Peter is a master of route planning, and he loves to do that. He planned the routes for the entire trip. The original idea was to stay on gravel roads and trails as much as possible, while minimizing the total distance and climbing. Peter used RidewithGPS (RwGPS) as the main planning tool, consulting with the existing routes of the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) and the Great American Rail Trail. The routes went through WA, ID, MT, ND, MN, WI, MI, ON, NY, and MA.
During the trip, as described in Journals, we quickly realized that our tires were not wide enough to handle some rough and loose surfaces on unpaved roads and trails, such as the Palouse to Cascade Tail in WA. Peter also suffered from the numbness of his left hand due to the vibration from rough surfaces. We decided to ride on paved roads instead. Because of this, plus getting lost and our separation (see Journals in MT, Day 18), there are many modifications to the planned routes. In my trip journals, a map of the route for that day is given.
There are tradeoffs between riding on unpaved and paved roads/trails. In many cases, unpaved roads/trails are in remote areas, with little to no traffic. The sceneries are solitary and mostly beautiful. You can be alone for hours with all the surroundings just for yourself, which makes you feel privileged. But they slow you down tremendously in comparison to paved roads/trails. Paved bike trails are the best. Paved roads in remote areas may have very little traffic. Some paved roads are not good for bicycles if they don’t have a wide shoulders and the traffic is heavy. During this trip, drivers were very respectful most of the time. When they passed, they stayed as far as possible. When there were traffic coming from the opposite direction, they waited until the other lane is cleared for them to pass. A few of them passed me too closely.
I did ride on interstate highways (I-90 and I-94) and state highways. Sometimes a local road ended or went through a private property whose owner refused to let bikers pass through. In these cases, the only option without a huge detour was to ride on an interstate highway. It was not as bad as one would think, if the shoulders were wide (5 – 10 ft) and there was no debris. I rode on highways mainly in MT and ND. Traffics on these highways were very light. Most drivers used the left lane to pass. The dangerous part is a highway exit where you want to go straight. The safest way is to exit and enter the highway again.
Several times the map led me to dirt roads that were extremely difficult or impossible to ride. I had to walk through them.
Outside Seattle, my favorite trails are the Olympic Discovery Trail (WA), Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes (ID), Central Lakes and Lake Woebegon Trails (MN), Mountain Bay Trail (WI), and Erie Canalway Trail (NY). Their surface conditions were excellent and they offered me memorable sceneries.
Chidong Zhang's WA2MA Bike Trip 