Have a look at the "rough" route...actual routes are ALWAYS subject to last minute changes based on weather, signs for "World's Largest Tin Foil Ball", waterfalls and simple whims.
Day One: Whitefish, MT to Coeur d'Alene, ID.
This is mostly new territory for me and KC. Butler maps shows this area to have a TON of great roads. We'll be five miles from the border with Alberta, Canada and will be in the northern Rockies most of the time. Hope it doesn't snow.
This is country that I've traveled in the past...Coeur d'Alene was part of my sales territory many years ago. Central Washington and its huge wheat ranches was the site of a National Chukkar Championship (pointing dog field trial from horse back in the 70's) that I attended. Highlights today include tracking the great Columbia River and seeing Grand Coulee Dam.
Day Three: Wenatchee, WA to Yakima, WA.
This route will skirt along the Cascade Mountain Range (I crossed these mountains in 2007 on my 3,200 mile cross country bicycle ride from Astoria, OR to Victor, NY) and then loop around Mount Rainier National Park. Should be some pretty awesome scenery. This is one of our longest days at roughly 300 miles.
Today we'll enter our Oregon, surely one of our most beautiful states. Its diversity is incredible, from its dramatic coastline to the Coastal Range and the Cascade Mountains to the high desert with great rivers and steelhead/salmon runs, it has it all. Our route takes us alongside majestic Mount Rainier NP, southbound through the Cascades and through the awesome Columbia River Gorge. Bucket list items galore!
Day Five: Hood River, OR to Bend, OR.
This route presents dramatic views of Mt Hood National Forest, proceeds south through the Willamette National Forest and drops us in beautiful Bend, OR along the banks of the Deschutes River famous for its wild trout and seasonal steelhead. We're going to spend two nights in Bend at a very comfortable Hampton Inn. I'd move to Bend in a heartbeat.
So is this a "go nowhere day"?
Hardly, dear reader. Though we finish where we started, today may be the highlight of our tour...we visit Crater Lake National Park. A perennial bucket list item, it is so out of the way that it's never approached the top of my list. But when I saw how close this route was going to place us to CL, we had to add it to the route...Bend to Crater Lake NP to Bend. Hampton Inn both nights. Its all good.
Day Seven: Bend, OR to Baker City, OR.
Day Seven starts our return to base camp. We'll leave the Cascade Range and venture into central Oregon's high desert, with an occasional mountain pass (Ochoco National Forest) thrown in to break things up. The route travels along Hwy 26 and goes through Prineville, Mitchell, John Day and ends in Baker City where we over nighted on our '07 bicycle tour. In fact, I think we're staying in the same hotel (Best Western...sorry, no Hampton Inn in Baker City).
Day Eight: Baker City, OR to Lewiston, ID.
At this point we'll be starting to smell the barn, but we've got some great riding before we're done. The route today puts us back in the Rocky Mountains and onto some roads that Butler Maps thinks very highly of. We have several routes to get us to Lewiston ranging from192 miles to nearly 300. No doubt we'll let the weather and our energy levels dictate our route.
Day Nine: Lewiston, ID to Missoula, MT.
Day Nine is all new territory for KC and me and it looks delicious. How can a route that takes us through the Bitterroot Mountain Range and a town called "Lolo Springs" not be a winner? Correct Answer: It cannot. Never been to Missoula but I hear all the cool kids live there.
Our final day is a short one...just 140 miles. Unless, of course, we pass that sign for a waterfall or a giant yarn ball. In all likelihood we'll both be smelling the barn and will high tail it to the trailer, load the bikes and start the trip back to Georgia by noon.
