Need Advice: Two week S/W Ride Route in early May?

H

Hedgeone

Member
I am trying to organize a two week ride for late April/Early May and of course we do have some criteria:

  • Obviously warmer climate and scenic roads
  • Keep expressways to a minimum
  • Not straight south as we have done Virginia, North Carolina, Florida etc. before, that is why I am assuming South West
  • Only want to ride 8 hour days (no assbusters in this group) with maybe a day or two in the middle to kick around someplace interesting.
  • Would prefer a loop to keep riding the same route to a minimum.

Thanks in Advance
 
Not sure if 2 weeks is long enough to go all the way to the Four Corners or California if you're not willing to put in some long days.

For what you're asking, I think maybe head to Arkansas and the Ozarks, amazing riding there. It's not that far away though, so if think you want to do a bit more riding, maybe loop over to the Great Smokeys, do the Deals Gap area and head home up the Blue Ridge Parkway. That should be a very comfortable 14-day trip, with a day or two leftover to relax and sightsee.
 
Lightcycle said:
Not sure if 2 weeks is long enough to go all the way to the Four Corners or California if you're not willing to put in some long days.

For what you're asking, I think maybe head to Arkansas and the Ozarks, amazing riding there. It's not that far away though, so if think you want to do a bit more riding, maybe loop over to the Great Smokeys, do the Deals Gap area and head home up the Blue Ridge Parkway. That should be a very comfortable 14-day trip, with a day or two leftover to relax and sightsee.
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My trips to Arizona and Utah in 2011 and Colorado and New Mexico in 2012 were more in the northern part of those States. The furthest south I went both times was probably Albuquerque, NM - in early June in 2011 and late June 2012. First trip was 14 days and second one was 10 days, both involved a couple of 1,000 km plus days, but that did get me ahead of schedule, so even with an 8 hour cap I would have been OK.

So I'm not sure my actual trip routes would be much help - northern New Mexico and northern Arizona are both fairly high altitudes and I don't think they average the warmer temps until about June. In 2012 I went in early June and was chilly most of the trip - but when I went later in June I hit that friggin' heatwave across the States - even at the top of Mount Evans it was hot!

I'm actually thinking of doing an Arkansas trip in May - only a little further west into Oklahoma and riding the Talimena Scenic Byway - on my agenda last year, but cancelled because daytime highs were hitting 110 F in that area at that time :-(
 
Depending on where you're going, you may have to do a bit of expressways.

New York and Pennsylvania have interesting areas to ride in and pretty nice roads.

Colorado has amazing roads and scenery, and can be done in 2 weeks round trip. But its 2500km to get there which can be done in 2-3 days....so 4-6 days total travel time, 8-10 days to ride around the area...but might still be cold at altitude in April/May....

The midwest will be flat and boring so I'd avoid that.
 
Hedgeone said:
I am trying to organize a two week ride for late April/Early May and of course we do have some criteria:

  • Obviously warmer climate and scenic roads
  • Keep expressways to a minimum
  • Not straight south as we have done Virginia, North Carolina, Florida etc. before, that is why I am assuming South West
  • Only want to ride 8 hour days (no assbusters in this group) with maybe a day or two in the middle to kick around someplace interesting.
  • Would prefer a loop to keep riding the same route to a minimum.

Thanks in Advance
Click to expand...

If I was to do this I would ride down to Cape Girardeau (Missouri) and then zig zag west, back and forth through Mark Twain forest and the Ozarks out to Eureka or Bentonville. Then head back on other roads to Kentucky and work your way back up to SE Ohio then into PA and work your way back. 3 days to Cape Girardeau, 3 days over to Eureka/Bentonville, 3 days back to Kentucky, 2 days up to SE Ohio. That leaves 3 days to do SE Ohio, PA. Check out these links info@harrisonarkansas.org; and editor@kentuckytourism.messages2.com; I rode a lot of these routes on my way out to California 2 years ago, and Arkansas has some of the best roads anywhere.
 
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scornay said:
If I was to do this I would ride down to Cape Girardeau (Missouri) and then zig zag west, back and forth through Mark Twain forest and the Ozarks out to Eureka or Bentonville. Then head back on other roads to Kentucky and work your way back up to SE Ohio then into PA and work your way back. 3 days to Cape Girardeau, 3 days over to Eureka/Bentonville, 3 days back to Kentucky, 2 days up to SE Ohio. That leaves 3 days to do SE Ohio, PA. Check out these links info@harrisonarkansas.org; and editor@kentuckytourism.messages2.com; I rode a lot of these routes on my way out to California 2 years ago, and Arkansas has some of the best roads anywhere.
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I second this suggestion as I have ridden Cape Girardeau, Eureka, Ozarks area more than once. Quite a refreshing change from the interstate highways.
 
I forgot to ad, late April to early May is the height of Tornado season. Having been caught in them more than once, I tend to stay away from long distance riding through the heartland during that time.
 
revrandy said:
I second this suggestion as I have ridden Cape Girardeau, Eureka, Ozarks area more than once. Quite a refreshing change from the interstate highways.
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Not to hikjack the thread - but... ;-)

This is similar to what I was thinking of for mid May - around our Victoria Day weekend. It was my planned route back from NM last year, but because of aforementioned heatwave I changed my route to come back through the north.

Anyway - so I have 10 days and I'm thinking camping - just wonder if the temps in the Ozarks in mid-May are conducive to camping?
 
Check out this site, it may offer some help you are looking for. http://www.motorcycleroads.com/

I know I'll be using it when I hit the USA again this year.

Cheers~
 
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