Originally Posted by
Darth Lefty
Join ACA, use their routes. You don't need to follow the entire route to do a portion of it. They keep their info up to date online. There are books to go along with the Trans Am and the GDMBR, though they fall out of date.
If you have doubts. I agree that is an easy way to go. I find that I can just go with pretty much no planning when I use an ACA map.
I also agree that you might consider just riding right out of the airport.
Water... I try to avoid carrying too much when I can. I add or remove capacity by reusing bottled water bottles or sport drink bottles. I pick them up or discard them as needed. Sometimes for the short haul I might have a lot of water but I try to never carry more than 24 hours worth and that only once in a while. I have used a filter like the sawyer squeeze or it little brother. In some places it can work well in others it can be worthless. On the ST I didn't find it worth carrying, but on the southern half of the Sierra Cascades it was wonderful to hit the little snowmelt creeks for some ice cold water.