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Old 11-14-12, 10:42 AM
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stevepusser
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Originally Posted by staehpj1
I am retiring at the end of the year, but returning to work part time until June. I plan to take the first two weeks of January off. I am looking for ideas of how I might best take advantage of those two weeks without breaking the bank since I will not yet be opening the tap on my nest egg and will not yet be on social security. Buying airline tickets is OK, but I don't want to wind up spending a fortune either staying in $20-40 campsites or on higher priced airfare destinations. I am not completely averse to stealth camping, but I usually prefer to stay in plain sight when possible.

A purely bike touring trip is one possibility and if I do that I might consider finishing one of my previously ridden routes. That would mean possibly either riding the remainder of the Southern Tier (Sarasota to St Augustine and maybe on to the keys) or the remainder of the Pacific Coast (Central California to the Mexican border and possibly beyond).

Another possibility would be the Bryce and Zion National Park area. In that case it may be some biking mixed with some backpacking. It may also be backpacking with a rental car available to tie shorter trips together. In that case it might be day hikes and/or overnight backpacking, possibly with no bicycling or possibly with MTB day rides. I have not visited the area and do not have a feel for how best to see it. I'd really appreciate any feed back on that.

Also I have not ruled out some xc skiing or snowshoeing in West Virginia assuming snow cover or maybe some car camping, mountain biking, and/or backpacking if there is no snow. That would be a car trip from home so no need for airfare.
c
Bryce and Zion are relatively high altitude and may experience winter storms. The southern california coas will be much warmer; though it's the rainy season, that's relative..usually there's more dry days than those with rain. This is also a nice time of year to explote the low desert in California and Arizona; I do know that the developed Palm Canyon campground in Borrego Springs offers hike and bike sites ($8 per person per night last year),
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