Sierra Cascades, Primitive Camping, and Bears. Oh my!

[dcard]

First, how much primitive camping can be had along the route?  I've scanned a few TRs, but I am looking for specific experiences camping in the wild on this route.

Second, bears.  Knowing Yosemite and the bear rules there, what procedures have others followed to keep safe from bears on the route generally?  Standard "smellables" in a bear bag, suspended from a tree?  Or something more involved like a canister?

I feel like I'll have more questions as the trip nears--so I'll post those here.  Good blogs and TRs about the route would be appreciated (to get us excited and so on).

Oh!  Third, north - south or south - north?  I assumed north - south.  However, my wife likes the idea of ending in WA (so someone can meet us at the finish line--we have family in Seattle).  Pros/cons of either direction?

[CMajernik]

You can also go to this website where cycling journals are posted. Search for Sierra Cascades.
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com

[Itinerant Harper]

So there is lots of wild camping opportunities on this route.  You are pretty much in National Forest Land the entire time where it is legal to camp. This is not the case in National Parks of course. So for instance I camped in the Nat'l Forest just outside of Crater Lake National Park.

As for bears they are there. I never encountered one close up though, but of course YMMV. I always hung my food up if there wasn't a bear box. My basic procedure is to take precautions but don't stress about it.

So I'd go North to South. First off the maps are setup that way and while ACA always makes a token effort to do the opposite direction the maps are just not as useful the other way (for instance the elevation charts only have the distances from left to the right in the "preferred" direction. They easily could put at the top of the chart the distances in the opposite direction but they chose not to).  Secondly the mountains and passes get higher and higher from North to South.  Just starting out before you get acclimatized to climbing a pass every day (and you will, sometimes more than one) it is better to have the lower climbs. Thirdly the heat.  It gets really hot in SoCal (record temps right now for instance) so it's better to start in the north where its cooler. It does depend on the time of year and such you are doing it.  When I rode it, I was often hitting 90 - 100 degree (F) days in the San Joaquin. I chose not to ride the final map (starts in the Mojave pretty much) due to the heat and reports I'd gotten that a number of the campgrounds had no water.  All the locals recommended spring or autumn for riding the Mojave/Joshua Tree area not August/Sept. which is when I was there.

[zzzz]

I did this route in 2014. I was staying in hotels so I can't answer your questions on camping. FWIW I did not see any bears or heard any talk of bears while I was on route.

If your doing the tour this year I don't think you have a lot of choice than going North to South. I left September 1 from Sumas and I found it almost ideal weather-wise. It was fire season and I had some smoke and all the falls at Yosemite were dry but the temps were mostly mild, passes were clear and traffic at the NP's was down.

I would think if you left now from the south it would be brutally hot till you got to at least Giant Sequoia/ Kings Canyon and if you left later in the year you might run into snow when you got to the high passes further north. If your planning for next year you could thread the needle and leave from the south planning (guessing) on hitting Tioga Pass just after it gets plowed. Of course, everything Itinerant Harper wrote still holds true for the other reasons to go North to South.

I can't emphasize enough how the heat will beat you up on this ride. We all have our self-delusions and mine is that I'm pretty good at getting a bike uphill. And most of the climbs are the usual no more than 7% that you find in the western US but when you are doing your 3rd big climb of the day and it is a windy hot day, it can really be brutal. I once saw a list for the 20 toughest climbs in Colorado and I've done most of them as well as a slew of other big passes out west and I had never got off a bike mid pass to gather myself before, I did it twice on this trip.

This is not to discourage you, it's a fantastic route, but it's pretty tough. My advice is don't make it harder than it already is.

Pete