Making plans

The big picture

The first days

The first hours

More adventuresome riders might start in Seattle and ride through Glacier National Park and over the Logan Pass, up there by the Canadian border. But, at 60, with ailments, I've tried to plot what may be an "easier" route, which I think will not be that easy. The Rockies and Tetons will stretch me, although these great maps give altitude profiles, and for the most part they try to ease you through the valleys -- not that I won't struggle.

Those more adventuresome riders often wind up in Maine, several hundred if not a thousand miles farther, and I don't feel the need to see Maine, as much as I'd like to give Susan Collins a piece of my mind.

After Astoria, the starting point, there's supposed to be a pretty good tailwind along the Columbia River, a little gift for your first day out, and I will take it.

Here's a little outline of cities along the route:

From Astoria Oregon to Clarkston WA to:

* Missoula, MT 

* Great Falls MT 

* Dickinson ND 

* Fargo ND

* Walker MN

* Stillwater MN 

* across Wisconsin to Milwaukee, where I'll spend a few days, since the lodging is free (if you don't     count the condo fee)

* ferry across to Muskegon 

* across Michigan to Detroit 

* into Ontario (remember the passport!) 

* cross the border again to New York

* Erie Canal to the Hudson 

* across the Washington Bridge to NYC.


Still aiming for a late May departure.