Step 4 - Route Planning

At this stage in the prep phase I've completed the majority of the farkles, acquisition of the gear, bought most of the emergency tools and camping equipment, have undergone some preliminary training and selected most of my riding gear so it's time to get to work on planning out a preliminary path. Given the amount of time-off that the ol' slave-mill allots (or rather doesn't...) we have to be quite conservative with the clock and choose a course that carefully considers creative routes to cater to our skill and stamina. My lofty ambitions put this first trip in the scale of something like Texas to Alaska but a quick map search bursts this bubble before it even began. A newbie like myself, on a new ride, in conditions that I'm not familiar with and carrying a cargo of untested equipment, for that kind of mileage would be recipe for disaster so, instead, we let logic take over and opted for something a little more attainable over the course of a long holiday weekend. The journey we ended up with is a four-day route that focuses first on the far-northern portion of New Mexico and extends on into central Colorado.

Being the engineer that I am this step couldn't have been done without some computer intervention. The process starts with an online mapping tool and, like nearly everything, it should come as no surprise that "there's an app for that!" This time it's an app called Rever, which tracks and rates a variety of roads specifically selected for motorcycle riders (as in twisty, scenic and less-traveled). The program splits tracks into several different classifications and shows them on a map surface against which you can set waypoints to create a route. We then overlay this data against Google Maps to search for points of interest, do periodic checks of road surface types using satellite and street-view images, input hotel locations and locate campgrounds. In all, we try to target up to 300 miles per day, or 8-9 hours of riding with roughly a 50/50 split of off/on road. Once we have a good mix of tarmac and trail strung together with the necessary stops we take the data and export it by way of .gpx files, which then get loaded into the bike's GPS as a series of daily routes. Not nerdy enough? Just wait - there more!! From there, each day's the turn-by turn directions get piped wirelessly via the miracle of bluetooth into the helmet's speakers while simultaneously updating in real-time on a screen mounted above the handlebars. Isn't technology great!?! What did we do before computers? Gone are the days of printing a stack of Map Quest directions and endless searches on accordion-style state maps for the twistiest bits of road. On the other hand, there's still something to be said for picking a direction, throwing a dart onto the globe, stuffing a handful of gear into saddlebag and heading off on an epic, unplanned adventure. With boundless time and money the latter would be my modus-operandi but, much to my dismay, I have to meter what little spare-time I can afford and pack as much adventure into as short a window as possible. At the moment my mantra is "failure to plan is planning to fail."

My own personal hell but it sustains my habits and hobbies

For our premier ride the route we've assembled puts us starting out in the booming metropolis of Clayton, New Mexico. This, however, means 5 to 6 hours of highway blasting the previous day. We've considered alleviating some of the monotony by trailering the iron horses and pulling up to the starting blocks in air-conditioned comfort but then there's that part of us that "wants" to be miserable. Don't get me wrong - I'm not one of those people that gets-off on physical pain. In fact my cushy desk job affords a significant lack of if, yet there is still that joy of doing difficult deeds, pushing your body and mind to the brink of insanity only to reel it back in again and remissness on the experience. In a sense these adventures are symbiotic to my day-job whereby one immerses me in a mind-numbing atmosphere of chaotic frustration and never-ending, ever-shifting, impossibly attainable goals in an arena devoid of physical stimulation but earns the required income. The other reminds me what the world really is, by challenging my concentration and stamina in a perpetual string of breathtaking scenery. Despite the continuous expenses of adventure riding there's something refreshing about knowing that, at a moments notice, a single lapse in judgement can propel an otherwise beautiful (albeit bone-jarring at times) journey across the face of the earth into memorable chaos. Maybe, then, this is the core of what attracts me to this pastime: an exciting and challenging way to remind me just how small I am on such a giant rock and how little of it I've been able to experience, which subsequently feeds my constant desire to experience more. It's maybe one place and time that acutely displays how small I really am despite my otherwise crippling height. Looking back on previous trips these are times where I don't feel like the quiet nerdy type that I am but rather like an explorer, riding on the edge of serenity and disaster, testing my limits to know I'm still alive and invigorating my soul with adrenaline, offering a fleeting escape from the corporate tedium to which I'll inevitably have to return. So, yea... Clayton, New Mexico. Here we come. On adventure bikes.

Aaaanyways... The first planned day will route us through a series of gravel roads where we'll cut our teeth at long-distance adventure riding. This section, while not particularly technical or challenging, should provide an opportunity to ease into the off-track world of moto-riding like the newbies we are. The gravel highways will give us some time optimize our interval spacing to avoid dust and rock-spray, get a feel for the handing of our laden machines on as they struggle for grip and should provide ample space to recover from the occasional (and inevitable) fuck-up. This series of roads will take us into Raton, NM where we'll transition back to a long stretch of pavement towards the eastern edge of the Carson National Forest. From here we'll tackle a combination of gravel and logging roads with the potential to see a few short sections of 2-track. The close of the first full day should (assuming all goes well) find us setting up camp somewhere near Pillar along the iconic Rio Grande after around 300 miles and 9.5 hours in the saddle.

Assuming we're still in one piece, day 2 will begin by heading west towards the Santa Fe National Forest. Because my riding partner planned the route I can only assume that we'll be foregoing all the traditional scenic viewpoints, monuments and POI's in order to make good time getting nearly to Cuba, NM before turning north and heading for Gallina, just in time to head east again towards Abiquiu. I'll try to weasel my way into in few touristy stops before another change in direction points us north towards the Colorado border. The route will continue to Platoro, CO where a campsite will surely be a much needed respite from the 9-10 hour ride covering about 280 bone-jarring miles.

Day three begins with some gnarly single-track, then some lighter gravel roads and then a mix of gravel and paved roads that string together Del Norte, Creede, Lake City, Parlin and eventually Buena Vista which should cover around 260 miles across the 8-hour trek. I've been through portions of this route before so passing up all the iconic stops along the way won't be too heartbreaking but Chris will have his drone stashed away so maybe I can convince him to stop and smell a rose or two under the auspice of getting some unique video footage. There are some great campsites at the end of this route but something tells me that by sundown we're going to be fed up, dirty, tired and sore and will likely break down and book a hotel to revel in a hot shower, fresh food and a warm mattress. If my prediction is correct it will only be three days in... (desk jobs have made us soft).

Our final day of the route will take us as far west as Aspen before doubling back towards Jefferson, then turning southeast towards Colorado Springs and eventually to Fountain. Much of this 310 mile route will see tarmac, particularly as we get closer to the outskirts of Denver. Being novices to adventure riding this is a deliberate move so as not to dive too far into the unknown. After all, I am getting old, fat and lazy (OK, fine, I've always been lazy...) and having applied my engineering brain and over-analyzed the whole trip I'm playing it safe. (Well, safe-ish. It is a motorcycle after all.) After this 8.5 to 9-hour day we'll setup for a final night of camping before pedaling it back east and heading for home. We'll recoup at my house before Chris splits and heads north back to his place. (One day I'll follow him and make the trek epic but, for the time being, he has WAY more paid time off than I do. And he just got more - that bastard!)

Well, that's the plan anyway... Any guesses on how far we actually make it? Stay tuned to find out!