Hi John

Thanks. I know I'll be close to Devil's Tower. Whether I visit will be a function of how I feel at the moment. I was there in 1983 and so would not be devastated if I missed it this time through.

My Black Hills route included the Mickelson Trail but that got set aside when I replanned to avoid Sturgis by the widest possible margin.

I've seen mention of the Cowboy Trail in the Sand Hills journals I've read but am not recalling seeing anyone writing it up. I'll search for that explicitly and see what I find.

I hope not to be in the market for a touring bike for quite a while to come. Maybe never again, in fact?

I'd enjoy reconnecting if you're open to it, regardless of whether bikes change hands.

You probably don't need this info but just in case, you'll be going somewhat close to Devil's Tower in eastern MT. (Think Close Encounters of the Third Kind.) You could hook up with the Michelson Trail in SD (it's supposed to be awesome. Then in Nebraska, the Cowboy Trail runs west to east.

I see you've already reserved your places in Yellowstone. We haven't and I fear we're going to get stuck. (I have an alternate route through Tetons if we get stuck.)

I'll keep my eye out for you on your BF. Mine is very similar (even the color). If yours breaks, you can buy mine for a very nice price. (I rarely ride it.)

Thanks George.

It's not my intent to live the solitary life of a hermit on this trip. I expect serendipitous matchups, at least for the time when I'm on one or another of the ACA routes, and being naturally more gregarious than otherwise I'm perfectly open to them. They have the virtue of carrying no commitment more binding than "See you in camp this evening".

But equally I want to be free to wake up, say "Nope, not today." and not feel like I have to account for that to anyone else. My schedule will be decidedly elastic, which is one of the virtues of having home as my ultimate destination. There is no prepaid airline ticket looming to drive me to finish by X date, nor will I have to figure out how to spend Y number of unanticipated free days prior to a flight.

Thanks George. I'm planning to succeed.

30 years ago, maybe more, a friend of mine set off to do the TransAm. After something like 26 days he abandoned, because he had been wet and cold and miserable for about 23 of those days and decided he'd had enough fun. It didn't help that he was aware that people as little as an hour or two ahead of him on the road, and perhaps those a little behind him, were not getting rained on to nearly the same extent.

Academically yes but never in practice. After grad school I got a job that led me into the IT field, which was where I spent the next 34 years.

This got my attention! Are you a fellow geologist?

Other tourists I have met seemed to all agree that you will have at least one day on any tour when you question whether you should be doing this. I had one down day on my Trans Am ride in 2015 where I experienced this, but I pushed through it and was fine afterwards. Interestingly, on my northern tier ride last year I had no down days at all even though I experienced a lot of adversity. You may experience some self-doubt at some point along your adventure, but I’m sure you will quickly get over it. The fact that you are even thinking about it in advance tells me that you will be just fine.

I think your plan to start alone is a good one. Based on my experience on ACA routes ACA routes you will almost certainly meet other people. And you may find that your pace matches up with someone else’s for a while. I have experience starting alone and starting with others, and I really think that starting alone is the best approach for you. Best of luck

Bret!

I'm hoping to have a MUCH better experience with the weather than you did, 30 (?? can it really have been that long ago?) years ago.

Riding in the rain is definitely NOT a part of my "ideal riding conditions" scenario, but I'm prepared to cope with it- up to a point. But yes, coasting for an entire day, or spinning easy, is what I'm built to do.

Day 7/5: Laundramat in Dayville, nothing better than warm and dry after a long day in the rain. Then the next day coasting for hours down the John Day Canyon without touching the brakes. And the Sun came out. Best day cycling ever.

Wow! And you even packed the kitchen sink! Nice video :)

Hi Dana-

Yesterday I made and posted a 20 second time lapse video of what goes in the "kitchen" and how it gets packed.

I anticipate that for the days where I don't camp, or where I take meals out, I may not disturb this pannier at all. But there will be plenty of days where I need to cook dinner and/or "breakfast" (probably just instant oatmeal and coffee) so I'll have to break out the gear for that.

Steve said: "Our answer to that is a combination of go slow, and desperation. Go slow is what you do if you don't have the stamina to go fast, and desperation is what you use when having gone slow it looks like you are not going to get there. After about three weeks on the road, these techniques result in usually being able to get somewhere!"

You can bet that I'll be going slowly...

Out of curiosity (plus a modicum of paranoia) I've been reading journals of riders going west-to-east across some of the longer / higher / steeper passes and riding days in my itinerary. It pleases me to report that the day I most feared - 88 miles between Kooskia and Lochsa Lodge, all upstream and without services along the way - is not the fearsome beast I had been imagining, or at least not quite.

Among other things, I've learned that there is a USFS campground just about at the halfway mark. That means several things: a) I do not have to try to carry 88 miles' worth of water when I set out. I can refill at the campground. b) if push came to shove and desperation were a factor, I could likely stay there overnight and finish the trip to Lochsa Lodge the following day. Doing so, I'd have to forfeit (or reschedule, if possible) one of the two nights of reservations I have at the USFS Powell campground, and possibly give up the rest day in between, but that's a whole lot less dire than feeling like I *have no option* but to overtax myself to finish the long day.

Also, although it's upstream all the way, the grade is reportedly a very steady one percent. Every journal I've run across so far says that yes, it's a bit of a labor but really nothing to worry oneself over.

Definitely a win. I’ve had days like that. As frustrating as it is, I’ve told myself that the work (replacing tubes, adjusting handlebar paraphernalia) would have to have been done anyway. Kudos to you for hanging in there. You’re tougher than me. At that temperature I’m generally cowering in the house!

Kelly said: "Thank you for bringing us along on your journey. At least someone finds it fun!"

I hope you are enjoying the journal.

My plan for that ride was to do a lap on the Millenium Trail, a 10.5 mile loop around town. But I never even got onto the trail. Oh well, that can happen some other day. Today, however, would not be a good one: the shaded portions of the trail are still snow-covered after we got a small dusting last Friday. One thing I don't / WON'T do is ride in snowy / icy conditions.