Originally Posted by
PedalingWalrus
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The best benefit for me was freedom. I could find any campsite anywhere I chose to, I did not have to patronize with the same people in an outfitters group
Not a minor consideration. At some point Cycle Oregon started offering Tent & Porter Service. For an extra fee, a contractor would supply you with a tent, have it ready for you when you arrived and have your bag waiting there. Thing is, you got assigned the same numbered tent every night, and the tents were pitched really close to each other. I heard more than one horror story from people who were assigned tents next to really loud snorers. Having ridden across the country with a group of 12 others, four of whom were bad snorers, I like the freedom to pick my own sites.
In 2014 I did the Bon Ton Roulet in the Finger Lakes area. Spent two nights at Keuka College. We found out the first night that we had pitched close to a really, really loud snorer. There was no practicable place to move the tent, so the second night the GF and I slept on couches in a dorm common area after watching the night’s TdF coverage.