staehpj1

What are you all thinking about for 2022? I am not too excited about any plans myself, so hopefully I can enjoy some of the plans some you all are making.

I have been pretty much nowhere during the pandemic. I might have ventured out on a long trip if only for concerns for myself, but I don't feel right about leaving my wife home alone during the pandemic. We had planned to do some motorized road trips, but given that she is in a pretty high risk group and neither of us are spring chickens (I am 70) plans keep getting pushed back. An elderly dog in iffy health that needs her routine further complicates things. She has trail run about 20,000 miles with me and been a loyal friend since she was a pup so I owe her plenty of loyalty. Of course her running days are over. These days she walks slowly and not very far. She needs a lot of attention and a routine. It has reached a point where I don't feel like I can board her or even impose on friends to watch her. Any departure from her routine is pretty tough on her. She is quite a bit of effort to care for, but she has been a great friend and I figure I owe her the best life I can give her for her last few years. I hope that maybe she won't be too out of sorts travelling with us in a small RV if we can manage to maintain the same daily rythms she is used to and we are considering that sort of travel, but the pandemic has kept us from making the plunge.

In any case I may not do a bike tour as my next long trip or even one of the next several. Traveling with the wife won't be on a bike and if I head out on my own it may be backpacking or canoeing. If I do a tour any time really soon it will probably be close to home. I just might ride across Florida. I guess that could happen this year, but late winter is the best time for that, and covid is supposed to be spiking again about the time I'd be wanting to head out. For me touring is about meeting the folks along the way as much as just about anything else, so avoiding everyone on tour doesn't sound like a fun tour.

jamawani 

Gotta do a big trip this year.
I am seriously jonesing.
Willapa Bay to Assateague Bay with a lot of water in between.

Ideally, I would trail a kayak on a cart. Ha-ha.
But I would like to do a lot of water exploration.
You know I always spend time off-bike - - hiking, getting into trouble.
I want to float the Niobrara River this year.
Right in the middle of the country - in July - a cool, wet paradise.

And I am hoping to play hymns and spirituals at a number of small town churches.
It adds a complicating factor trying to land in town on a Sunday, but hey.
And then end up on Deal Island - and play outside the abandoned Wesley ME Church.
It's a historic, African American church, shuttered for almost 20 years.
Thought I might find a way to get a keyboard and generator there.
Then play all morning for whoever passes by.

And other foolishness - -
Happy New Year!

saddlesores

no big bike trips planned this coming year. we're still "stuck" in china, wifefriend has limited chinese so don't want to leave her alone in the big city. travel to and around the mainland is a pain in the butt for foreigners. getting cellphone scan codes to work with non-chinese id cards/passports is a major headache, as is the common occurrence of being denied lodging because "need quarantine" - despite 3x vaccine, vacc certificate, work permit, residence permit, and passport showing last entry over two years ago. any tour would then be short and here on the island. weather is yucky now, and nothing new to see, so might pass.

plan is to return to thailand in the summer, re-do the retirement visa in bangkok, then move out to the countryside to the house we just bought.

then all depends on the border situation. if closed, can do some in-country tours. if open, it's a short train ride to either laos or cambodia.

indyfabz

So far a 12 day trip in VT south (Brattleboro) to north (St. Albans) utilizing Amtrak to get there and back. (No need for a box, but I will have to remove my front wheel. ) Mix of paved and dirt roads. Some easy/short days. Mostly state park camping with two days off at parks on lakes. Probably start the second week of June. May ultimately decide to drive to Brattleboro, leave the car there, do the ride, take Amtrak back there from St. Albans and drive home.

Also hoping for a four-day over Easter if the weather cooperates. I think Easter is early this year.

gauvins

Considering riding to Tbilisi (Georgia) where I should attend an event in late August, from somewhere in Western Europe (say, Paris), via Istanbul. Very early planning stage. If the pandemic is fading, I'd say that this is quite likely. Otherwise it'll be another encounter with Canadian mosquitos.

Tourist in MSN

Started planning two bike trips for 2022.

• Omicron already canceled one trip, was thinking of LEJOG in early summer, solo trip, but UK does not look inviting for early summer.
• And a bike trip is still a maybe for late fall 2022 with a friend that I have done several other trips with. Thinking taking Amtrak to New Orleans, bike to the west end of Natchez Trace and follow that to Nashville.
• Plus planning for a backpacking trip, solo.
• And a canoe trip, solo.

For 2021 (this year), was thinking LEJOG too, canceled. Also planned but covid canceled a bike trip with a friend. But did a backpacking and canoe trip so I did get out for a couple trips.

2020, did not travel. Canceled bike trip, canoe trip and backpacking trip.

Pratt

La Route Verte is enticing. Will the Canadian border be open? Que sera, sera.

gauvins

Most likely. Current situation is that fully vaccinated foreign nationals can enter Canada (as long as you show a negative PCR taken less than 72hrs prior to boarding.) Not entirely clear what is, or will be the protocol upen entry. We just came back from overseas and "didn't win the lottery" (i.e. random selection for PCR on arrival, with quarantine until you receive a negative result).

Interesting times :/

raybo

I'd like to do the last tour I planned: A week in Puglia (heel of Italy), ferry to Dubrovnik, ride over to Montenegro and up to Durmitor NP (World Heritage Site), over to Bosnia, back to Bari. The plan I've created for this trip has an itinerary that I never really finished as the ride was cancelled before I finalized it.

Mostly, I'd just like to feel safe enough to do some touring, no sure it matters where!

a_d_a_m

I plan to try my second-ever tour in '22 with some co-workers. We decided to try Buffalo to Albany, NY on the Erie Canal/Empire State Trail.

Chris L

I'm hoping to do some touring in Greece this year, but it all depends on travel restrictions and the like. But with governments in the grip of mass hysteria and panic, I'm not planning anything too far ahead.


I'm about to head for Stanthorpe. THat's the extent of my ambitions right now.

PedalingWalrus

I have not stopped traveling during covid although there have been a few setbacks that need to be reclaimed. One of them was when British Airways canceled my flight to Glasgow. So May 5th I am scheduled to fly there again. I will bike tour for 14 days

mev

One step at a time...

First to renew may passport as it expires at end of 2022.

The trip I want to do is one originally scheduled for 2020 and then postponed: Timor-Leste and Western Timor (Indonesia). By about April/May, I'll take stock if the pandemic allows travel to Timor-Leste via either Australia or Jakarta. If so, would book a trip for end of July/start of August. A backup international alternative around the same time is the coast of Morocco (inland seems too hot at this time of year). If neither international alternative pans out, then more likely some shorter us-bound trips.

indyfabz

My 2020 trip to MT and ID got “airlined.” Turned out to be a good thing because I would have faced the pink parts of this:

skidder

Checking in from California. I'll be remodeling a bathroom in January/February (its overdue), maybe another after that, so that'll shoot down late winter. Depending on how the COVID Omicron strain spread goes I was looking at late summer/ fall*** to do some hub-and-spoke touring around Central California (some hill climbs that I personally want to tackle will be involved ), and maybe a credit card tour of my favorite route San Luis Obispo to Orange County*** (south of Los Angeles).

*** = hotel rates along the California coast plummet in the fall during mid-week, so that's the best time to tackle a coastal jaunt.

IPassGas

We got vaccinated in Spring and then decided the gains were worth the risk. Anything US/Canada was complicated by covid, so stuck to the Midwest. In summer, we toured Iowa>Minnesota>Wisconsin>UP>Lower MI. Having missed touring the previous year, it was epic. Looped Iowa hitting most of the bike trails, crossed the high trestle at night, the Root river in MN, all long the Wisconsin river from La Crosse to Lake Gogebic in UP, across UP, along eastern edge of L. Michigan and back to car at Ludington. The Wisconsin river was great, good back roads and beautiful along river for many miles. We tried to cross the Mackinaw bridge but were turned away… mighty pissed we were, no transport across bridge during covid, so took 2 ferries.

We are boosted, will get more shots if allowed, and then Summer 2022 will do Montreal>Lake Saguenay>Gaspe and loop back.

smudgy

I need to ride somewhere in the western US this summer. I was thinking Pacific coast or Sierra Cascades or both.

jeneralist 

Another vote for the Erie Canal, Buffalo to Albany. Timing it so that I *won't* be doing it the same week as the biggest organized tour (https://www.ptny.org/cycle-the-erie-...nual-bike-tour )

mstateglfr 

RAGBRAI, of course, though not exactly a tour in the traditional sense.

I plan to do a 3 or 4 day ride with one of my kids. It could stay local and utilize the trail network in central IA along with rural roads, or maybe one way on the KATY and use the train to come back. Long shot due to travel time is out to the Black Hills for the Mickelson.

Pratt

Doing it after has the advantage that their spray paint blazes are still on the pavement. Signage could have been a lot better when I did it 3 years ago. Trail alternates with pavement a fair amount. Google maps on your phone is also a good idea.

indyfabz

I did in ‘15 during my Black Hills tour. Hit it on June 16th. Went north to south starting at the Englewood Trailhead. Great trail.

Tourist in MSN

I started the Katy at Kirkwood, rode the train west to Sedalia and we rode our bikes back to Kirkwood. Advantage of riding the train first is that you do not have to be obsessive about getting to the train station on time. That was over a decade ago, at that time the Kirkwood station had free parking. No, the train in the photo is not the train we rode, our train came minutes later. Kirkwood is not on the Katy Trail, we had to take city streets to get back to Kirkwood.



We did Mickelson Trail in late Aug. It was 93 degrees at the southern end when we got back to the vehicle. Started at southern end, went north for two days, then back south for two days. If I was going to trim part of the trail off my plan, the southern-most 20 or so miles was the least enjoyable. Try to avoid the time slot for the Sturgis bike rally.

indyfabz

I can believe it. Major reason I did my loop in mid-June. 2015 was an unusually wet spring. Custer got 8” of snow the first week of June, but it melted quickly. A local woman I spoke with in the city park in Custer told me all the green growth lining the creek was usually shriveled and brown at that time. There were a couple of places a few miles outside of Edgemont that I had to skateboard due to washouts from heavy rain earlier that spring. Agree that Minnetonka Trailhead to the southern terminus in Edgemont is probably the least interesting.

Tourist in MSN

Photo is from the drivers seat in my truck as we were leaving after the end of the Mickelson Trail trip in Edgemont, this was how I knew what the temp was. Sign at the bank says 34 degrees C. The flag on the light pole shows how windy it was. Street was almost completely deserted, nobody wanted to be out in the heat.

alan s 

Haven’t been riding much since my cross country bike trip last summer. Didn’t feel any more at risk from Covid touring than by just living normally and going out on occasion. Also did a long sailing trip in the summer and home renovation since then. Trans-Atlantic sailing trip next summer is in the works. No plans for bike touring, but I’ll probably do the GAP/C&O as usual in the spring.