel roads from Watertown all the way to Badlands NP.
After Badlands NP, we will be heading into to Black Hill NF and Custer State Park. We will take a nice drive through the forest while making our way to Spearfish. From there it's just a straight shot to Tacoma on I90.
***UPDATE***
I am hopefully going to be able to work on the Gear Selection and a page about Stacey soon! It's a very time consuming process since our camping kit is ever changing depending on the season. Also, there is camping to be had.
Comments