At 0600 tomorrow morning it will be exactly 21 days until my departure. I continued my preparation today by updating my GPS with the current USA and Canada maps. Although, I will admit that I only use it to navigate around cities or to find a particular place – I prefer regular ole paper maps for planning and keeping myself on track.
So I’m up to days 5 & 6 (and 7 if I have hit bad weather) which will see me headed up and over the mountains then eventually into Washington. My original route had me going through a state capital with about 5260 ft of elevation but my updated plan takes me through a different capital over 1000 ft lower at 4226 ft. Hopefully this will help me avoid closed mountain passes and snow on the road. The 2nd last time I drove through these mountains there were still 10 ft high snowbanks!
The following 6 days days I will be attending the Wall Portrait Conference so not covering many km as it will mostly be just back and forth from the motel. On May 10th I’ll be heading eastward to Hell’s Canyon for a scenic diversion and hopefully take a few photos.
I hope these hints give you a good idea of my route through the mountains and keep you on track for figuring out the trip mileage and help you win the $500 certificate.