Originally Posted by mollydog

You are leaving July 9th? So you are already on the road?:confused1:
As a West Coast guy, I am biased. I know my area pretty well and to me it offers a lot of nice areas, options and bail outs if things get too hot inland.

In Summer the inland areas along the Continental Divide Trail may be a bit warm. At altitude you'd be OK but a lot of it would be very hot. I've only skirted parts of this route, so don't know the whole Trail. I'm not even sure it actually goes through without doing a lot of highway runarounds.

The West Coast
The Coasts of Washington and Oregon are quite developed and it's a bit slow going through there but still stunningly beautiful. A town every 5 miles. In N. California you have a 400 mile stretch that is fairly remote with some of our best roads. The Trinity Alps in California (up near Oregon border), The famous Lost Coast and all the Redwoods, The Sierra. The combination of the Pacific, the Redwoods and the coastal mountains make the West Coast the best choice, IMO. Campgrounds galore and wild camping is possible too.

Stop by Zeitgeist in San Francisco for a Beer if you can, and check out the City with more folks on bikes (push and motor) than any City in the US. Once South of the City you've got even more fantastic roads. Big Sur and miles of national forest roads all the way to L.A.

If you decide on the West Coast and would like a couple good routes from the Oregon border southward, post back here or PM me and I'll detail a great ride on roads you'll not see anywhere else.

!que le via bien!

Patrick