“head for the next town running
Alice Merton
‘Cause I’ve got memories and travel like gypsies in the night”
With only 18 days until we set out on RTXIX we’ve hit the point where we begin making the shift from theoretical planning to practical. This will be the 6th summer road trip we’ve taken and each year we discover ways to improve the experience for ourselves with little tweaks to gear, route, hikes, hotels, and more. One of the things we’ve continuously improved on is the to-do list leading up to our actual departure. Plans for completing tasks like getting an oil change, printing maps, making our big Target trip, and even getting a haircut are all laid out over the next few weeks.
One of the tasks on the schedule for today is to share more detailed info about our route and to solicit input on everyone’s favorite sights, restaurants, activities, and gas station bathrooms along the way. The map below shows the places we’ll be staying (blue numbers) and parks we’ll be visiting (green markers). If you’ve got a favorite anything somewhere along our route please stop reading right now and take a minute to share with us!
If you’ve been following our adventures for a while, you may have noticed the steep drop-off in the number of parks we’re visiting this year. Rest assured that what we’re missing in quantity we’re making up for in the depth of each visit. The Northwest is much more conducive to summer backpacking than the Southwest. In fact, last year we weren’t able to backpack at all in Arizona or New Mexico due to the risk of wildfire and lack of water. This year we’ve got seven trips on the schedule.
We’ll be backpacking at Great Basin NP, Lassen Volcanic NP, Redwoods NP, twice at Olympic NP, North Cascades NP, and Grand Teton. We’ll also be hiking at Arches, Canyonlands, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Mt St Helens, Mt Ranier, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Mesa Verde. Of course we need to get our urban time in as well so we’ll be visiting Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver for the first time. Don’t let us miss anything great along the way, please share your favorites!
