Ooops, time to discuss summer 2024 touring plans?
 

Cascadia for me summer 2024: from Shasta in northern California to The Canadian border.

Some localish 3-5 day trips in S. Jersey to start if I can get my leg strength back. Maybe a round trip on the GAP. If all goes well, I’m hoping to do the Bitterroot 300K loop with and out and back from/to Missoula after Labor Day.

Scotland to Armenia for me this summer. Haven't decided on route yet. Open to suggestions.

Sulawesi (Celebes), Indonesia

Cycle.travel has become my go-to app to plan routes. It'll provide suggestions up to Istanbul. (I would assume that you'll take the Dover-Dunkirk/Calais ferry and that you'll ride south of the Black sea). I hope I am not coming across as a Cycle.travel fan boy -- but it is *extremely* fast such that exploring alternatives is actually quite easy.

In your case, trade-offs are interesting-but-slightly-off-route cities (ex: Koln, Budapest), or a preference for EuroVelo routes.

Have fun

Thinking of a shorter ride from Alamogordo NM to Lubbock TX but in April before it gets as hot. Not as certain of summer yet.

This summer might be awesome or a complete catastrophe.

A ship from Finland to Germany. The a few days ride to Hamburg where we take a train to east germany. From there we'll ride the Elbe back up to Hamburg and take a ship home.

Nothing too complicated about that. However this time we'll have our kids with us. One is three and the other'll be nearly a year old when we set out. No tents this time since we won't have time to acclimate them to tent sleeping before setting off. Also running water and private bathrooms are really nice when having to deal with diapers.

The three year old can ride a bike but since his bike is a single speed and we'll have daily distances in the excess of 60km, it's not realistic to let him ride. A tow bike would otherwise be an option, but that takes training, ie. teaching the kid not to fall asleep when we're moving. I've been told this is a bigger issue than one would imagine.

I don't think we'd be doing this without the help of our trusty e-bike. While it is certainly possible tour with small kids without assist (done that) the assist helps one retain energy for the evenings after the kids have been collecting their own power on the trailer napping and watching the scenery.

We've been thinking the same thing. Looking into it now. A friend and his SO are really jonesing to do the route. I ran across a link/a guy's journal that turned it into a "500K" by riding from Spokane(dedicated trail on the way out and through the "northern Palouse"/rolling wheat fields on the way back) . From what I'm reading, the cooler/wet season starts +/- the third week of September. We are tentatively thinking last week of August and spill into Sept as needed. Haven't locked it in yet.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1de1435c34.jpg

Still quite tentative:
.

• Bus to Amtrak station in Chicago.
• Amtrak to Buffalo, NY.
• Bike East and North, initially on Empire State Trail, then on roads. Cross border to Kingston, Ontario.
• West on Waterfront to almost Windsor, but bypass Windsor because you can't cross border on a bike, head short distance North.
• Cross border into Algonac, MI.
• Bike around north and west sides of Detroit, mostly on trails, then head South to Toledo.
• Take Amtrak to Chicago.
• Bus home.

Roughly a thousand miles. Solo trip. Relaxed pace. Likely will get my Amtrak ticket home a few days in advance so the trip is completely open ended, I prefer to not have to make a schedule on a long tour. Could do it in four to five weeks, plus or minus. But much of it will be pretty flat, so maybe less time than I expect? I will travel at the speed I want to travel without schedule concerns.

Tentatively, leave home in early Jun so I can get most of the trip done before the campgrounds start to fill up. Not sure where I will be on Canada Day weekend, but I will worry about that when I am on the road. I learned on my last trip to Canada that I will need reservations for where I stay that weekend.

Plan to use my Lynskey Backroad touring bike. Likely with Ortlieb panniers. But I have some Carradry panniers, have to decide on which pannier set to bring.

I put together a tentative GPS track about a week ago. A mix of Google Map (with bike) routing, RWGPS routing, and picking out what appear to be little used roads in some cases. Both border crossings are by ferry, as some of the bridges that I would like to cross do not allow bikes. Have marked in the GPS file lots of campgrounds as waypoints, some from Google searching and some from the Open Maps system. I expect grocery stores to be plentiful, but I marked a few in my GPS in the more rural settings, I have some dietary issues and can't survive on convenience store fare. Put on my GPS track some motels near the end as campgrounds near Detroit and Toledo are not as frequent as I would like.

Downloaded several internet maps as PDFs that I can put on my phone later. The maps in Canada are VERY well detailed.

If I need to bailout early for some reason, can take a ferry across Lake Erie to Sandusky and bypass Detroit area, have that in my GPS plan as a contingency if I need to reduce distance near the end of trip. But that is only a contingency if something unplanned happens.

My phone will work in Canada for an extra $10 a month. Undecided on stove, liquid fuel or butane, but when my planning is down to that level of detail, that means I am in pretty good shape.

But the plans are still on my old computer, bought a new computer a week ago and still migrating data to the new computer. I have been using Mapsource for decades (vintage mapping software no longer supported by Garmin), but the Mapsource won't load onto my new Windows 11 machine, so I need to decide do I keep using old computer for my GPS stuff? Or do I change to new software. That is one temporary hiccup in the planning, but I have months to firm up my plan.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fee2336c35.jpg

I’ve done Avery, ID to Wallace, which includes the Hiawatha. (I took I-90 down from Lookout Pass instead of the west slope of the NorPac.) The former railroad right-of-way and the Hiawatha are spectacular. If you go clockwise, it’s all down hill from Lookout except for a relatively short, dirt road climb from Taft up to East Portal, where the Hiawatha starts. Make sure you have a good light. The long tunnel at East Portal is 1.66 miles long and is not lit.

I am toying with several Amtrak/Bike plans...

1) Springtime: Train to Texarkana TX then bike then bike to Kansas City and Train home. About 600 miles though eastern Oklahoma and Kansas.
2) Summertime: Train to La Cross WI and bike home. About 400 miles. Much of it along the Mississippi River.
3) Early Fall: Train to Glenwood Springs CO and bike to La Junta Co and train home. About 400 Miles, mostly down hill.


All of these trips will start and end with a 35 or 65 mile bike ride to one of two Amtrak stations near me. I am planing on a "hard roof" over my head each night. I don't plan on any day being over 80 miles. I will be doing it solo. (The older I get the more I like my solo riding partner.)

However, if this year is like most years, I will only get one or two of these rides accomplished. Life has a way of rearranging priorities.

[Sounds great :]

Young kids have no expectations. We've spent 6 months car camping with a 6-month old - who's learned to walk on a golf course - and never had any child related issue. Actually, camping with kids brings smiles all around.

Plan is to ride from NE Ohio to western Iowa. Pickup the Louis & Clark Route and work our way to Seattle. Leaving the beginning of May.

I'll be on the road somewhere in central Texas on April 8th!

As soon as they announce an opening date for the brand new state park...

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-pinto-mountains

...I've got this in the works:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/43179024

I'd like to do the Lôn Las Cyrmu. Waifu wants to cycle the Devon Coast to Coast. We'll see.

Back to Georgia, Caucasus

https://stefanrohner.exposure.co/georgia-caucasus-1

https://stefanrohner.exposure.co/georgia-caucasus

We've actually tried sleeping in a tent with our eldest. So far it hasn't been very successful. They could probably get used to tent sleeping during the trip but the whole time they'd have issues it wouldn't be much of a vacation. Since we depart in may, there won't be enough time to get them used to a tent back home.

I live in Tokyo, and have plans for overnight rides to the hot spring resorts in Izu in the spring. In the summer I want to ride in Aomori and Hokkaido, and in the fall, ride out to Niigata and the Noto Peninsula. The roads are smooth, safe, and scenic, the food is excellent, and soaking in the hot springs at the end of the day is a great way to unwind.

Thinking about Armenia, not sure if I can make that work. Other option is Albania/Greece.

(read in the paper that Armenia is cutting its ties with 'old friend' Russia, which leaves this poor, isolated country almost defenseless to the Azerbaijani (and Turks). Another clock starts ticking...)

Ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam,
EV15 Rhine to Zurich,
EV6 to the Black Sea (Constanta)
Follow the Black sea coast past Istanbul to Armenia

Or head further south down the Atlantic coast to Nantes, follow the Loire, then to Geneva and Zurich

Or much further south to Bordeaux, cross France via La Garonne river and the Canal du Midi to Sete, then EV 8 around the Mediterranean to Italy, Greece and on to Turkey

or just wing it with a compass :D

We have to visit my in-laws in Paris so France has to be in there. We'd like to do the eastern Adriatic coast to Greece and then Turkey, so the eastern section is also set. The main dilemma right now is how to get from Paris to Croatia. So many options.

There‘s a green way from London to Paris (Newhaven-Dieppe ferry) then you can ride through the Champagne region to get to the Rhone, Southern Germany or Switzerland, which is awesome, and high chance of tailwinds 😁
But that means getting through England of course… which is not my cup of tea, as one says 🥴

Paris to Croatia: Unless you want to cross the alps, down the Rhone, turn left in Avignon, then either follow the Med coast, or EV 8 which is a bit more inland.

We are (finally, after years of corona and other issues) going to visit South Korea.
Any tips are welcome here: Ho(s)tel tips (and others!) in Seoul / Incheon Korea for September 2024

Pueblo to Seattle, leaving end of June. Will follow TransAm to Missoula then work way north to hook onto the Hiawatha and Coeur d'Alene rail trails. From Plummer work my way across Washington to Cle Elum and hook onto the PCT into Seattle. About 1800 miles.

elcruxio Coincidentally, my wife talked to me about recently published on YouTube. It is about a family of 5, (parents and 3 young children, 2, 4 and 6 yo IIRC) walking the entire length of the PCT (!) . Might interest you. As an aside, my wife's instinctive reaction was that the kids were incredibly dirty :) My instinctive reaction was that they seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Incredible scenes. (blog entry here)

I'd like to take Amtrak to Grand Forks and then ride home. 340 or so miles. Maybe late June timeframe, still looking at vacation schedule at work.