First long tour coming up..any suggestions?

New member and new to long tours. Going from Florida to Nova Scotia, across Canada to Wash St. down California and back across. Building my itinerary now. Any suggestions on places to hit or avoid? Once I'm finished with the itinerary I'd like to post it for comments. Thanks.
Eric

I'd give cities a wide berth and when you cannot, time your travels through them to miss the traffic; I'll bet you can see the back end of an idling Buick where you live.

Monterey Bay area and San Francisco are must sees in CA. SF is not a place I'd like to live but a wonderful place to visit.

Last piece of advice is do not build a schedule that becomes a monster that must be obeyed. Think of yourself as a wanderer not someone on a timeline. If you find that you need to do one long mileage day after another then you're trying to do too much in the time you have; cut back and see less, but enjoy it more.

Enjoy the journey.

ewellsian said:

New member and new to long tours. Going from Florida to Nova Scotia, across Canada to Wash St. down California and back across. Building my itinerary now. Any suggestions on places to hit or avoid? Once I'm finished with the itinerary I'd like to post it for comments. Thanks.
Eric

Click to expand...

wow

How long do you have for the trip?
Why four corners?

Just ride your bike

Then after that have more fun

wow job has good benefits

I always enjoy places the most when I can do a little research first and then have one or two places that I really want to visit at each location.

And I agree to basically avoid large cities and rush hours. No fun! Besides, small towns and mom and pop places to eat are lots more fun than big chain places.

- Don't plan each and every stop. Pick key places you want to visit and aim for them
- Leave open days (unplanned) on the schedule
- Check with locals in regards to weather issues for the mountain's you'll be crossing.
- Pick up a National Park Pass if you like that kind of thing, it will save you money.
- If you hope to get off the highways check out the America's Byways link
- Upgrade your camera now, set it to the highest resolution. By 8gb memory cards.
- Are you traveling solo or two up? If you have a passenger, that person should have a good point and shoot on a cord around the neck and take pics all day! Even solo, you can do the same thing.

When are you doing this? It's getting late for this year!

SheRidesABeemer said:

- Are you traveling solo or two up? If you have a passenger, that person should have a good point and shoot on a cord around the neck and take pics all day! Even solo, you can do the same thing.

Click to expand...

Cameras around the neck make me nervous. Wrist is better. Some jackets have loops you can use in addition to the 45 pockets on the average mc jacket.

first long tour

Eric:

Welcome.

This is a huge topic.

Go to the search function on this site and click on advanced search. Then pick key words for areas you are interested in, and click on ride reports on the right hand side. In a few hours you'll have a ton of information.

Have fun, and my only other tip is to avoid Calgary during the Stampede.

Rinty

Visit the site to get your checklist in order.

Mica Peak