Ride for Reading Donation Bicycle Tour from Seattle to Yellowstone National Park
16 cyclists (4 women, 12 men) traveled 1,550 km from Seattle to Yellowstone National Park from July 6 to 17, 2014. The tour was accompanied by a film team of the company Konvex TV, which created a very nice report about this tour.
The idea to hold our bike tour this year in the USA was born during a radio interview in the program "Mein Abenteuer" of the radio station RPR1 in April 2013 (listen here). During this interview, the presenter Rainer Meutsch announced without prior arrangement that I would repeat my crossing of the USA by bicycle, which I had done in 2010, in 2014, and that he would drive the accompanying car.
I liked the idea of repeating this beautiful bike tour with a larger group. Therefore I immediately went for this suggestion. On the way back home from the radio station I called a number of fellow cyclists who usually go on our summer bike tour. I asked them if they would be interested in a USA bike tour. After discussing the practical requirements, we finally agreed to limit the USA tour to the section up to Yellowstone National Park. 9 of the 16 participants decided later to cycle another 800 km to Custer in South Dakota.
GPS track to the USA crossing
The GPS tracks are available on request. Please note when using the GPS files:
- The individual stages to Custer, South Dakota are from our 2014 tour. The stages correspond to the stage suggestions in the book. However, there are 2 exceptions.
- The first stage. Here we have found a good accommodation in the Cascade Mountains with the Alta Crystal Resort (68317 Washington 410, Greenwater, WA 98022). It saved us the tough stage up to Yakima.
- The journey from Three Forks, Montana to Yellowstone National Park in 2014 was via the Gallatin Canyon route. In 2010 we cycled the Hebgen Lake Route. We recommend this route. We provide GPS tracks for both routes.
- From Custer on the tracks are based on our 2010 recordings. They are less clean. Also, the stages do not always correspond to the stages suggested in the book. We will improve this soon.