Trip journal website navigation
The maps you see below correspond to the one of the maps in the "Northern Tier" series published by Adventure Cycling Association.   Each of the eleven maps represent a distance in the approximate range of 230 to 600 miles (400-1000 km). 

Click on the link to my most recent entry, or you can click on the map section to get to the journal entry where I start that section of the trip.  If you prefer to start at the beginning, just click beginning of trip.  Once you are on a journal page, there are buttons at the bottom of the page that can take you to any other journal.

Navigation through the website isn't perfect.  The photographs that accompany a given journal entry are accessed via a hyperlink on the journal entry page itself (usually near the bottom of the page).  At present, there is no way to browse through all the photographs without returning to the trip journal. 

Except for the photographs embedded in the trip journal pages, all photos have a caption underneath explaining where the picture was taken, or adding often obscure and probably useless information about the shot. Depending on how your browser displays the page, you may need to use the scroll bar to see the caption.

At the bottom of each trip journal page can be found hyperlinks to all the other journal pages. 



Overview of the trip by map section

Click on any map below to access the first trip journal for that section.

Distance: 464 miles (747 km)
Start and end points: Anacortes, WA to Sandpoint, ID
Expected date range: June 10th to June 19th
Features: By the second day of the trip, the climb up and over the Cascade Mountains begin, traversing the North Cascades National Park.  Within the first 300 miles (500 km), there are three passes over 4,000 feet (1220 m), and two more over 5,000 feet (1520 m).  On the east side of the Cascades, there are rolling hills through both forest and farming areas.
Distance: 317 miles (510 km)
Start and end points: Sandpoint, ID to Cut Bank, MT
Expected date range: June 19th to June 28th
Features: The spectacular Glacier National Park is a major highlight of the trip.  The Going-to-the-Sun Highway climbs through this section of the Rockies, and crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass (6,664 feet or 2031 m). Glacier's "sister" park, Waterton, is right across the Canadian border.
Distance: 591.5 miles (952 km)
Start and end points: Cut Bank, MT to Minot, ND
Expected date range: June 28th to July 10th
Features: The Great Plains begin in Cut Bank, Montana.  On the day I leave Cut Bank, I will log my 1000th mile.  In eastern Montana, I follow the Missouri River into North Dakota.
Distance: 317 miles (510 km)
Start and end points: Minot, ND to Fargo, ND
Expected date range: July 10th to July 16th
Features: Hot in the summer, cold in the winter, but during the short growing season, North Dakota produces an abundance of wheat, corn, flax, peas, canola, and sugar beets.  Fewer people live in the entire state than in the city of San Francisco, and it's a big place.
Distance: 227.5 miles (366 km)
Start and end points: Fargo, ND to Grand Rapids, MN
Expected date range: July 16th to July 21st
Features: Lakes, rivers, and forests abound in Northern Minnesota.  Lake Itasca is where the headwaters of the "Mighty Mississippi" can be found, except that here the Mississippi is no more than a stream a foot deep and a few feet wide.
Distance: 273 miles (439 km)
Start and end points: Grand Rapids, MN to Minneapolis, MN
Expected date range: July 21st to July 26th
Features: More lakes, more rivers, and more forests.  All of northern Minnesota is vacationland for state residents.  In Aitkin, MN, I reach the halfway point of this trip, exactly under the oval red and white Dairy Queen sign.  That is a good omen.  According to the maps, the trip into Minneapolis is an optional excursion, but it's an option no one would want to miss.
Distance: 432.5 miles (696 km)
Start and end points: Minneapolis, MN to Muscatine, IA
Expected date range: July 26th to August 3rd
Features: For almost two hundred miles, the route follows the Mississippi River.  Contrary to expectations, nothing here is flat.  It is all rolling hills, and although no one hill is very high, thirty or forty of them add up to some challenging cycling.
Distance: 402 miles (647 km)
Start and end points: Muscatine, IA to Monroeville, IN
Expected date range: August 3rd to August 11th
Features: This section covers the largest, richest agricultural area in the world.  When the glaciers of the last ice age receded, they leveled the ground and deposited rich black soil, which the warm, wet summers with long, humid days turn into a veritable greenhouse. There are no big cities along any portion of this route.  The largest towns are about 5,000 people.
Distance: 401.5 miles (646 km)
Start and end points: Monroeville, IN to Lackawanna, NY
Expected date range: August 11th to August 20th
Features: It took almost four weeks to traverse the first four states on this trip, but in a distance of only 400 miles, the route covers parts of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.  The big city here is the old industrial city of Cleveland, Ohio. In the early 19th century, the opening of the Erie Canal (along which I will be able to cycle on a dedicated bike path) facilitated the great migration of homesteaders to the central region of the United States.  Many of these immigrants (including my own grandparents) came from Europe, escaping the political turmoil and revolutions of the mid-19th century.
Distance: 412.5 miles (664 km)
Start and end points: Lackawanna, NY to Ticonderoga, NY
Expected date range: August 20th to August 28th
Features: There is a short foray into Canada across the Peace Bridge, and an opportunity to visit Niagara Falls.  The route continues along the Great Lakes until the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, where it turns east to head to Maine.  Upper state New York is a beautiful forested area.  I will be traveling through the Appalachian National Forest on my way east.
Distance: 404.5 miles (651 km)
Start and end points: Ticonderoga, NY to Bar Harbor, ME
Expected date range: August 28th to September 6th
Features: The final three states on my route: the quintessential New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  I don't expect this to be easy terrain, since I will cross the Green Mountains in Vermont, and the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  The scenery should be ample compensation for any hardships cycling.  I believe this area will be a visually stunning culmination of my cross-country trek.