No, I’m not talking about frustrating skin conditions when traveling long distances on a motorcycle. I’m talking about itchy feet, the desire to travel that occurs in the late winter months. I’ve spent a lot of time indoors and haven’t taken any overnight or multi-day rides since the Fall and I’m feeling a little stir-crazy.

I have some trip ideas for the upcoming riding season — scratch that. Let’s call it trip season, since I ride all year long. One includes a jaunt up into southern British Columbia, another involves a fair bit of off-road adventure riding on the V-Strom. Yet another idea is to take the same route of last June’s 5,000 mile ride to Colorado, but in reverse order. Every given road you encounter provides two experiences, and it’s a good idea to ride it in both directions to experience each.

My V-Strom has 53,000 miles on it and I’ve got some major preventative maintenance scheduled in the coming weeks. The bike has been rock solid reliable and preventative maintenance is the key to making it so. I’m also just a few miles shy of 3,000 on my GSX-R750, and I’m gearing up for some overnight trips on that as well. So far it’s only been used for local day rides.

Although the plans haven’t firmed up yet, 2013 looks to be a high mileage, high smiles trip year.