2019 - Your Touring Plans = Where Are You Going?
 

Where are you touring in 2019? Got any exciting plans? Will it be a long tour, short tour, or something in between? Will it be to a place you've been before, or somewhere new? Solo or with others? :)

Tell us about your plans ... tell us about your tours. :D



And if it is a short tour, don't forget to post a brief ride report in the Short Tours thread.
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...ort-tours.html


-------------------------------------------------------------------
2018 Tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...you-going.html

2017 Tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...you-going.html

2016 Tours:
http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...you-going.html

2015 Tours:
http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/98...tinations.html

2014 Tours:
http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/92...you-going.html

2013 Tours:
2013 - Touring Plans = Where Are You Going?

Still waiting for some cheap airfare to pop up to make that decision for me, hoping to find something for the Baltics or Finland! If nothing exotic, probably another supported party type week long ride, like RAGBRAI or Michigander with the wife.

Our plan for this year is four weeks exploring Mongolia by bike.
Probably somewhere in August/September.

If anyone has any tips, must see places, must evade spots, best place to stay etc. please mention them!

Early days yet, but I'm looking at a return to Japan this year, probably Shikoku in October. After that, I'm weighing up whether to spend next Christmas in Greece or Sri Lanka.

That said, I got stuck by a jellyfish at Burleigh beach yesterday, so perhaps it's time to go back to Taiwan, where I previously had the pleasure of eating jellyfish. The ultimate revenge!

Exploring a possibility of cycling Guyana, Surinam, French Guyana in August.

In May I'll begin my first long-distance unsupported tour on my '85 Raleigh Portage. I'll leave my home in NE Oklahoma and bike north through the American plains states, then head west through Montana to end in Seattle.

​​​​​​I was never athletic growing up, but rode across Kansas 2 years ago and have been biking ever since. I'm really excited to see how far this 42 year-old body can go on a classic steel bike. A hundred years ago, people rode across higher mountains on less sophisticated machines, so...

Departing June 2 from the Twin Cities. South to St Louis (MRT), east through Kansas to Taos (much of it on the Katy and the Flint Hills Trail), north to Yellowstone, back east to Twin Cities.

Would be interested in knowing your route(s) through Kansas, as my 60 year old body is heading through this summer on a 1985 Trek 720.

Arizona Trail northbound, then continue north through Utah, Idaho, then cut west from Coeur d'Alene to Seattle. Almost entirely on unpaved roads, a la Great Divide.

Biggest hangup is crossing the Grand Canyon. From what I understand, those doing the Arizona Trail have to strap their bikes to a hiking backpack and carry them across. My question is where does the hiking backpack come from? Do you mail it to yourself, or do you carry it the entire time?

We've been riding around GCNP last spring and came across a dude who'd done just that. Simply carried the bike on his back. Was some kind of a challenge posted on his feed for the benefit of his followers... Other than fame, I see no benefit in this exercise.

1. Rent a van and drop your bikes on the north rim. Back to hike. "Can" be hiked in a single day if you are in good shape. Although rangers advise against it.

2. Circumnavigation via Cameron, Lake Powell, Kodachrome. From the south rim, Cameron is a short and easy ride, but making it to Lake Powell in a single day (200kms) is a bit of a stretch, doable as dominant wind appears to be a fresh southerly breeze

Already purchased my flights to/from southern France in April. Flying into Bordeaux and out of Nice. It's a little earlier than I typically tour, but the airfare was so cheap I couldn't pass it up.

Two weeks in MW Montana with a day in Idaho starting around the middle of June. A variation of what I did in 2017 but skipping Glacier N.P., adding the Route of the Hiawatha and staying in a few different towns and campgrounds.

Other than that, I plan to play it buy ear depending on how the winter weather goes. We had the second wettest year ever this year. Hope that changes.

Well, I'm already in Arizona, so why not? 🤔😁 I plan on at least looking around the Grand Canyon, but no current plans to carry the bike. The bike's supposed to carry ME. 🙄😁
Plus, I've been through the four states now, that make up the "Four Corners" states, but still need to go to the actual intersection, if possible. It looks pretty bleak, on a map. 🤔

Southern Coast of Spain ... i.e. Eurovelo 8 (that's the preliminary plan for July)

I've not ridden the Flint Hills Trail, but have heard great things about it. When I rode across KS, I was going from west to east right along the northern border. The most important things for you to know about Kansas riding are: 1) Kansas is NOT flat, especially the eastern third of the state containing the Flint Hills region; and 2) the wind in Kansas can be ferocious and from multiple directions nearly every day during spring and summer.

Despite the hills, wind, and heat, I love cycling in Kansas! For your non-trail riding, the Kansas Department of Transportation has a good bicycle map that shows traffic volume for all the state highways.

I went to college in central Kansas, so I certainly remember the wind. Yes, ferocious is the word. While there, I worked weekends for a year not far from the Flint Hills, so that's also a known. I've used the ksdot map to plot a route, but I'm more than happy to hear from someone with actual experience from Council Grove area to the SW corner.

Giving serious thought to Canadian Maritimes. Fly to Halifax, loop through Cape Breton Island, then across Prince Edward Island, and check out Bay of Fundy before return to Halifax for flight home.

If anyone knows if the campgrounds are likely to be full any time between start of June through early July, I would like to hear about it before I experience it. I do not plan to make reservations for campgrounds unless absolutely necessary. I plan to start and end at the HI Hostel in Halifax.

I've rode from Council Grove to Elkhart, KS (on the way to Taos).

It is a wonderful ride. Go south, along the east side of Flint Hills, on 177 to Cassiday, KS then head west on backroads (paved) to stay outside of Wichita, KS. all the way to Medicine Lodge, KS. Then it's straight west all the way on 160. This part is beautiful.


Camping is never a problem. Routing is never a problem. Advanced planning isn't really necessary. You can't get lost in Kansas.

Many times I've just looked at the map and went from reservoir to reservoir to plot my route. If you really zoom-in on Google maps you will see County lakes that aren't on the state paper maps. This makes it easy to find a place to camp.

I've booked my dates at work but the details are a little vague.

If nothing better pops up my plan is a two week fast tour in Jun/Jul running from Jasper south through the Canadian Rockies to Cranbrook, then west on Hwy 3 home 1200km's. This would complete all the routes through the Canadian Rockies to the coast for me.

In Nov. I have booked a week where I plan to go somewhere off the beaten path in the desert. Looking at Moab and the surrounding area at the moment or maybe Las Vegas - Death Valley or Grand Canyon.
With one kid graduating and two starting to drive money for international bicycle travel is still a little tight so this year is an off year with plans to do a full Canada crossing in 2020.

Thank you!
 

This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

This summer it's 89 days in France, Germany and Denmark. We start in Paris, then by train to St. Nazaire to start EuroVelo 6. Stay on the bike route and see how far we get before catching a train to Copenhagen where we'll finish our holiday staying with Danish friends.


Lots of firsts:

• First unsupported bike tour in Europe (I've done a five unsupported bike tours in the US)
  
• First unsupported bike tour ever for my wife. (We've both done foo-foo supported tours where you stay in castles and eat in Michelin starred restaurants, but this will be her first time camping while on tour)
  
• First unsupported tour together, hopefully we'll still be married afterwards. :)
  

Even though it's my wife's first unsupported tour, we've planned an easy initiation. EuroVelo 6 is pretty flat along the Loire River. I'm letting my wife set the pace and choose each day's distance so she never feels pushed. And we can always catch a train if the going gets tough. We will have at least one overnight training ride in California before leaving for France. For me, her slower pace is a good thing as I tend to get goal focused and pedal past stuff I should be stopping to see.

Not to be a downer, but if you are planning on doing the Andalucía coast I hope you like heat and traffic. When I toured Andalucía back in 2000 I hit the coast a bit east of Almeria. Couldn't wait to head north, back into the interior of the territory, which I did when I hit Torre del Mar. The territory between those two places was nothing to write home about. Lots of development and traffic and almost no views of the sea. And that was in April, before the height of tourist season. Back in the 80s I was in Malaga in July. Madhouse and very hot.

Yeah, I'm sort of aware of the issue. The trouble is that I'm planning along with 3 other enthusiastic people in the mix. I have voiced that issue initially and said that perhaps we could choose to go very early before crack of dawn, observe a nice nap siesta and then continue in late afternoon. But that was also somewhat ... not 'endorsed' by the 'planning committee'. .... :-)

For me, win #1 is to be able to bike tour with spouse and others. The rest will slowly line up. I sort of also thought going north from Barcelona towards Monte Carlo and besides the coast also bike through region of Provence. That would be, sort of, going east and tiny bit north , most likely not result in relief from the heat...

we'll see... but at the next planning meeting I will voice these concerns.

So far just my annual supported ride across the Katy Trail.
https://mostateparks.com/2018ktride
2019 info should be out soon.