Machka 

You couldn't buy those things along the way?

Chris L

I remember my first bike tour. I was absolutely petrified at the start. I mean REALLY nervous. I remember seeing the town of Beaudesert disappearing behind me about 75km in and realising there was no turning back now. I remember it rained the entire first night at Mt French (which turned out to be the hardest climb on the entire tour). Fortunately for me I'd done an overnighter a couple of weeks beforehand, so I had a fair idea of what to expect, and I'm pretty sure that got me though the first couple of days. Then I remember getting over Cunningham's Gap and realising this was definitely possible. I had a few challenges after that, but by then I had grown in confidence. The same thing could work for you. You'll get confidence at riding on the road, camping, finding food or whatever by doing it. The more time you spend riding before taking off the better, you'll build both your confidence on the road and your fitness (never underestimate the value of this one).

I think that's the message here. Start by doing an overnight trip so you can dip your toes in the experience. It will seem like a steep learning curve at first - I remember I couldn't even put my tent up before I did my first overnight trip (I often wonder what became of the guy at Sharp Park all those years ago who showed me how to do it). But you'll learn enough on the over nighter to give you some confidence. Then you can take that confidence and attempt something bigger. Honestly, it will be a lot easier if you start with something a little smaller, then work your way up to biking across the country.

Tourist in MSN

Above I commented "Once in California, you do hit some narrow roads with almost no shoulder,"

And Spinnaker commented ...

I do not remember anything out of the ordinary along that section. But compared to Oregon, I was not too happy with California. Roads were worse, the state park staff in California considered people in the hiker biker sites to be low revenue whereas in Oregon the state park staff considered bikers to be a customer, just like the big RVs in the more expensive sites.

When I commented about narrow or lack of shoulder in parts of California, I was thinking of the section of road where I took the photo below. Checked the date on that photo and I took it between Sonoma Coast State Beach and Samuel P Taylor State Park according to my GPS data on that date.

This section of road had no shoulders, was up and down over shallow hills and was winding from side to side, thus any traffic could come up on you rather suddenly because of the short distance of visibility. To make matters worse, with the trees we were in and out of shadow, and so were the drivers also in and out of shadow. Bottom line, visibility during a nice sunny day was quite poor due to road design. On bike tours, I have two taillights, usually one on in blink mode but when riding through the area in the photo I had both of my taillights on in bright blink mode.

You can't see it from the photo but some of the bushes that were growing into the traffic lane were thorn bushes, you did not want to ride too close to the side of the road. Of my whole trip, I thought that this was the most dangerous section of road to ride on.



On a different trip, there was a lot of traffic for the section of road in the photo below, you had to keep your eyes on the shoulder as any debris that was on the shoulder was there in perpetuity, thus there was a lot of it. But overall the worst part of this section of road was how boring it was for the next seven miles. My biggest fear here was getting a flat and not having much room to work while trying to fix it. But no flat, quite uneventful, which in this case was very good.

alan s 

gauvins

Sorry to read this.

1. Not clear that a bike touring forum is the best place to address what might be a case of dysfunctional anxiety. You may want to read about anxiety in general and figure a way to cope as best possible
2. Interesting question wrt safety. I've tried to find hard data to assess the risk but could't find much. As you can probably guess, most cycling occurs in cities, which is where most injuries are reported. But there are no reported "hazard rate" for bicycle tourers (such as, 1 fatality per 1 000 000 cycled miles).
3. One way to assess the relative risk is provided by the statement (from the CDC I believe) that cycling is recommended because it increases life expectancy due to the benefits of exercising. Implicit is that the risk of cycling injury is rather low.
4. You refer to being hit by a car. IIRC, less than 25% of cycling injuries involve a car. Falls due to poor handling, poor road conditions, or intoxication are the leading causes of injury. You are in control of these (well, you can ride more carefully on bad roads). So, anxiety will make you safer. Silver lining.

fietsbob

Pacific coast people have had issues on this US 101 bridge across the Columbia river ..


there is a bus with a 2 bike rack on the front that crosses from Ilwaco WA to Astoria OR a few times a day..
The bridge replaced cross river ferry service in 1966 ..




.

fietsbob

another lmage 4 miles
not as long as 7, but it has to go up so international shipping can pass beneath it..
a clearance of 196 feet (60 m) at high tide .. High slack tide is when shipping traffic crosses the bar with best safety..





..

Jim from Boston

My wife and were active tourists in primitive 1970’s and 80’s when cycle touring was more of a rarity, without guided tours and Internet support, and we even did a cross-country honeymoon. Since we were young and in love, we had minimal anxieties.

Reading the A&S threads, it is obvious that any cyclist should be worried being hit by a car, anywhere. There was even a recent fatality on metro Boston’s best MUP.

I haven’t read this entire thread, but I have expressed a specific anxiety previously, probably not posted here, on this Fifty-Plus Forum thread, “What do you find hardest about cycle touring now we aint spring chickens any more?”Noting that you went camping with the family in Colorado last year, what are they doing this summer? (rhetorical question).

@jppe, a North Carolinan retiree posted a couple years ago on the Fifty-Plus Forum about his cross-country ride, with his wife driving a SAG vehicle. When met I them in Boston at the end:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

… We then had a celebratory dinner at a fine Boston seafood restaurant (Legal Seafood Harborside). We re-hashed our respective cross-country trips, including the current one with Jeri’s point of view.

While jp was away from the table, I asked her how she liked the trip…”I had a blast.”…

A leisurely cross-country drive might be a nice family vacation, and alleviate your anxieties.

mstateglfr 

You are saying cycling is not safe? And that is a good thing?

Strongly disagree with both those comments, especially as it applies to this thread's topic.
Road touring is safe and that is why its good.

PedalingWalrus

djb

evaluating and managing risks to one person can seem like something completely crazy and a "death wish" to another person.

but all in all, riding a bike not in a war zone is something that is very doable, you just gotta use yer noggin and be situationally aware at all times and know when to be on high alert, and the few times when to get the hell out of the way and add a minute or 5 to your day (and yes, choose routes that arent horrible, although I'm sure we have all had the misfortune of being stuck on a totally crap road with tons of traffic or trucks that we were not expecting--part of the game unfortunately, despite it obviously being something we want to avoid as much as we can).

Bassmanbob

Yeah. The Seven Mile Bridge. I did this last February as part of a Key Largo to Key West Century ride I organized for a few friends and me. This was a butt clenching part of the ride, and I was happy to be finished with it.

Clipped_in

Here's some good advice from a credentialed professional therapist and avid solo backpacker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35eegWnvJ-g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnagyv9LkGM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssD9AkXl5hg

KC8QVO

The time gap between your post, #38, and the previous, #37, was over a year and a half = pretty old thread. I assume you searched "seven mile bridge" to find the thread.

Just FYI for following replies with regards to the original post/topic/question.

It was an interesting read, though. My 2 cents as far as the anxiety goes is to do some short trips loaded - day tours then at least an over-night. The bonus would be to get some experience in different weather/climate conditions, especially with over-night camping. For example - in the cold weather (near freezing) - the clothing layering and sleeping insulation need to be tuned and known and are going to be much different than the opposite - hot weather. So getting experience in the range you expect to be in can be important. That way you have "been there, done that" so you know what to expect.

Other than that, as for the fitness level - that is relatively important. The better shape you're in the better off you'll be, for sure. However, if you can ride 60-80 miles in a day then I say you can easily do back-to-back touring days. The trick is to scale the mileage back to 30-40 (1/2 your 60-80 day rides). That way, with the load, you have some head room on what you can do until you build up. You will most certainly build up over back-to-back riding days. So when you get in better shape you will be able to add mileage accordingly. If you bite off more than you can chew up front you set yourself up for an early failure. That is also where a short tour will give you some insight on your abilities - so long as you are loaded the same as you expect to be on longer trips (weight/bulk will affect how hard it is to ride = how long you can go).

indyfabz

I had a totally different introduction. The first day of my first tour—ACA’s 1999 unsupported Northern Tier tour—marked only the second time I had ridden a loaded bike. The first night marked the first night I had ever slept in a tent. It got down close to freezing that night in WA. Prior to that, my camping experience had consisted of a couple of nights where I and my kids at a summer camp dragged out mattresses down to the model campsite and slept outside in nice weather.

Fitness-wise, I was a long time roadie, so that wasn’t an issue. But the early weather was tough. The fourth day of the trip was in a heavy, cold rain. Two days later we crossed the North Cascades Highway. On the way up it started to rain. The rain turned to snow before Rainy Pass and continued through Washington Pass. That was a first for me. A few days later we crossed Sherman Pass in light snow, but I saw my first ever moose during the descent, which was exciting.