Originally Posted by
HendersonD
Thanks for everyone's input. I purposefully left out some details in my first post. I have only done on bike tour, an 8 day, 420 mile tour with 9 friends. Loved it but it was uneventful in terms of anyone having difficulties or really bad weather. That certainly could change on a 3 month trip. I am retired and have the time and the money to do the Transamerica route. Being locked into a schedule with 13 other people could get tough given the length of time for the entire trip. I am doing a solo bike tour from my house outside of Rochester, NY, to Pittsburg via roads and then to DC via the GAP and C&O canal trail. It will be a 13 day ride in September with about half camping and half hotels. I will likely decided on how to handle the Transamerica tour after this shorter jaunt but I am leaning towards a solo cross country ride next summer
In deciding how to handle your TA remember that it will likely be different than your Rochester to DC tour when it comes to a lot of factors.
The road portion will be like the TA in some ways, but you likely won't be meeting othe fellow touring riders. On the TA we met a lot of folks that we felt a common goal with. We leap frogged with some of them for weeks or more. We bumped into people we met during the planning stages and got to know them in camp and on the road. On the GAP and the C&O riding will likely be quite different. You likely will meet lots of other riders, but I'd imagine it is a different dymanic.
Originally Posted by
HendersonD
I gave a lot of thought on how to handle food during a Transamerica ride and decided to go stove less. This was after reading a lot of postings about this very subject on these forums. In my upcoming two week trip I will get a chance to test this method by using a combination of cold soaking, ready to eat food, and stopping at restaurants.
Your call, but I'd miss having the ability to heat up/cook food. You will be carrying a cup and/or bowl and utensils any way so a pop can burner, stand, and wind screen might add as little as 2 ounces. That and a few ounces of alcohol and you could have a hot drink or maybe ramen noodles with some foil packed tuna now and then even if you don't want to actually bother with cooking. Even when my total camping and cooking gear is trimmed down to a 9 pound base weight I still take a little stove. Something to consider.