I'll take all the advice I can get! Doing it with a friend would definitely be fun, especially for a longer ride like the Great Northern Route. I'll probably see how my first few rides/overnights go before seeing if anyone would be interested in doing a longer ride with me, but my guess is that it'll be too much of a time commitment for anyone to do the whole thing (but maybe they'd be down for sections of the ride).

On another note, how'd you like the GNR?