2020 didn't turn out anything like I'd planned. At this point last year, I was fretting about working around the schedule for the Alaska Marine Highway System -- budget issues were delaying the release of the sailing schedule, and those delays were showing up in problems with booking hotels (especially at Glacier National Park).
Eventually, I had to work around the problem by planning to ride from Valdez to Whittier, and from Haines to Skagway. Not ideal, but a workaround that we could live with.
I had nearly all the hotels booked, and was ready to go for a June 2020 departure, heading north.
Then the pandemic hit. The border closed, and remained closed (as it is today). So, the Alaska plan was tossed, and we ended up having a great ride to Washington and back. The lower 48 portion of the Alaska trip was the basis of this new plan, with an adjustment in departure by a few days to lessen the impact of late snows on Beartooth Pass. As it turned out, that delay wasn't enough to allow us to ride the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, but we were able to get a cabin at GNP.
Instead of playing chicken with Alaska travel in 2021, I pulled out an old Pacific Northwest plan that I've never ridden. We'll have a nice ride west, along the Lincoln Highway alignment all the way to Little America, WY. From there, we'll continue west along U.S. Route 30 to Portland, OR. We'll then ride north to Bellingham, and visit Orcas and San Juan Islands. We'll see the Olympic Peninsula (and Olympic National Park), then ride south to Redwood National and State Parks at Crescent City, CA. Turning northeast, we'll see Crater Lake National Park on our way to Walla Walla, WA. Turning northwest, we'll head to Yakima, WA and Mount Rainier National Park. Then we're off to Portland, OR to see the sights (and do a little visiting, as the pandemic permits). We'll ride home via U.S. 20 / U.S. 26 as far as the start of U.S. 40 in Utah, then take U.S. 40 east (eventually picking up the alignment of the National Road).
I'll fuss with the routing a bit over the next few months, but each day is largely set. We're signed up for the Tour of Honor again in 2021, so we'll catch as many of those bonus locations as we can, to spice up the usual geocaches, waymarks, and roadside attractions.
