Route - plan and actual
Plan A
I first planned an Indian Country bike tour in 2012. The 1800 mile loop would have been a long and challenging camping tour. The northern half of the loop in Utah and Colorado was mostly on paved roads. The southern half of the route in Arizona and New Mexico has several unpaved back country segments.
The tour never happened because I was actually starting to camp less and less. In 2012 and 2013 I camped only half the nights during long tours. Mostly camping at the beginning of the tour and mostly motels at the end of the tour as exhaustion set in. In 2014 I quit carrying camping gear and began staying in motels every night. That put the ambitious Indian Country loop out of reach.
Plan B
In 2016 I planned and scheduled a shorter Albuquerque to Las Vegas Indian Country tour that stays at motels every night. The route is similar to the northern half of the 2012 fantasy loop.
Unfortunately the tour was cancelled at the last minute because the bike box was ruined by rain while driving to the Eugene airport.
Plan C
The original plan for this September 2017 tour was to do the planned tour I aborted in September 2016. Albuquerque to Las Vegas in 26 days, with many tourist stops. From the beginning I was concerned about going into the wind during the latter half of the tour. The route violates my informal rule that cyclists should always travel east (for a tailwind) when west of the Rocky mountains.
The first part of the route had a tailwind, trending north with a prevailing southwest wind. But after the train ride in Chama I had to go west into a strong wind. Soon afterwards I concluded it would be wise to do the western part of the route in the opposite direction to have tailwinds instead of headwinds.
I ended the tour in Durango, Colorado, determined to pedal the remainder of the route next year. The abbreviated tour was 11 days, Albuquerque to Durango. Only 414 miles. Indian Country part 1.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I think it's easier to visualize the route if you click the button in the upper right of the map and select Terrain view.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 2 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |