This is a pre-ride entry from Team A to figure out how to do a cycleblaze entry.

I did some solo cross country bike trips in my younger days with minimal planning. I would not plan my route in advance, just wake up, follow roads that seemed to be going more or less towards my destination, and look for a place to stop for the night when it was close to getting dark.

It's safe to say that Team S, with their meticulous preparation, is on the opposite end of the planning spectrum. Every road and every turn of the route for each and every day is planned out in advance. The lodging for every night is planned and reserved in advance. There are some definite advantages to this approach - we take maximum advantage of bike trails, we avoid congested areas, and we seldom end up on unpaved roads or roads under construction.

My role in the preparation is minimal. I act as an extra pair of eyes to proof read the routes to make sure there are no unpleasant surprises. Google Maps street-view is invaluable for spotting unpaved roads. These seem to be especially common in Ontario.

I was amused to discover that in the area of the Mississippi River headwaters, Google has sent a mapping crew down the river in canoes to create a street (river) view, but has not yet done the same for many of the roads in this area.

This is the 3rd year of Two Far rides for Team S. Not only did Team A miss out on last year's Two Far ride, we basically went for an entire year without riding our bike while we were traveling abroad. We dusted off our bike in March and have been slowly building up a little bit of a training base before we start our summer trip.