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« on: November 19, 2021, 08:46:30 pm »
Oh! I feel super qualified to answer this one!
On September 1,2015 I started in Bellingham Wa, rode the the 35+- miles up to the official start at the Canadian border and then south to LA over the next 28 days. I CC toured the entire trip except 1 night when I camped in a campground when I was caught in a storm going up a pass in Washington. But there’s some places on route that are pretty far apart between hotels and the route can grind you down. I did 700 miles the first week, 600 the second week/ 500 the third week, and 400 the forth week. That’s a little misleading because there was some things that took away from my riding time the last 2 weeks but still, I couldn’t keep up the mileage of the first 2 weeks.
I have started all of my tours as late in the year as is reasonable which September is for the SC route. On the plus side I dealt w very little extreme heat. The argument against this is that it’s the heart of the wildfire season. And I did deal w some smoke along the way but I mostly threaded the needle. There’s no guarantees on this.
There’s a lot of climbing on this route so make sure you’re in really good shape before you start. This is not a tour you want to ride yourself into shape.
As for specific suggestions:
1)if I was to do do it again I would take the day off at Chelan and take the boat ride to Stehelkin. It’s written up in the “Field Notes” on your maps, I skipped it and I’m sorry I did.
2) At the very beginning of SC 2/ map #17 you’ll come to an an intersection of Forrest Rds (FR 25 & 26) and a sign will say Mt. St. Helens 17 miles. I looked at that sign and thought I can’t add 34 miles to my day and kept riding on the route. BIGGEST MISTAKE IVE EVER MADE ON TOUR. it turns out if you just go around the corner you can see the blow down from the eruption. Do not make the same mistake!
3) On map #24 I made a detour off route at 20 then down to 242 and went up and over Mackenzie Pass. It added 40 miles to the day but it was well worth it. Most cyclists will argue it’s the nicest pass to ride in the country or maybe #2 after Logan Pass at Glacier NP.
4)the rim road at Crater Lake is worth it but after the tough climb up to the lake and the up and down of the rim rd you’ll be pretty beat. Then you have a giant descent. In the town of Prospect it shows a sign for Cyclist Only camping. The couple who own that ranch/farm also put in a apartment at the 2nd floor of their barn. If you don’t want to camp you can rent that for the night pretty cheap.
5) I lucked out on this one, w/o any specific planning I left Mt. Shasta on a Saturday morning and stopped Sunday night about 30 miles short of Quincy. The reason this was lucky was because there is a tremendous amount of lumber truck traffic on 89 during the week heading to a mill in Quincy so I missed most of it though I did get a sample of it for a couple of hours Monday morning. The road is narrow and windy w a limited shoulder and the trucks are loaded. I will say the driver were courteous.
6) I assume a big reason why you want to do this ride is because of the triple treat of Yosemite/Kings Canyon/ Giant Sequoia and they alone would be worth the ride. In particular I felt incredibly moved seeing the big trees. The tip I can give you here is some 100 miles south of seeing the General Grant and Sherman and taking in their magesty while surrounded by a couple hundred tourists there is a place called the Grove of a Hundred Giants. It’s not marked on the SC map, but it’s on the route about 3 miles south of Johnsondale (see map #57). I was the only person there among a grove of a 100 of the big trees. I just wondered around for a couple of hours taking it in. I did see it was hit by fire this year, I hope the big trees are okay.
7) Tehachapi Pass is one of the 7 wonders of the railroad world. When you’re climbing up to Tahachipi (map #60) you will see at least 1 train come thru (it’s a very busy set of tracks) , get off your bike and take a look at what they had to do with those tracks to get a train up that grade.
Okay, I’m tired of typing, feel free to PM me w specific questions or if the question are more general you can obviously ask them here on the forum.