Friday, June 25th, 2010: The day was looking to be pretty nice. The temps were in the mid 80′s and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. This was somewhat of a spur of the moment trip, but I had done a lot of packing the night before so that I could ride out straight after work. All I would have to do is stop by home, gear up, strap the sleeping bag on and head for the hills! Unfortunately, as luck would have it, the beautiful day turned rather ugly right about the time I decided to leave.

Just before I had planned to leave work, some coworkers and myself headed upstairs to the cafeteria for a quick break. Since it had been warm out all day, we decided to go sit in the courtyard. As we were out there, I could see some thick black clouds rolling in from the west. Not even five minutes later, those very same clouds decided to open up, so we headed back inside and down to the dungeon (IT people always work in the dungeon it seems). I hung out for about another 30 minutes finishing up some last minute work and then headed out for the day. As I got back upstairs and to the parking lot, it was no longer raining, although it was still pretty dark out. I wiped the raindrops off the seat of my Road King and headed for home, hoping for better luck than I had encountered so far.
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This past fall, I got to go on an absolutely amazing ride from my hometown of Missoula, Montana to Northern California and back up the Pacific Coast. I have never taken such a fantastic trip in my life. However, after the post road trip high had worn off and winter started to set in, I started thinking about what I could do to outdo that trip. Then it came to me. Why not ride through all of the National Parks in America (well, the ones I could get to by bike). So I started plotting and scheming and I came up with a pretty good plan.

My goal over the next five years is to ride through every National Park in the lower 48 states, not including island parks. The vast majority of the parks are actually not too far away, relatively speaking. What a great way to see parts of the country I have never been to. So for each year over the next five years, I will be purchasing an annual pass for the National Parks and riding to as many as I can. As a souvenir and proof that I have been there, I will also collect a pin from each park I visit so that I can not only be reminded of the wonderful memories, but can also show them off on my favorite riding jacket as a symbol of pride for all of the rides I have taken.

Being that I live in Montana, the obvious starting places would be Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park, both located at least partially in the state. I have already been to both parks, but never on bike, so this will be a nice start of the adventure. There are so many cool things to do and see on the way to the parks that the ride there should be an adventure in itself.

The next planned adventure is to ride through the parks in Washington State. Ever since I was a little kid, I have been interested in volcanoes, and the Cascade range is filled with them so the rides through North Cascades National Park and Mount Rainier National Park should prove to be extremely interesting as well as scenic. Last fall I visited Mt. St. Helens, which was pretty amazing. Unfortunately, rain and bad weather kept me from visiting Mt. Rainier, so this should be a pretty fun ride. In between the two parks, why not hop a ferry from Seattle and take a trip to the Olympic Peninsula and through Olympic National Park. I have been in the Seattle area before, but the weather was always bad, hampering my ability to really see things, so hopefully I will be able to get a trip in while there is plenty of sunshine and blue skies.

This August I will also be attending the Sturgis rally in South Dakota. During this trip, I imagine I will be able to see quite a few different places. I may even take a detour or two on the way back so I can get a couple more parks checked off of the list.

Stay tuned to this blog for updates on my trips. I will also be talking about some of the gear and equipment I use and providing tips and tricks for taking road trips yourself.