Touring Map

[rdhc]

I was wondering if anyone would recommend a good map for Touring. I am riding from Calgary to LasVegas in September. I would like to ride secondary roads and want to make sure I know where all the fuel stops are. Ideally I would like a map book that would cover both Canada and the U.S.

[V7Goose]

I do my advance planning on the computer with either M$ Streets and Trips (just 'cause I have a copy Micro$oft gave me free a few years ago - the maps are OK, but the program sucks) or Google Earth. I think GE is much better than Google Maps since you can get a full screen display and better overlay options. Satellite and street level views also seem much easier to use.

 

Once on the road, I use free state-issued maps. Almost every state gives them away at the tourist info centers you usually find near the border on major roads.

 

I wouldn't trust anything for planning gas stops - way too many stations have gone out of business in the past 10 years, and there will always be new ones and ones that never made the big indexes. But in my opinion, it is rare that you will ever have a true problem finding enough fuel these days, as long as you have a map to spot towns and plan ahead. In this aspect the state maps will be the best tool since they rarely show fake towns (those that do not really exist - you find a lot of these on Google)!

 

Even on my recent ride around the border of Texas, about 5,000 miles of the smallest, remotest roads I could find that bypassed the majority of towns with gas stations, I didn't have any problem with finding gas. I thought I might ahead of time, only because of the remote roads I was looking for, so I took a small gas can with me as a precaution. I did use it 3 times, but never because I needed it. I often passed up available gas, betting on where I would find the next station just because I knew I had the spare gas! Enjoy your trip,

Goose