gauvins

You are right when you say that things are in a state of flux. But my understanding is that if you are fully vaccinated (2 doses) there shouldn't be a problem. If you fly into Canada, you may also be required to show proof of a negative PCR test. IIRC, depends on the flight's origin.

Travel restrictions are annoying, but not insurmountable.

fishboat

At this point I'm just going by the instructions outlined in the link. We were thinking of entering Canada in late summer/early fall so there's lots of time yet. We won't be committing to any reservations until things loosen up though.

indyfabz

Got one of the few remaining campsites at Cape Henlopen S.P. in Lewes, DE for Easter weekend. First day's ride to Woodbine, NJ then to Cape May for the ferry to Lewes. Had to skip that part last October due to a crazy storm that hit the area. After two nights in Lewes it will be back to Cape May and up the coast to Atlantic City on Easter for a train ride back to Philly.

Good Friday is April 15th this year. Guess I had better think about getting in some miles starting soon.

imi

I’m hoping Japan will open its borders again.
If not, it’ll be France, Spain, Portugal in September (as usual) 😊

indyfabz

Shoving off tomorrow morning for the weekend.

Here is the map of the first two days:

Ride with GPS | Bike Route Planner and Cycling Navigation App

First camping spot is around mile 64.5. Bummed that someone has reserved my favorite site there. I haven't gotten in any long rides, so I think doing a metric century+ on the first day would not be smart. As such, I am going to take a train further in and pick up the route at mile 15.

Friday will be a short ride to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. Cape Henlopen State Park is a short ride from the ferry dock in Lewes. I will set up camp and run into town for supplies. Saturday I will ride around the park and then probably head down to Rehoboth for lunch. There are a lot of nice trails in and around the park, which is former a U.S. military base established to guard the Delaware Bay against Nazi invasion. The federal government donated it to the state sometime after WWII. it's going to be crowded. When I booked back in mid-February the campground was nearly full. I would bet the weekends are booked through the summer already.

Sunday I will take an early morning ferry ride back to NJ and then ride north via roads and a bike trail to Cape May Courthouse then head to the coast at Stone Harbor. Final destination will be Atlantic City for a train ride home. About 50 miles that day. The trail was recently lengthened, but Goggle Maps has not yet been updated. I will also do some boardwalk riding in Ocean City. This time of year bikes are allowed on the boardwalks all day. Supposed to hit low 80s tomorrow, with a chance of spotty storms late in the day. Highs in the 60s, nights in the 40s Friday and Saturday. Good campfire weather. Sunday is going to be cool "down the shore" as we say. Low to mid-50s, but mostly sunny and dry.

Ride with GPS | Bike Route Planner and Cycling Navigation App

raybo

Last week, the opportunity presented itself for a 4 day ride down the California coast. I managed four 50 miles days from Mendocino down to San Francisco. A route I've done before.

First tour in over 2 years! Did a couple weeks of hard training and the ride went to plan. Was greatly pleased I still could complete 4 long days in a row!

indyfabz

Just a bit nicer than the Jersey Shore.

zacster

I plan on dipping my toes into Lake Erie in Buffalo in August and following the water down back home to Brooklyn where I'll dip them again at Coney Island (or maybe just head straight home because I'll be exhausted by then and take a drive to the beach the next day?) I'll be following the Empire State Trail the entire way with a side trip maybe to Lake George.

And what could be nicer than the Jersey Shore? This maybe?



I was on a bike when I took that but wasn't on a tour. Just a daily rental.

indyfabz

Bunch ‘o dolphins and a whale crossing the Delaware Bay. Sorry. No photos.

indyfabz

Overnighter from home to a state park this coming Saturday:

Bike Route Planner - Ride with GPS

Pretty much half bike trail, then the hills start. I usually do this trip on a Friday and take a day ride through some beautiful Amish country on Saturday, but I could not get a campsite for Friday night. In fact, I got the last available one for Saturday.

Supposed to get down below 40 Saturday night. Sadly, PA state parks do not sell firewood. (NJ state parks do, and it's good wood.) Going to christen my BA Fly Creek HV UL 2 tent. I will probably pack all my food rather than stop and shop at mile 28.5.

Route home will be the reverse. As luck would have it, the route passes right by the site of my local club's spring picnic on Sunday. Free lunch!

jeneralist 

And... been there, tried that. You can read more info on the e-bike forum.

indyfabz

I was toying with the idea of a ND trip in September but I’m no longer willing to risk flying. Too many cancellations and delays.

Instead, I’ll probably try the ride I started doing in 2018 from Vienna, OH, to Philly. I had to abort after three days due to really bad weather and even worse weather (hurricane remnants) forecast for where I was headed.

MidLife50

Just back yesterday from Erie Canal Buffalo to Albany. Side trip to Seneca Falls. First significant road miles while touring. Clocked in at just under 400 miles total per Strava. Trip report to follow soon.

Brett A

Looks like I'll have time for a mini tour the second week in August. I'm off work for eight days. I'll find a place my wife and I can car camp ~250 miles from the house, then I'll spend the following week riding home to central Massachusetts. Thinking of starting in Belfast ME or Ithaca NY. I'm seriously jonesing for another five or six week tour out west though. (I've done 3 in recent years). But I have an actual job now (was self employed) and may not get that kind of time until I'm ready to leave it.

mev

A more complete CGOAB journal and logistics is coming, but am on my way back from Timor-Leste after having spent 11 nights on the island of Timor. A few more general notes:
1. The island of Timor is split between West Timor which is part of Indonesia and Timor-Leste, which is an independent country since 2002. There is also a small enclave (Oecusse) that is part of Timor-Leste but otherwise surrounded by West Timor. There is a longer history here but Timor-Leste was a Portuguese colony that seemingly was mostly ignored and not invested in much by Portugal. The Japanese invaded the entire island and afterwards Indonesia ended up getting independence by 1949 but Timor-Leste reverted to Portuguese colony until 1975 when Portugal decided to divest itself of colonial territories. There was a brief ~8 day independence and then Indonesia invaded and make Timor-Leste a province of Indonesia. After an independence referendum in 1999, Indonesia formally quit but there was a lot of violence from militias and others. It was this violence that first brought Timor-Leste to my attention since Australia and then part of the UN sent in peacekeepers. Hence Timor-Leste was in the news when I was cycling around Australia in 2001.
2. The area doesn't seem to have many tourists e.g. compared to a place like Bali. Instead we were sometimes asked "what project we were working on?". There appear to still be a number of UN or NGO efforts and hence the assumption we must be part of that. It took ~23 hours of flying time in four flights to arrive to the island (3 hours Austin->LAX, 14 hours LAX->Manila, 4 hours Manila->Bali and 2 hours Bali->Dili).
3. Our general plan was to look around Dili and then see if we could bicycle from Dili to the Oecusse enclave where there was a ferry to return. Total distance was ~200km so not a huge amount of cycling.
4. Despite the relatively mild cycling goal, I still found myself having problems with heat exhaustion in heat+humidity. Not as hot as Austin is now - but surprising. As a result, I even caught a ride for part of the abbreviated distance , but still had fun and that was its own adventure to figure out. With that caution, I'd still recommend this as an interesting place to visit further an explore. Dili is a bit of a madhouse with a lot of two wheelers and other traffic, but once we leave that, the parts of both Timor-Leste and Indonesia we cycled across were interesting and nice to see.

This trip was originally on my 2020 bucket list and interrupted by Covid; so this year seemed like a good chance to finally get back to Timor-Leste and explore a bit...