Messages

1

Temporary ACA Route Road Closures / Re: Lewis & Clark section 7 map 106. Road construction. July 20, 2022

« on: August 26, 2022, 06:25:29 pm »

Hi all,

An update on this section, which we just completed this week (Sunday 21 August) - the third and final of the bike path sections (direction WB) is closed again due to repairs. There's a sign on the trail saying it will re-open in April 2023. The other two are still open. We did the I-84 instead to exit #51 (Wyeth), which was fine as far as interstates go, with a decent hard shoulder all the way. It's an additional 5.8 miles or so.

Best,
Sissel and Steve

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Routes / Re: Traffic in Yellowstone on the Parks, Peaks & Prairies route

« on: March 04, 2022, 04:35:10 pm »

Thanks so much jamawani for the list of campgrounds, that's a really useful resource to have and will definitely help with our planning.

Thanks also for the tips about the roads in Mt. Rainier NP. Sounds like we should steer clear of Paradise/Stevens Canyon Rd. I like the sound of the Naches Peak Loop option as it allows us to take in some of the scenery without adding too much climbing or riding the busier roads.

Apologies if this is a silly question, but what do people do with their bikes and gear when they head off on foot for a day hike? Would there be places to lock things up at the Naches Peak Loop trailhead, for example?

3

Routes / Re: Traffic in Yellowstone on the Parks, Peaks & Prairies route

« on: March 03, 2022, 06:17:59 pm »

Sincere apologies for not replying sooner, life got in the way!

Thanks all for your super detailed responses, they're really helpful, and have thrown up more exciting questions!

The latest plan is to stick with the PPP route through Yellowstone, then take a rest day (potentially in West Yellowstone) and hire a car and drive down to see the Tetons. Granted it might not be as majestic from the window of a car as it would be from a bicycle, but we're keen to keep the total mileage as low as possible as we only have 90 days to finish the tour (visa reasons) and want to stay at or below a 50 mile/day average. Judging from Street View images it looks like we'd be on mostly narrow-shouldered roads for about 80 miles on the way into West Yellowstone. The 'ride early' tip sounds like a great idea (well maybe not the waking up at 6am part, but having emptier roads sounds fantastic). I like the idea of doing ~40 miles in to Canyon Village one morning, spending the rest of the day there, and then the next morning doing ~40 miles over to West Yellowstone.

jamawani, thanks for the tip on avoiding Columbia Gorge - I've long been keen to see Mount Rainier NP but had kind of assumed it would be too much climbing for this trip. Turns out it's actually not that much more than the Columbia Gorge route. We're not especially wedded to ending up in Astoria (just needs to be somewhere we can catch a flight back to the east coast) so if there are better routes to the coast from Mt. Rainier NP, I'm open to suggestions! I've mapped out two potential routes for this final section of the trip - one following your suggestions and going through Packwood and Cathlamet to Astoria (https://www.strava.com/routes/2931209667759741260), and the other incorporating more of Mt. Rainier NP, heading through Eatonville and Rochester before ending up at the coast near Aberdeen (https://www.strava.com/routes/2931203837469186250). Any insight on the best places to finish the trip in south WA/north OR? Also would you say the road to the south of Mt. Rainier (Paradise Rd I believe) offers significantly better views than the road to the east (WA 123)?

Also here's a link to our current full route map, for context: https://www.strava.com/routes/2927621892056455372. Any additional feedback welcome!

Thanks again,
Steve

P.S. That photo of Bighorn looks mouth-watering

4

Routes / Traffic in Yellowstone on the Parks, Peaks & Prairies route

« on: February 21, 2022, 06:29:46 pm »

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I are currently planning our summer tour across the country, starting in Georgetown, DC in early June and ending in Astoria, OR in late August. We're reasonably competent cyclists but this will only be our second bike tour, the first one being a week in Norway last September. We're keen to keep the route as short and flat as possible. We'll be incorporating several different ACA routes, but we're currently undecided on whether to do Yellowstone or Grand Tetons.

The current plan is to follow Parks, Peaks and Prairies through SD and WY, and then take the TransAmerica Trail from West Yellowstone to Missoula, then the Lewis & Clark from Missoula to the coast. However we're quite keen to see the Grand Tetons - partly because of the spectacular scenery, but also because we've heard bad things about traffic on the roads in Yellowstone in the summer months.

The alternate option we're considering, then, is to veer off the PPP route at Ten Sleep and head south via Thermopolis, then rejoin the TAT and do the Teton Valley Alternate route, down to Jackson and then back up to West Yellowstone on the western side of the Tetons. This would allow us to see the Grand Tetons, however it would add 150 miles and 7,000 ft of climbing to the trip, and I've also read that a lot of the roads on the Alternate route are actually no better than the TAT roads through Yellowstone.

So I guess I have three questions really:

1. How do the PPP roads through Yellowstone compare to the TAT roads through Yellowstone? Do they suffer from the same problems, e.g. heavy traffic in the summer months and minimal-to-no shoulders?

2. Has anyone done the connection from PPP to TAT via Thermopolis and then the Teton Valley Alternate route, and is it worth the additional distance/climb in order to see the Grand Tetons instead of Yellowstone?

3. Does anyone know of other ways of incorporating the Grand Tetons into a route that also includes the other highlights of the PPP, notably Badlands, Black Hills and Bighorn? (though we wouldn't be too upset about a detour around the latter, given the climbing involved).

Thanks!