Day8 Paynes Prairie – THE PLAN!!! – May 18

The Plan

Not really a plan, but an idea. More of a suggestion really. I have only two firm dates where I have to be somewhere on a specific day and time. So, here goes ‘The Plan’.

Phase One was complete nearly a week ago, and that was getting Liz settled in at school for summer session. Phase B will be wrapped up tomorrow as I volunteered for one more day at the FTA office in Gainesville.

Phase III starts Tuesday as I head out on the road in earnest. I have a firm commitment to be in Jackson WY on Friday, June 13 and really need to arrive a day or two early. So, I have 24 days to travel 2200 miles, camp, hike, bike AND site seeing. I have not yet decided which route to take as I hoped to make that decision based on the weather, hoping to avoid both storms and heat.

Once in Jackson, I have a couple of weeks to cram all of the fun and excitement I can. The plan is to start in the Grand Tetons and work my way up to Yellowstone. Again, camping, hiking, site seeing and some overnight backpacking too. Given enough time, SW Montana and Eastern Idaho are also on the agenda.

The fifth segment of my trip will begin near the end of June and I will be heading north into Montana. I have Glacier National on my short list and might spend a few days there.

At some point I need to work my way up to the US/Canada border around the first of July for a planned 1100 mile, 30 day bike ride through Canada starting in lower Saskatchewan, into Alberta, turning north on the Continental Divide Bike Trail through the northern terminus, then continuing to the NW towards Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

Sounds like fun so far, eh?!?

Phase Seven will find me in BC Canada sometime in early to mid-August and a very long way (3350 miles) to return home. I may swing back through Colorado to see family on the return trip home, but otherwise have yet to even consider what might be on the agenda. I could certainly see how additional phases might be added on to the great USAmble. I am open for suggestions!

Here is hoping for soft comfortable saddles. . . .