The recent bicycle trip I did with some of my friends was wonderful, and it's understandable that some have expressed a desire to do something similar, or to be included in future trips that my friends and I might do. But I sincerely hope that nobody is waiting for an invite from me, because I'm pretty busy and will surely forget to include some names on the tour roster, and then there will be hard feelings. Instead of all that, why not just round up a few friends and go out and do it? Here's the route that we followed, minus about 40 miles of detours. It was a nice route, but I have no doubt that equally nice routes exist elsewhere. The internet makes it easy to find these routes. Start with google maps, and try to connect points of interest using as many back roads and minor highways as possible. I should point out that after day 1, I had little or no first-hand knowledge of the roads on our tour route.
I learned a valuable lesson from Kevin, when he told me that my original tour plan was too ambitious. Originally I planned to ride 60-80 miles everyday. With this itinerary, there wouldn't have been much time for sitting around cafes, roadside parks, and tourist attractions, and the trip wouldn't have been as much fun. And, more importantly, I'd have been hard-pressed to find energy at the end of the day to creep out the local female-types!
Before the trip I worried a little about finding camping/lodging. I envisioned rolling into campgrounds after dark, strung-out from a long day, and finding no vacancy. On the other hand, I worried about trying to honor reservations for a campground when a change of plans might have been a more appealing course. In the end, we made no formal plans, and no reservations, and, being midweek, it all worked out. The shorter mileage days gave us time to look around a bit and some flexibility.
In summary, this trip came together based on a route that was sketched out in 10 minutes on gmaps-pedometer with little foreknowledge, and then executed with no formal planning. It was sort of like a college road trip, except on bikes, and without sinister motives.
11.6.09
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7 comments:
And the shorter days gave you time to perfect your creepy persona -- like putting on that fake moustache.
Of course, you were also the only one who got flashed by nubile women in a canoe.
Creep on!!
Are you sure the nubile women in the canoe were really women?
are you sure it was a canoe?
Another route I just tried. Winona, MN to Tomah, WI, much of it along the same trails that Jim rode. The advantage of this route is you can do it with one car, go one way and catch the Amtrak back.
Amtrak has a stupid policy of not allowing bikes, but from the Metro, you drive to Winona, stash your bike at the Amtrak station, drive to Tomah, leave car at Amtrak station, catch train back to bike - ride to Tomah and the car, quite a pleasant trip.
Anonymous: Amtrak allows bikes to be checked as luggage. Therefore, you can take a bike on Amtrak as long as you start and stop at stations where luggage service is offered. My coupled bike, when decoupled, is considered carry-on, which means that I don't need to worry about luggage service for it.
Hello Jim.
I have been following the specifics of you bicycle tour and I would love to attempt a trip like that myself some day. I have to admit, however, that I am very nervous to take on such an undertaking without some sort of training. Would you consider a seminar next winter where you break down the trip requirements? Also, I would like to know if I need all of the expensive packs or if it would be possible to rig something that would function just as nicely. I have no bicycle touring experience, but I can ride 40 miles just fine.
David
Minneapolis,MN
David: Let go of your apprehensions and do it. You will probably make some mistakes and learn from them, but what's the worst that can happen?
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