Originally Posted by
skidder
I've never lead a multi-day bicycle trip, but have done a few hiking/backpacking trips. I gave up on it, too frustrating trying to 'heard the cats'. Some great folks, but most did not heed any of the preparation advice I gave them that would make their trip enjoyable. I can't imagine what a group of bicycle riders would be like.
I went on a week-long, guided backcountry, backpack trip in Glacier National Park. Went with that option because I had never done any backpacking. Turned out I was the only one who signed up for that week. At the end of the trip the guide told me that I would have hated it if we had the full complement of 8 people basically because it would have been like herding cats of varying physical abilities. On trips like that, you cannot say "Ok. We are going to walk 5 miles up this trail to the pass. We'll regroup there." The group has to be kept close together in case of an injury, etc. The guide told me we would have been constantly stopping and waiting for the slowest person. Because it was just the two of us we got to go off the trails and do walk-up peaks and hang out above the tree (and bug) line for hours.
My guide was an animal. He started out with 78 lbs. to my 54. I offered to carry more of the food, but he wouldn't let me.
