Denver, CO to NW Iowa, two alternatives?

[sspeed]

any thoughts?

[jamawani]

Looks pretty good to me.  Diagonal roads are hard to come by on the Great Plains.
And when they do exist, they usually have heavy traffic - esp trucks.
Check out the Nebraska Tourism website for town campsites.
Many of the smaller towns you are going thru have free or super cheap camping.
They may not have water turned on early in the season, though.

PS - I spotted the "June" reference - everything will be available.

[sspeed]

jamawani and others,

Going through the towns now looking at grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants.  I'm looking at several of the towns from Julesburg to Sargent and many are either ghost towns or around 100 people.  Google Street View is nice because you can pick out business names and look them up to see if they are still around.


What do you do about food and water on a route like this?  In many cases I'm not seeing cafes or even grocery stores or gas stations in most of these towns.  I guess I need to figure out how much water to bring and how to carry a bunch of extra food in case I can't find a place for food or water for days.

I've done weeklong 500+ mile trips before, but they were across Iowa where each town has a gas station, cafe and other things.  I'm not used to the near ghost town experience.  I think it will be neat to see, but I want to be prepared.

[jamawani]

Julesburg has a grocery and other stores downtown on Cedar St plus a C-Store on the I-76 exit.
No matter how small, the last thing to go is the tavern.
Also, churches usually have the pastor's name on a sign outside - in case of emergency.
After all, Nebraska is not Nevada - no more than 30 miles between services - not 100.

[sspeed]

jamawani, how is 138 from Fort Morgan to Julesburg?

I initially thought about going from Fort Morgan to Julesburg reservoir (83 miles) on day 3, but now that I look at the elevation profile (or lack of it), it's 104 miles from Fort Morgan to Julesburg on 138.  It would only be 373 ft of climbing for the entire day!

Given the ghost towns along the route that day it may be nice just to get in to Julesburg that night instead.  Possible wind and lack of places to eat or get food to cook along the way make me cautious though...

I've done 150 miles in a day before, and I've done 115 miles over 3 mountain passes in the Triple Bypass, neither of those were fully loaded or self-supported though...

If I adjust day 3 to get to Julesburg, then day 4 only has 32 miles and I could do the additional 48 up to Arthur.  Or I could leave day 4 as is to sort of rest for day 5, which is a big one as it stands.

http://www.motate.org/riders/scottdeleeuw/trip/trip.php

I could also skip Lewellen and stay in Lake McConaughy....

[jamawani]

My advice is to toss daily stops out the window.
Sure plan by day to see the feasibility of it all -
But then recognize that it will turn out quite different.
There is nothing worse than trying to stick to a rigid itinerary.

US 138 is pretty damn empty - excellent to Zen meditation.
Usually there is a westerly wind - but NOT ALWAYS.
So, yeah, on a normal late spring day it would be a cinch.
But if it's stormy with an east wind - forget it.

Plan, but then play it by ear.

[sspeed]

Great advice, well noted.  I planned out some of the end towns based on services, or lack thereof.

Not having a plan of some sort makes me anxious... I joined a friend for a few days of his trans am ride.  One night up by Conifer we were both shelled and could not find a single place to camp.  We ended up sneaking behind a church and camping there.  I want to avoid the stress of not knowing as much as possible.  That said, I know plans will change and I'm ok with that.

[sspeed]

Well, I got it finished!  Embedded some pictures on to Google Maps if anyone is bored at work today.

http://www.motate.org/biketour/