gene99

Been feeling particularly stir crazy this week. Somehow I was able to do a 3 day self-planned on road ride in Maine at the end of the summer. But now, I have nothing planned b/c of COVID.

Just curious, when are you going to tour next year. Commercial tour? Ride w/friends? Multi-day? On/off road?

Where are you going to go? How are you going to get there?

P.S. i live in the NE. Wouild be happy to hear of a good route/destination for a multi-day ride.

boomhauer

I'm sill trying to figure out how to attach my 10 lbs insulated carhart jumpsuit to my bike .
It's very unwieldly.,....but a necessity after 5 pm sundown. It's cold camping now.

jpescatore

Not exactly a road ride, but by fall next year if the pandemic situation is reasonable, we are going to do a postponed Erie Canal towpath multi-day ride.

A friend who lives in Columbus OH may also meet in the middle and do the Great Allegheny Passage Trail for a few days, we've done that a number of times over the years.

On the optimistic side, a few years ago my wife and I did a supported ride with Freewheeling Adventures (Cycleblaze writeup here) and had a great time - at the recommendation of another couple on that tour, we have doing a Prince Edward Island tour with them on our bucket list.

indyfabz

Would not count on a commercial tour right now. Things are too up in the air. (No pun intended.)

If it is run next year, the Bon Ton Roulet in the Finger Lakes region in decent.

You could also roll your own ride. There’s the GAP and/or C&O. Adventure Cycling has loop routes in Vermont and the Adirondacks. Amtrak has expanded bike options. In September I used it to get to the start of a tour across PA and then rode home to Philly. In 2018 I took it to northern Vermont and rode home using a combination of my own route and AC’s Atlantic Coast Route, making a stop at my 35th high school reunion along the way.

I tour solo, so finding people is not an issue for me.

PedalingWalrus

Hoping for the vaccine by April 2021. :-( hoping hoping. My wife will probably get is sooner as she is on the front lines at elderly care but I am not sure about me.

Anyway ... this sort of kind of hinges on the vaccine although not entirely compulsatory. We are thinking of biking the west coast of Italy at the end of April, into May.

Also there is an opening for August 2021 for me to do something solo. I might do something near Sweden as I have had a pair of skis stuck at a friends house for 2 years unable to have them shipped to the USA due to some length restriction (210cm skis). If I could slip them into a ski bag and fly with them on the return that would be fantastic ... but this is really a rough outline of bigger plans. It will all be different , I am sure

mstateglfr 

https://gfp.sd.gov/parks/detail/geor...ckelson-trail/
https://bikecowboytrail.com/
https://bikepacking.com/routes/bikepacking-nebraska/
https://bikepacking.com/routes/oglala-loop-nebraska/

Just a handful of relatively local ideas with what appear to be really great views.

cyccommute 

This last fall I started exploring an area of Colorado that few people actually go to (and most people in Colorado don’t even realize exists). I tried to bikepack it but because so few people ride there, the trails are vague suggestions at best and I couldn’t make enough progress to actually bikepack. I have spent a couple of trips down there to explore and map routes for the MTBProject. Almost all of the routes in the eastern part of Colorado on this map are mine.


All of these routes are ones I’ve submitted with the exception of a short trail down there in all the green squiggles.



I’m planning on going down there again this spring to do more exploring. The area is used so little that it is like a wilderness that I can ride a bike in. There’s a bunch to explore down there.

I also have a number of ideas for the mountains of Colorado (when it gets too hot to go out east). One of them is to follow the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway line as a bikepacking trip.

indyfabz

“The NE”, as in northeast?

mstateglfr 

Yup, I see it now.

gene99

Thanks for reminding me about Freewheeling Adventures. I'm going to peruse their trips, as well as check out the Erie Towpath tour.

One of my sons and I did the GAP trail ride about 3 years ago. Didn't do the half to DC. Hmm...

Thanks again. Just looking at trips makes me feel better.

gene99

Many many thanks, indy, for all of the suggestions. I'm going check them out.

Like I replied to indyfabz, just checking this stuff out gets my pulse rate going.

Papa Tom

It's really tough not being able to plan trips for the spring and summer. I missed my couple of annual summer over-nighters this year because I am not a camper and I didn't want to stay in hotels. Right about now, I'd already be gearing up for my summer trips, looking at maps, booking hotels, making sure my wife (not a serious rider) has something special to do that weekend, etc. Instead, I'm just looking forward to being able to ride to work again in the early Spring of '21.

If you live in Maine and want to explore other parts of New England, I am a big fan of Narragansett, Rhode Island and Mystic, Connecticut. These might be destinations worth checking out.

robow

A small group of us will be riding for 7-10 days down south at the end of March, assuming we can find campgrounds open. Then there are a lot of rides I hope to do next year if things have somewhat normalized, as so many were put off this year.

indyfabz

A quick turnaround you could do is an up and back on the Pine Creek Trail between Wellsboro and Jersey Shore, PA. Saw a young bear when I did it as part of a 2017 tour from Erie to Philly. My route was pretty good and now is easier with the opening of the bike trail bridge in Jim Thorpe that eliminates two climbs.

gene99

keep'em comin' indy.

i'm gonna check all of them out.

two of my sons and i "credit card toured" for three days in Maine last September: Brunswick-Augusta-Rockland - Brunswick. was great.

PedalingWalrus

Bikepacking.com published a great bikepacking route across Vermont today

https://bikepacking.com/routes/vtxl/

Carbonfiberboy 

Not doing anything except solo day rides until I'm vaccinated. Then it should be normal, at least for me. I don't do commercial tours. I'm hoping for a group tour in June though we'll just have to see what's open. I'm assuming that the vaccination rate will be a lot slower than the optimistic stuff we're seeing now.

Pratt

There is a nice rail trail, the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail (XNHAT) that runs from Bethel Maine, to Woodsville, New Hampshire, ~80 miles. It has a couple of campgrounds at about the midpoint. It has a website with pictures and downloadable maps and cue sheets. When you get to Woodsville, do not despair, cross the Connecticut River on the handy bridge and pick up the Cross Vermont Trail. That runs ~90 miles to Burlington. Both have camp grounds, opportunities for dispersed camping, and inns and motels along the way for overnight accommodations. Both also have websites with maps, cue sheets, and updates.
There are plans to extend the XNHAT to Lewiston, but I don't know how far those have gotten.

gene99

thx.

did RAGBRAI a few years ago. great.

gene99

thx.

i'm in NY but went to Maine last summer. would consider again.

gene99

almost in my back yard (+/- a few hundred miles).

indyfabz

Neglected to mention that Amtrak’s Vermonter service, mentioned above, has roll-on bike service, and you can get on and off at any station along the route. That’s handy in planning your own trip, especially because you don’t need a bike box. I’ve used it twice to start tours from Brattleboro and St. Albans, getting motel rooms each night before starting riding the next morning. (Burlington is a fun town with a campground near the beach.) Only space for three bikes on each train, so I would make the required reservation early during peak season.

djb

brought this up another time, not sure if it was with you, but I stayed in Brattleboro on the way down to Boston a bunch of years ago. We stayed in a cheap motel that had a/c which was nice during the heatwave we were riding through, and the big grocery store a 2 min walk away was very convenient.

indyfabz

Probably the Econo Lodge. When I stayed in town in 2018 I ignored the advice of a BF member I know and camped. The climb to the campground was stupid steep. When you finally make it to the office to register, there is another steep hill to climb to get to the camping area. And after all that, the place is not particularly interesting.

djb

ah, now I remember you telling about the two steep hills etc