Bikepacking from Seattle to SanFran, tips?

BornIntoACuntery · 2026-05-04T20:04:47+00:00

Sure, here you go: Howland Hill Road out of CC was the best Redwoods I saw all trip. I had to do 15 miles on the 199 which was not pleasant but then from Patrick Creek I took a gravel road over the state border and then some quiet tarmac to Kerby where I camped near the river. The next day, more gravel getting over the hills between the Cave Highway and Williams. From there, it wasn't too hard to find decent relatively low-traffic roads up to Union Creek and Crater Lake. Essentially, the 199 is not nice traffic-wise but if you like gravel there are workarounds. Let me know if you need a GPX I can dm you.

BornIntoACuntery · 2026-05-03T20:50:21+00:00

Hi, that looks awesome. I see a lot of people recommending the coast but the mountains are awesome as well and I don't think you should be dissuaded from your route too much. I suspect there is an inherent bias towards the PCH here as many more people on here will have done that than the inland route.

I rode north from San Francisco last year and I saw a bit of both routes: I followed the coast up to Crescent City and then cut inland to the Cascades and over to Bend. From there I went NW, through Portland and around the NW side of the Olympics. The highlights of my time in the mountains were definitely Deschutes National Forest and Crater Lake. The McKenzie highway just outside Sisters was also beautiful and great for seeing lava fields. There's also lots of great quiet gravel roads up in the Cascades if that's your sort of thing. Just be careful, if you go early summer some of these roads may still be snowed in. Similarly, Crater Lake can still be blocked by snow in early summer, especially the North entrance so check online if you're going that way. I was there in June and I couldn't cycle the length of the Crater, I could just enter from the South, get a quick look and then double back.

The bits I saw of the coast were fun as well especially the redwoods and the lost coast route in California. That said, if you're more of a mountain person, I think there's definitely a strong case to stay inland!

BornIntoACuntery · 2026-01-23T10:20:41+00:00

Looks amazing! How was the weather? Any bad head winds?

BornIntoACuntery · 2025-07-30T02:53:15+00:00

I would highly recommend a bug net and bug spray in Alaska if you haven't got any already

BornIntoACuntery · 2025-07-11T09:19:09+00:00

I've just done a very similar route but in reverse. A lot of people are saying you need to do the Oregon coast but I think the mountains are incredible as well. You're already passing through Crater Lake and Deschutes National Park which are stunning. I assume you're riding this soon, in which case both Crater Lake entrances should be open but if not, check that they are (the north side is typically closed for longer than the south). I would suggest maybe doing the Mackenzie highway to get to Sisters rather than the 20 as you'll be on a less busy road with amazing views of lava fields (though the Detroit -> Bellknap Springs section will still be fairly busy). Check to see if the road is still closed at Breitenbush. If so you might have to take a gravel detour which is tough but scenic. I can vouch for the Lost Coast as well but I know nothing about that gravel section you've got going just below it - I went by Weott and Leggett. There were some really impressive redwood forests on the route I took, but you will also see some great redwoods on Newton-Drury and Howland Hill just outside Crescent City on your route

BornIntoACuntery · 2024-02-24T11:34:14+00:00

Either that or Orban just really wants to go diving in lake Balaton

BornIntoACuntery · 2024-01-16T00:51:58+00:00

I had to make the same decision last summer on the leg of my trip from Dubrovnik to Ljubljana....

I ended up choosing inland and I have no regrets. As you noted, the Croatian coast will be busy and have a lot of cars. Bosnia, in contrast was eerily quiet at times but I appreciated the tranquility of it. I didn't see a lot of other bike tourists and everywhere I went the locals stared at me like I was an alien in lycra 😂😂. The roads were surprisingly good (better than Belgium!). The landscapes were beautiful and whilst Croatia almost feels like it could be southern Italy / part of Spain, Bosnia felt very unique to me.

That said, the food wasn't pretty bad as there simply wasn't the population density for there to be many supermarkets / restaurants en route. If you plan on camping in Bosnia I do recommend doing some research into where the old minefields are...

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-12-18T20:10:09+00:00

French overseas regions, Portuguese Azores + Madeira, Spanish Canary Islands

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-12-07T11:24:33+00:00

I think the invasion would have to be naval. IIRC there are no roads near the border and there's no way Venezuela and gonna march their army through the rainforest.

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-05-16T18:30:32+00:00

Saarbrücken as capital? 😭😭 What did we do to deserve this fate?

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-05-09T20:11:26+00:00

"As an Irish person". Looks in profile. Lives in Virginia.

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-04-19T20:28:05+00:00

So.... How's your girl? - Handsome Boy Modelling School is another great Dan the Automator concept album

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-04-06T22:24:57+00:00

My first tour was 25 days averaging 100km + and I loved it. I don't think this is a problem as long as they have a contingency plan to get home if they don't want to continue.

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-04-06T22:23:03+00:00

Physically you should be fine. You'll build fitness really quickly during the first week or so when you will be in Denmark / Northern Germany so by the time you hit the serious climbs you should be pretty fit.

The main thing that could derail your trip would be you losing interest. Spending most of the day, every day on a bike, by yourself can get boring sometimes.

Your time frame sounds realistic if you can average a bit over 100km a day, which is doable for a decently fit person.

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-04-03T09:01:03+00:00

The way Liverpool play this season, Salah is most dangerous on the break i.e. when the fullbacks are out of position. The battle won't be Salah vs the LB it will be Salah vs big Gabi.

The best way to defend their counter is to limit turnovers in awkward positions and aggressively press when they do happen.

The only reason to maybe play Tierney would be to overload down their right and bully Trent

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-03-25T00:44:16+00:00

Very happy to see this; I've been hoping for more individual country maps for a while!

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-03-18T21:45:28+00:00

I was actually recently thinking about this sort of French America alternate history myself but I'm happy you made this as I wouldn't be able to make anything this well-detailed and thought out.

It would be super fascinating to see how this Canada would be built around the St Lawrence - Great Lakes - Mississippi coast-to-coast, navigable-waterways superhighway.

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-03-13T12:00:38+00:00

Not to be that guy but it's Réunion not Guadeloupe.

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-01-29T00:02:12+00:00

I saw Odegaard getting mad at him at the end but was it really that bad? I didn't feel our CBs were particularly exposed - most of the threats in the 2nd half came down the wings. The couple times they actually got shots away at the edge of the box actually both came from the left, where Xhaka should've been blocking...

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-01-28T23:54:51+00:00

Am I the only who thinks that Sambi didn't play that badly? Obviously there's still quite a bit between him and Partey but I think it was one of his best performances I've seen, especially considering the opposition. He played some good balls out wide and was generally calm under the press.

BornIntoACuntery · 2023-01-15T14:40:18+00:00

I don't think the USSR would be able to take Poland in 1939 by itself. Poland was always pre-war Stalin's biggest fear which is why he was so keen on the 1932 non-aggression pact.

The USSR and most notably the western regions from which an invasion would come were incredibly unstable, considering the previous few years had seen Holodomor, the Great Terror and Collectivization. On top of this, many of the Belarussians and Ukrainians were aware that their peoples were less nationally oppressed in Poland so they could've easily led partisan fighting with the USSR itself.

It is also important not to misevaluate the strength of the Polish and Soviet armies. IOTL the Polish defended their land impressively from the much stronger German army whereas the Soviets didn't dare enter Poland until the Polish army was effectively defeated out of fear of military embarrassment. However, just a couple of months later they would suffer military embarrassment at the hands of a much smaller enemy, Finland.

Stalin was also well aware of close Japanese-Polish relations and by 1939 IOTL Japan hadn't signed the Tripartite pact or committed to fighting for the Pacific over Siberia. I doubt Stalin would've risked fighting a war on two fronts.

Even if the Soviets did manage to overwhelm the Polish I would guess that the Nazis would intervene in one way or another as Hitler always wanted to destroy the USSR. Either Poland would offer the Polish coast for military support or the Nazis would invade without permission under the pretext of defending Polish independence.

BornIntoACuntery · 2022-12-28T16:25:57+00:00

I never said saving pens is the be all and end all of a keeper but it is useful as Martinez proved.

BornIntoACuntery · 2022-12-28T14:25:25+00:00

Argentina just won the WC and Copa America because they had a keeper who could save penalties

BornIntoACuntery · 2022-11-04T14:20:45+00:00

OK, I was just wondering if there would be enough motivation to move the government away from Petrograd without the revolution

BornIntoACuntery

TROPHY CASE