Sturgis, Laguna Seca and Beyond
Creating alternative routes to popular motorcycling destinations
Sturgis and Laguna Seca are two of the most popular motorcycling
destinations for many motorcyclists on the West Coast. The cruisers
need to go and be seen with their brothers…and the Sportbike
enthusiasts need to go and be seen…with their brothers.
As a result of the popularity of both these events we’re often
asked what’s the best way to get there. Of course there are the
typical freeway routes that will have you slabbing for hours on end
attempting now and then to keep yourself awake through the boredom
of four concrete lanes and scattered exits.
Then there are the more scenic routes that pull you along through
rural communities and keep you rolling from town to town.
Funny how when you compare and contrast the two events they’re
very much the same. You go there, there’s lots of bike traffic, it
takes an hour to get a tank of gas, there’s lots of vendors and
pretty girls all around, hotels are at a premium and camping seems
the only alternative… and over in this corner there’s a race going
on. Are we talking about Sturgis or Laguna Seca here?
The point being that the ride to and from may end up being the
most memorable part of your trip that produces the least amount of
stress. So using alternative routes makes sense if you’ve got the
time.
All mapping software is not created equal. Some do this and some
do that. Some work with a GPS, others don’t. And whether your going
to Laguna Seca, Sturgis or anywhere else, the lessons learned here
can be applied to any trip you’re planning.
 Both
Microsoft Streets and Trips and Delorme Street Atlas allow us to do
something not available in most other mapping software. When you dig
into the options you can state your preferences for the types of
roads you’d like to travel. For our example in this story we’ll use
Microsoft Streets And Trips. In it’s case you can chose from seven
levels running the gamut of like to dislike. Streets and Trips
defaults midway for the four choices you can manipulate -
Interstates, Other Highways, Arterial Roads and Toll Roads.
So let’s say we want to determine a more rural route to Sturgis.
We begin by creating a route that starts in Seattle and ends in
Sturgis. The software’s default give us the I-90 fast track version.
You travel 1,162 miles and get there about 16 hours later.
Above: With the preferred roads settings set dead
center, as in the image above, we get the typical route to Sturgis
one might expect - all along I-90.
 Now
we tinker with the software telling it we entirely dislike
Interstates and we totally like Other Highways, then request
directions. This time it comes back with a more scenic route that’s
1,321 miles long and takes 26 hours to ride. Now the route takes us
through Leavenworth, down the lower Coulee, into the Palouse, over
Lolo Pass, into Great Falls and brings us into Sturgis from the east
side of town rather than the west. Hey, that’s a scenic ride.
Above: Some slight tweaking gives a route full of the
roads less traveled
You can go deeper from there, because we see that our second
route didn’t take us into Yellowstone and we’d like to include that
in our trip. Simply add it as a stop and watch the entire route
change.
Let’s visit another scenario, getting to Laguna Seca from
Portland. You’re a Sportbike kind of guy and you know you could just
hoof it down I-5, take I-80 a while, head south on 101, go west to
Salinas and bask in the glory of the masses. The quick and dirty way
gets you there in 13 hours along 733 miles of slab.
But we’ve got a little more vacation time to kill, so again we
tweak the software in favor of Other Highways and not Interstates. I
know what you’re thinking – the obvious route is going to run you
down 1 and 101 – right? We’ll that’s not what actually happens when
you run the scenario and in fact you get a route few probably ever
ride in full that takes you through the heart of Oregon into Bend,
then southeast to Lakeview, past Pyramid Lake in Nevada, out of
Carson to Sonora, along the Old 49er road and into Merced, then out
to the racetrack. It takes about 19 hours of road time and is 957
miles long. Add three more miles to that, do it in a day and you
just qualified for an Iron Butt Bun Burner certification. However
long it takes you it’s bound to be more scenic and memorable.
A slight modification on how much you like or dislike a road type
can bring an entirely different route into the picture.
For instance from Boise to Laguna Seca, with strong preference
for Other Roads dialed in and an extreme dislike Interstates sends
you west through Oregon where you can meet up with your pals from
Portland in Lakeview. Total trip to the track is 976 miles and 20
hours of road time.
 But
if you back off the slider on the preference for Other Highways one
notch you get a route through the Nevada Dessert, straight through
Yosemite National Park and you can meet your Portland pals instead
in Merced. Total trip is 18 hours and 876 miles. Hey – that’s 100
miles and two hours shorter than the previous plan.
You like to ride dualsport – on and off-road? Try this. Push the
slider for Interstate all the way left, go midway on Other Roads and
crank up Arterial Roads all the way to the right. Refresh the route
directions and bingo, you’ll find yourself getting into off-road
sections if they exist. At this point it’s a good idea to double
check your routing using an up to date atlas like those made by
Benchmark Maps.
The scenarios are endless and it’s quite fun to play and plan
with this type of software calling out alternatives. The drawback is
if you use a popular GPS such as Garmin, you’ll have to hand key
your final route into that software since the two don’t talk to each
other. Well, you needed something to do on a rainy day anyway,
didn’t ya?
Patrick Thomas/Winter 06 |
