The Plan:

We plan to spend 2 days traveling from Raleigh NC to Grants NM via interstate and 2 days completing the trip to Telluride CO via 400 miles of dirt and gravel roads crossing and following the great divide. Somewhere in the mix will be 2 days of lying around in listening to bluegrass, and 10 sweet days of desert wandering around the four corners area. Sounds like fun!

The Potential Route

• 6/13/2003 Raleigh, NC to Asheville, NC
• 6/14/2003 Asheville, NC to Elk City, OK (1080 miles - Hello Saddlesore!)
• 6/15/2003 Elk City, OK Grants, NM
• 6/16/2003 Grants NM to Cuba NM via The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route
• 6/17/2003 Cuba NM to Platoro CO via The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route
• 6/18/2003 Platoro, NM Twin Lakes, CO
• 6/19/2003 Twin Lakes, CO Ridgeway, CO
• 6/20/2003 Ridgeway, CO Telluride, CO
• 6/21/2003 Telluride, CO Telluride, CO
• 6/22/2003 Telluride, CO Monument Valley, AZ
• 6/23/2003 Mon. Valley, AZ Mexican Hat, UT
• 6/24/2003 Mexican Hat, UT Mexican Hat, UT
• 6/25/2003 Mexican Hat, UT Panguich, UT
• 6/26/2003 Panguich, UT Jacob Lake, AZ
• 6/27/2003 Jacob Lake, AZ Hays, KS
• 6/28/2003 Hays, KS Charleston, WV
• 6/29/2003 Charleston, WV Raleigh, NC

Possible points of interest:

• Telluride Bluegrass Festival (http://bluegrass.com)
• Aspen CO
• North Rim of Grand Canyon
• Highway 12 Utah
• Sego Canyon Rock Art Site
• Grafton Utah ghost town
• Camping at Twin Lakes
• Black Canyon of Gunnison CO/Independence Pass loop
• Land of Enchantment loop Taos/Eagle Nest/Red River/Taos NM
• Monument Valley
• Blanding to Panguich UT, Valley of the Gods
• Cadilac Ranch Texas

The Bikes

• 2 Kawasaki KLR650s
• 1 Suzuki V-Strom
• 1 Honda CBRXX (re-routed for dirt portions)

What to take

I want to have access to email and any travel information (weather, maps, directions, etc.) while on the road so electronics are in the plan. Tools are a must for a trip of this length, particularly with some of the remote areas we will be visiting.

Luggage:

E-52 top case, pair of Givi E-21 side cases, Kawasaki Tank Bag, and a Moose Dual Sport fender bag.

Electronics:

Laptop, camera and battery charger, MP3 player, radio,cell phone and connectivity cable. Maybe a small recorder for journaling. UPDATE: Palm Tungsten|T will serve as MP3 player and voice recorder for journaling.

Tools:

KLR650 tool kit supplemented with hex keys. Moose tire irons, Leatherman tool and Leatherman crunch locking plyers tool, 8 inch adjustable wrench, 12 volt air compressor, spare rear tube.

Clothing:

We will be staying in a hotel about every other day and washing laundry every few days, so I packed sparingly. Socks, underwear, swimsuit, shorts, tee shirts and running shoes. The kevlar lined Draggin' Jeans and Draggin' leather jacket will protect me on the bike.

Camping gear:

We plan to camp during the bluegrass festival, and every other day thereafter, and whenever we can't find a hotel. So I'll pack a Thermarest self-inflating pad, 20 def F sleeping bag, and a huge 4 man tent by Sears (hawked as a "Sir Edmund Hillary"). All this fits in the Givi E-52 bag except the tent poles. The tent poles go in the folding aluminum char bag bungeed to the seat in front of the luggage. Upon further consideration after a shakedown trip to test the luggage I may leave my own chair-in-a-bag at home and buy one at the bluegrass festival and give it away shortly thereafter. It is very nice to be able to stretch out on the whole seat on long interstate portions of the ride. That $10 could buy a lot of comfort over the four long days of slabbing.