Machka 

Short tours are great for those of us who can only spare a few days from our busy schedules to spend on a cycling tour ... or for those of us who want to do a quick exploration of the area where we live or an area we want to learn more about ... and for those who want to test equipment, bicycle setup, etc.

When you go on a short hub-and-spoke tour, overnight tour, weekend tour, long weekend tour, maybe even a week-long tour, or something similar ... tell us about it here throughout 2020.

Where did you go? What did you see along the way? Would you recommend the area? What sort of accommodation did you use? What kind of bicycle did you ride? Did you learn anything new?

What short tours do you have planned for 2020?



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Past tours ...

2019 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...ort-tours.html

2018 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...ort-tours.html

2017 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...ort-tours.html

2016 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...ort-tours.html

2015 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/98...ort-tours.html

2014 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/92...ort-tours.html

2013 short tours:
2013 - Your Short Tours

2012 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/79...ort-tours.html

2011 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/72...ort-tours.html

2007 short tours:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/25...ort-tours.html



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Some attempt at definitions ...

Short tours can include quite a variety of different sorts of touring including, but not limited to ...

-- day tours (usually taking up most of the day and including scenic or tourist destinations)
-- hub-and-spoke tours (cycling or driving out to a destination which becomes the "headquarters" or "hub", and then doing day tours off in various directions from the "hub")
-- overnight tours (cycling out to a neighbouring town, campground, national park, etc, staying overnight in a campground, hotel, B&B, or whatever other choice of accommodation is available)
-- weekend or long weekend tours or several days or week long tours (similar to the overnight tour, but longer)

These tours can be credit card tours where no camping gear is carried and the cyclist stays in accommodations such as hotels, B&Bs hostels, etc., and eats in restaurants, cafes, etc., or they can be camping tours, or some combination of the two.

They can have a variety of purposes ... travel and exploration, a desire to get away from it all for a weekend, visiting family and friends, or in combination with work, school, or other events.

Lots of options!



Longer tours/all tours of 2020: https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...you-going.html

GadgetGirlIL

Tentative plans to ride the Katy trail west to east in March with a dear friend. I think he plans to do it over 5 days, staying in B&Bs each night. I'm just along for the ride since the daily mileage is up to him. This to celebrate his 79th birthday year! We rode together in November and got 70 miles done on the paved trails in Madison county in Illinois (across from St. Louis). He originally wanted to do 80 miles but told me at mile 42 that he only had ~20 miles left in him so we tweaked the return trip to his house.

On my own, I plan to get at least 2-3 long weekends of credit card touring accomplished. I did an overnight trip back in October and enjoyed the experience. Now I'd like to do at least a 2 night away from home trip, possibly 3 nights. Will depend a lot on my work schedule as I've taken on more job duties thanks to a colleague retiring.

JerrySTL

The 2020 Katy Trail Ride is going from west to east this year in June. https://mostateparks.com/2020ktride

GadgetGirlIL

Thanks for this information but I have a conflict with work conference in June so the only window of opportunity I have is my spring break in March.

Tourist in MSN

Keep an eye on the potential for flooding.
https://mostateparks.com/page/58843/...lood-locations

GadgetGirlIL

Thanks for this website! My dear friend has been keeping a close eye on the repairs from last year's flooding. I will still be down to visit in March since I have a conference in Springfield, IL the weekend that starts off my spring break. If necessary we will ride elsewhere. We had a great time exploring the paved trail network in Madison county, IL when I was down there in November.

His wife got him a "I Killed the Katy Trail" t-shirt for his 79th birthday but he doesn't want to wear it until he has ridden the whole trail!

mev

Four weekends in March. Four Texas State parks within 50 miles.
Four campground reservations made on successive Saturdays.
Just a set of short trips to get out when weather in Central Texas is typically ideal. April is time for annual Easter Hill Country Ride (ehct.com) as well as 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and chance to celebrate Loveland, Colorado PEDAL club founded on Earth Day 1970...

KC8QVO

A lot of my riding I consider to be "day tours". My weekend day rides are usually in the 40-60 mile range, fully self supported, except for an occasional restaurant stop (my last one of 2019 was a low-60's mileage round trip to a tavern famous for fried balogna sandwiches, for example).

After my experience along the Ohio to Erie Trail over a couple days last Fall I was impressed with the trail system and am intending to make more of the trail system part of my touring as this season progresses. I am not sure what that is going to look like yet, but it will be fun.

Something I have been wanting to do is a combination bike/train tour. I have a family member down near Atlanta now that rides also. There isn't a direct way to get there by train, nor is there a train station close to home, but there are a couple of "around the country" routes that I could take out East or through the center of the country that would be very interesting. I did get my first train ride experience this past Spring from NW Indiana to Cincinnati Ohio. It was something I wanted to do for years and in an odd way I was able to make it happen (not related to biking, though). It was an awesome experience and an absolute pleasure of a trip, even though it was short and a large part of it was at night (unloaded in Cinci around 3am I think). I had my "train/bike tour" idea years ago, but never had it materialize. Now knowing the experience (though, bike-less) I am really looking forward to an opportunity where I can make it happen. Whether that will be in 2020 or not... I don't know.

indyfabz

Two weeks in Montana and Idaho.

mstateglfr 

Realistically all short tours this year.
itd be awesome to take a week and ride solo out in Western SD, but that wont be in the cards.

- Will do a local 2 day overnight with my 9yo.
- Then a 3 day ride on Katy with my 13yo where it's train out and ride back.
- 2 weekend campouts with the youth group I mentor for.
- week of RAGBRAI.

Then hopefully a late weekend local overnight with kids.

jpescatore

Later this year, my wife and I will drive to Venice FL to spend time with friends down there and do much local biking. I will then bike 5 days from Venice to Jacksonville, put the bike on Amtrak back to Washington DC Union Station overnight and then bike home from there.

For Xmas, our daughter gave us a gift certificate for a hotel on the Erie Canal Towpath trail, so we will build that into some "hub and spoke" touring of that trail later in the year.

I'm hoping in the fall to sneak in a few weekend overnight tours in the mid-Atlantic, we'll see.

All my touring is credit card style.

mrv 

Planning a couple of S24O treks west of home to the Waterloo Rec Area. Quite nice if you are in the S.E. Michigan area.
Maybe in the spring I'll take a vacation day an hop the AMTRAK train in the AM and spend the day riding 130 or so miles back home. Did that in 2019 and had a good time.

I'm hoping to do a week or so following this plan: https://bikepacking.com/routes/north-country-traverse/
- hopefully in September.

DeadGrandpa

Gonna go unsupported up the Natchez Trace with my fiancee in April sometime. Our first unsupported tour, camping/ B&Bs on alternate nights, we're thinking. It's an easy, introductory tour, a confidence building experience. For the summer, we booked a tour of the Finger Lakes area as a vacation. After that, nobody knows.

Happy Feet

Booked two weeks in August this year with the tentative plan to explore two areas in Saskatchewan by fat bike: The Great Sand Hills and Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park.




I spent a day riding the Sand Hills two years ago but found it hard on 26x1.75 tires. That trip spurred my desire to get a fat bike so I could return and explore further.

Cypress Hills is covered in a bikepacking.com write up. https://bikepacking.com/routes/bikep...cypress-hills/

Also returning to Moab in the fall to hopefully do the White Rim Trail and some more hub and spoke mtbing.

Digger Goreman

CC with wife, April break, Decatur, Ga - Silver Comet - Chief Ladiga - Anniston, Al and back!

jpescatore

I just completed what was a planned 5 day short tour of cycling across Florida, that turned out to really be only two days of touring, for a variety of reasons.

CycleBlaze writeup here.

seedsbelize 

Planning to ride from Indianapolis to Athens, Ohio. Spend a week there and ride back. I might do some short touring in my home state of Yucatan yet this winter. A day of three. Criedit card.
Next year I will be ready for my first longish tour.

bark_eater 

This summer I will probably do another week of state park to state park bopping around the Delmarva Peninsula. Also hope to get a some log road camping in Down East Maine.

mrv 

I went Louisville to Detroit a few years ago. Central Indiana and Ohio - - so flat, just flat, so so flat... and hog farms....
I think once you're further east in Ohio it'll be nicer. I basically followed the Ohio River to Madison, then hugged the IN and OH border until Michigan. I think it was a head wind with intermittent lighting storms most of the way. The flatness made it easy to see the storms coming. Next time I may add a few days and go central Ohio into Kentucky. Or maybe AMTRAK to Chicago and then ride through Indiana. Lots of options.

Machka 

Have you been able to get out for a short tour this year?

We got a few little hub-and-spoke tours in before everything shut down ... that's about the extent of what we're doing these days anyway. We were hoping to travel at Easter, but of course ...

indyfabz

Nope. Not only has the weather mostly sucked (chilly and rainy), all the state park campgrounds in PA and NJ closed weeks ago. Sate parks in DE closed a week or so ago.

I was hoping to do a four-day over Easter in NJ and DE. Not only is there nowhere to camp legally, the ferry that I needed to take stopped accepting foot traffic two weeks ago. At least I got my reservation at the DE state park where I had planned to stay refunded. That was over $120. (Because it was race weekend at relatively nearby motor speedway I had to book for 3 days even though I was only going to stay 2 nights.)

robow

The first two 7 day long tours of this season had to be nixed and the third in May is now looking questionable. Meanwhile with a banged up knee, crummy weather, and me putting on weight, I may need a new heavy duty touring bike that will tolerate my increased girth.

indyfabz

I can also feel my gut getting bigger. Even when it’s cold I walk at least 5 miles outside in connection with going to the office and back and during lunch. Hard to motivate myself to do that when I’m working at home in sweats.

mev

Only one weekend in March as a camping weekend.

Cancelled my other March trips and Easter Hill Country ride is also cancelled. I set up to organize a ride for 50th anniversary of Earth Day which I have now also cancelled.

I will just wait and let things play out. However, when it is reasonable for some tours, I expect there will be more short tours this year than a long international trip.

Pratt

I have some plans, or more accurately, possibilities, that sort of depend on what kind of camping will be possible/likely/legal in a month or two.