You want to get from the pacific ocean to the atlantic ocean? Sounds simple enough, if your traveling by car or plane. But if your mode of transportation is by bike, the task can be daunting. (If you don't feel some sense of trepidation, then you are probably doing something wrong.) While planning the route can be one of the one of the most time consuming parts of preparing for your ride, it can also be one of the most enjoyable.

Based on my experience with this trip and through-hiking the Colorado trail and research, I found that there were many different approaches people used for planning a long self-supported trip. I remember one man I met on the Colorado Trail, who's plan was to not plan. Each day he would hike until he felt like stopping. While this seemed to work for him, I like more certainty than that. Most of the various planning approaches I know could be boiled down into three major categories. But it's better to think of these three categories as points on a line, you should pick a point on the line that best fits your needs.

There Is No Plan

I am aways amazed, and to some degree respect people I meet who know that they are headed to the pacific ocean, but don't know where they will be in two days. Some people seem completely at ease with not planning anything but the destination. Often they will make up the route as they go and it's anyones guess when they'll arrive at the destination.

Pros: If you can handle the uncertainty, it's is freeing to just be able to enjoy each day and not feel pressured to go a certain distance each day.

Cons: You may never finish your journey. Or you may find yourself a long distance from food and water and needing to backtrack to a town.

We Know Where We Are Going

I believe that most people who attempt a long distance trip fall under this category. They have researched their route and have rough ideas of how long they want to take for the trip, but they don't have exact mileage targets for each day. They might take a few days off hear and there. One day they might only bike 15 miles while another day they decide to go 100 miles. Each day the see how they feel then deicide how far they want to bike.

Pros: This method allows you to listen to your body and not punish yourself too much. If it's raining you can take the day off instead of suffering through a monsoon. You have time to stop and enjoy the sights along the route.

Cons: The trip might take longer than expected. It's easy to stop after a few hours of cycling, especially after your body has been on a bike for a few days. If you don't know the locations camping spots or motels you might find yourself wanting to stop but nowhere to stay. 

The Plan Cannot Change

The final category of planning is the strictest and most time consuming. Each day is planned out. You know your exact route, you know where you are going to stay and where you will resupply. You know how many days you will take to finish the route.

Pros: You will know when you are going to finish. The pressure to ride a certain distance each day helps you make it to the finish. (Let's face it, nobody feels good after 5 days on the bike.) This method works best if you have a limited amount of time to finish your trip.

Cons: You might not be able to stop and enjoy the sites and sounds of the trip. Instead taking a leisurely lunch followed by a nap, you are constantly haunted by the number of miles remaining today.

Conclusion

As I said before, these categories are not hard and fast, but should help guide your planning method. For me, the best category was somewhere between two and three. I had each day planned out and made arrangements for where we were sleeping. I knew what towns we would need to stop in to get food and when we could refill our water. But we also made adjustments as required.

I would recommend at least knowing your route and knowing where you are able to sleep. Trust me, few things are as demotivating as spending 10 hours on a bike and then finding there is nowhere to sleep. Mileage goals are also good because they give you motivation to keep going. Jimmy and I were on a tight timeline and needed to bike about 92 miles each day, so we needed to have a tight plan. If you have more time, I would still make mileage goals, but make them much shorter and give yourself a few rest days.

Below is a copy of the spreadsheet that I used for planning the route.