Touring - Where ya gonna go this summer?

Let's all get in the touring mode...
Are your smiles on? :)
Do you have the bike, the bags, the camping gear, the...? You get the idea.
Are you ready to stop dreamin' and start peddlin'?
Tell us all, where ya goin' this summer? :D
Give us a run down of your plans, what do you want to see, and who are you goin' with (or not)?
Inspiration and the adventure, that is what it's about my dear friends. Maybe it's a long weekend or a long summer trip or for the very lucky- a lifetime of traveling.
Let's talk about where we're goin' this summer! :love:

Thank you, Sarah.
Dirt roads - lots of them.
Random camping in very remote spots from the Grand Canyon to the Alaska Range.
Right now I'm looking at New Idria, the San Luis Wetlands, the far side of Yosemite, The Arc Dome Wilderness, and the Quinn Canyon Range. I got a permit for Deer Creek and Thunder River in the western part of the Grand Canyon, but I usually hate to be boxed in by dates. After that, who knows?

If all goes well, in August I'll be heading to Boston, by some method of motorized transportation (most likely a car). But I plan to stop periodically along the way to sightsee, and so I can cycle in all the provinces and states I travel through, thus furthering my goal of cycling in all the states in the US and provinces in Canada.

From Boston, my plan is to cycle to Montreal and back to Boston in a total trip time of approx. 3.5 days (90 hours, including all breaks). http://www.geocities.com/b-m-b/

After a day or two of rest, I'm hoping to do some touring around the Boston area, at a much more casual pace. I'm not sure where I'm going to go yet, or what I am going to see. I have to get ahold of some tourist information, I think.

Then I plan to travel to Iowa, by some method of motorized transportation again, and again stopping periodically so I can sightsee, and cycle in all the states I travel through.

In Iowa, I plan to ride the UMCA 24-hour event which goes through Iowa and Illinois.

From there I plan to return to Canada, still stopping along the way to sightsee and cycle.

The whole trip will end up being approx. 4 weeks. :)

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In addition to that, I am hoping to do some short local tours if possible. I live right next door to the Canadian Rockies and I absolutely love the mountains ... the more time I can spend cycling in them, the better. :D

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If any of you are interested in my travelling stories from past years, I have been updating my website (see signature line below) so that it is relatively current now. I will be adding a bit more every few days. There's so much to tell!! :D :D

I'm going to Scotland for Easter (Dumfries and Galloway), and then touring the middle of Ireland (Athlone to Galway) in May. I will do a short trip to the North Coast of Ireland (Balintoy to be precise) in May as well. That's all for now! :)

I am very grateful to everyone here who helped me select gear and components to ready my bike (and me!) for these upcoming adventures.

Two trips planned:

1) TRIRI (The Rural Ride in Indiana) An organized event that overnights in places where I've got a lot of family. Should be fun.

2) Italy for a couple of weeks. Planning to continue my studies in Italian language at a school in Umbria during the mornings. Long day rides in the afternoons. Not exactly touring but close to giving me the best of two of my passions--language and cycling (not to mention photography)

And where are you off to Sarah3?

My touring this year will begin in August with the Best Dam Bike Tour, a two day charity ride for the M.S. Society from Milwaukee to Madison. I'll be doing that ride with several guys that I work with, so that should make it a ton of fun. In September I'll be following that up with a week long tour from Kenosha through Door County, Wi. camping along the way and taking in the sights along Lake Michigan as I go. My goal is to knock to off a couple of 100 mile days to get me into Door County quickly, where I will then slow down and take in as much of the penninsula as possible.

I'm planning on doing the C&O and GAP this summer probably around Aug. when the water runs out. I'm an avid whitewater kayaker and when spring rains begin to fall my attention goes toward fast running water. The water slows down in July and Aug and that's when biking starts being fun for me. Summer excitement is in full swing (parades, fireworks and picnics) and where I live there are chances to meet people from all over the world. I'll probably do some overnighters and long weekend trips throughout the spring and summer with my family while exploring some places a little closer to home but far enough away that it's still a vacation. I'm near Lancaster, PA and the biking around that area is really great. Medians as wide as another car lane (to make room for Amish buggies) and there are farms straight out of a Norman Rockwell picture all over the county. There's Gettysburg, PA (which is another great place to ride, especially if there's an intrest in the Civil War) and then over to Hershey, PA for some chocolate! I'm buying a new LHT this summer and the first trip I'll take is on the York County rail trail that goes from York, PA down to Maryland to a beautiful place called Gunpowder State Park with a waterfall that I can watch for hours (if given the chance and time permits). It's a short trip (less than 30miles) but it's a great way to spend a day. :)

We'll be touring (leisurely) from St. Igance, MI (at the North end of the Mackinac bridge), along the Lake Huron coast, camping near the Les Cheaneaux Islands and continuing on to Drummond Island for a couple of days. We may sea-kayak from Drummond out to Harbor Island NWR. We'll then return to St. Igance. This will be a five-day mini-tour. We'll be on a Burley (Steel Frame) tandem. We'll have rear panniers, h-bar bag, rack trunk (probably) and we'll tow a BOB trailer. Sounds like a lot of carrying capacity - but we're packin' for two.

I have bikecycled commuted for years but never toured. I have some extra vacation time so this summer or fall for starters I was thinking about doing a credit card tour in NW Wisconsin. A couple of consideration are:
1.) A rails to trails trail i.e. Chippewa River Trail.

2.) South shore of Lake Superior i.e. Appostle Islands.

3.) One of the trails on the North Shore of Lake Supeior in Minnesota i.e. Gomagache (sp?) Trail .

Back to Europe,,mainly,plainly, Spainly, with a bit of Portugal added and then a dash across the MED to Morocco and maybe down to Casablanca

Alaska in JUly to climb THE BIG ONE sorry no bikes allowed on t

got the bike and much of the gear, not quite all of it yet, for my 2.5 months, Pittsburgh to Portland OR via adventure cycling's Northern Tier. my first time touring, ever! every ride i go out on lately i find myself analyzing everything. "are these handlebars going to work for that long? how much more training should i do before i leave? man! i wish i didn't have to turn around and go back home, but instead i could go twice as far and then camp, and do it again tomorrow! "

A 4 or 5 day trip on Vancouver Island at Easter. Maybe Tofino or Courtney area to visit some friends. In Sept it's the Lung Association 2 day 200km charity ride.

I'm chillin' in TO this summer. New job and a 25th anniversary are keeping me tied down. I always do a weekend jaunt on the shoulders, so right now it looks like Toronto-Niagara Falls-Toronto so I can finish the Waterfront trail.

I'm planning to do the North Sea Route (Benelux) in the spring of 2007.

I'm beginning to realize that dedicated touring requires either being single, or having a significant other who actually RIDES a bike and enjoys it. Beyond going to out to sea this year by way of Japan, Papau New Guinea and Fiji, I will likely not tour at all :(

Maybe I'll just put saddlebags on the ship's exercycle and dream... but on the upshot, I'll finally be able to afford a Bruce Gordon.

My plans are to finish a CtoCtoCtoC (Pacific to Atlantic, Gulf of Mex to Arctic Oc.) - I'd planned on finishing it last summer, but had a heart problem intrude. Doc says Ok for this summer. I have 2000 km - starting from Toad River (Alaska Hwy) and then thru Whitehorse and Dawson City and then up the Dempster Hwy to Inuvik and on to Tuktoyaktuk (by what ever means available - no summer road) on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

I should have time left to do a couple thousand more in Yukon and Alaska - ie: Fairbanks, Denali, and Anchorage - perhaps Seward Pennin.

First one this year my wife and I are going from Maastricht, The Netherlands to Barcelona, Spain, 4 weeks, starting 13th or 14th May, (www.geocities.com/xillios/index.html), as for the second well its early yet, possibly a week or two in September riding into Germany maybe to the black forest or the North sea area.
Can't wait :)

heading to aberdeen, scotland on the 28th of june. Then I ride south through wales and england, catch a ride over to france, ride down the seine to paris. Then it's north through belgium, netherlands and germany. I may hit denmark and sweden, maybe not. THen it's east and south to poland, czech republic, slovakia, austria, switzerland, italy and greece.

After a day or two of rest, I'm hoping to do some touring around the Boston area, at a much more casual pace. I'm not sure where I'm going to go yet, or what I am going to see. I have to get ahold of some tourist information, I think.


You might want to head to the western part of the state if you want some more scenic and rural areas to ride in; although after BMB, I'm sure you'll have quite the fill of scenic and rural. Perhaps I'll see you on the route :). Boston itself is pretty neat.....lots of great restaurants, plenty of historic sites, etc.....but not a city I'd wanna ride my bike in (unless it's 5 a.m. and no traffic on the roads). You would probably enjoy riding in the Berkshires, and then taking Rte. 7 down into the northwestern part of CT and exploring some of those roads. Kinda hilly, but you would probably enjoy it.

This 1 st July to end September I'm doing France, Belguim, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Holland, Belguim, France, and back home to England a round trip no shorter than 4656 miles for charity. Check out my website I'll have a blog dairy hopefully daily updates, all my trip is self funded apart from what my kind sponsors have given me, but I'll have to pay all my bills etc out of my savings as work will only give me a month off paid leave and the rest is unpaid.If you feel generous please give on the Just Giving section all the money goes to the charity to help the kids in the informal settlements in the Western Cape In South Africa with their Education. www.challengea2z.com

Among weekend rides out of the city, I will be doing a 2-3 week tour sometime in August from Saskatoon to Jasper and back (looped through Red Deer). Between stealth camping and visiting family and friends along the way, it should be a great trip. It all depends on whether I can time my research right to get time off between finishing off the first round and starting the second.

You might want to head to the western part of the state if you want some more scenic and rural areas to ride in; although after BMB, I'm sure you'll have quite the fill of scenic and rural. Perhaps I'll see you on the route :). Boston itself is pretty neat.....lots of great restaurants, plenty of historic sites, etc.....but not a city I'd wanna ride my bike in (unless it's 5 a.m. and no traffic on the roads). You would probably enjoy riding in the Berkshires, and then taking Rte. 7 down into the northwestern part of CT and exploring some of those roads. Kinda hilly, but you would probably enjoy it.

I was actually wondering about heading northish into Maine, or south into Rhode Island. Any idea what it is like in either of those directions?

Among weekend rides out of the city, I will be doing a 2-3 week tour sometime in August from Saskatoon to Jasper and back (looped through Red Deer). Between stealth camping and visiting family and friends along the way, it should be a great trip. It all depends on whether I can time my research right to get time off between finishing off the first round and starting the second.

Looped through Red Deer, hmmm? Well ... I can certainly tell you about that area of the world!! Not only have I lived and cycled here for over a year now, but also, just last year, I did a tour from Red Deer out to Saskatchewan River Crossing, so I can tell you all about that part of the route too. :)

I'm not going no where. Maybe I will by a hennesy hammock and take off for weekend trips around the area, camping in tree's.

Red Deer is a nice area of Alberta. The badlands are something to see. I figure looping through Red Deer would be more exciting than coming back the same way I biked out to the rockies.

Tell us all, where ya goin' this summer?

Welp - in September, I am heading down to KCMO to visit with my sister. While there, I wanna do sumthing that I've been wantin' to do fer a long time, and that is, to ride a portion of the Katy Trail!! I'm gonna hafta rent a bike to do that though, because there is no way that I'm gonna go thru the heart ache of shipping my LHT down there. Next year, I'm gonna drive there, and have the LHT in tow off the back end, and take it for a treat ride of the Katy!

Red Deer is a nice area of Alberta. The badlands are something to see. I figure looping through Red Deer would be more exciting than coming back the same way I biked out to the rockies.

The Red Deer area is quite nice. :) The badlands, however, are about 155 kms southeast of here in Drumheller.


Here are some photos of the route from the Icefield Parkway to Red Deer.

http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/machka999/detail?.dir=/ed74&.dnm=444d.jpg&.src=ph
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/machka999/detail?.dir=/ed74&.dnm=5bc4.jpg&.src=ph
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/machka999/detail?.dir=/ed74&.dnm=df22.jpg&.src=ph
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/machka999/detail?.dir=a7af&.dnm=9a6a.jpg&.src=ph
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/machka999/detail?.dir=a7af&.dnm=96a3.jpg&.src=ph
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/machka999/detail?.dir=a7af&.dnm=739e.jpg&.src=ph

That last one is a little gas station located roughly halfway between Rocky Mountain House and Red Deer ... it's pretty much the only thing out there, so if you need anything, that would be the place to stop.

My plan is to do the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec in August. I hear it has some fun hills.

Lighthouse Trail, Nova Scotia. And maybe circumnavigate Lake Champlain...

This 1 st July to end September I'm doing France, Belguim, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Holland, Belguim, France, and back home to England a round trip no shorter than 4656 miles for charity. Check out my website I'll have a blog dairy hopefully daily updates, all my trip is self funded apart from what my kind sponsors have given me, but I'll have to pay all my bills etc out of my savings as work will only give me a month off paid leave and the rest is unpaid.If you feel generous please give on the Just Giving section all the money goes to the charity to help the kids in the informal settlements in the Western Cape In South Africa with their Education. www.challengea2z.com

Checked your route. You've listed Hamar and Gardermoen as being in Denmark. They're both in Norway. Unless you've found a couple of places in Denmark with the same names...

Assuming I have the time, and the money, I plan to tour Denmark for two weeks this summer. More specifically, Jylland (Jutland), starting in Frederikshavn, up to Skagen, down the entire western coast, briefly into Germany via Leck and Flensburg, then back into Denmark to follow the eastern coast back up to Frederikshavn. Or possibly in the reverse direction, to take advantage of the prevailing winds during the summer. The reason Frederikshavn will be my starting point, is that there's a ferry connection between Frederikshavn and Gothenburg, where I live. It's only about three hours across.

Total distance is about 1350 km. Planning for 14-16 days, including a couple of rest days. Makes about 90-120 km/day. Should be fine. I will ramp up my long-distance training gradually during the next 2-3 months in preparation. I'm aiming for a date around the second week of June.

Humboldt, CA (maybe Portland , OR) to Tijuana in June-still iffy.

I was actually wondering about heading northish into Maine, or south into Rhode Island. Any idea what it is like in either of those directions?

It depends.....what are you looking to do? Rhode Island is really boring. The Maine seacoast is pretty scenic, and depending on how much time you have, you can head up the coast quite aways. The other option you may have, since you'll have a car, would be to drive up to Mt. Desert Island (Bar Harbor, Maine/Acadia National Park), park the car, and explore the island. The park loop road would be a blast to explore via bicycle, and you can even climb Cadillac Mtn. if you're not completely wiped out from BMB. I would reserve at least 2-3 days if you wanted to ride around and explore the island. Downtown Bar Harbor is small, packed full of people (getting around on a bike or foot is the way to go), but it's really a cool area. Lots of good places to eat, and plenty of shops around. If you want to stay in a hotel/motel, there's one just outside the main area of Bar Harbor (and offers easy access to Acadia National Park via your bike) that's decent and not highly overpriced. I can't remember the name of it, but my girlfriend probably does....if you're interested, let me know and I'll get it for you. I would make reservations well ahead of time.

If you like hiking, check out the Beehive Trail. It's fairly challenging and steep, but not a long hike (close to the road; right across the street from Sandy Beach in Acadia)....if you're afraid of heights though, you'll want to pass. You can also hike along the rocky shore between Thunder Hole and the Cliffs of Otter....we will actually go out on the rocks and walk, until we reach an inaccessible point, and have to go back up towards the road until we can get back on the rocks. It's a lot of fun....but I wouldn't bring the bike into the park if you wanted to do that.

Yeah.....I like Acadia a lot. It's a nice place. You can also take a high speed ferry over to Nova Scotia if you wanted to take the bike and do some riding over there as well. Lots of options :)

This will be my first tour. A west-then-back-east across wisconsin. Start in waukesha, goto madison, then to Wyalusing state park, up to Sparta, back down to madison, then head home to waukesha. take about a week.

Assuming I have the time, and the money, I plan to tour Denmark for two weeks this summer. More specifically, Jylland (Jutland), starting in Frederikshavn, up to Skagen, down the entire western coast, briefly into Germany via Leck and Flensburg, then back into Denmark to follow the eastern coast back up to Frederikshavn. Or possibly in the reverse direction, to take advantage of the prevailing winds during the summer. The reason Frederikshavn will be my starting point, is that there's a ferry connection between Frederikshavn and Gothenburg, where I live. It's only about three hours across.

Total distance is about 1350 km. Planning for 14-16 days, including a couple of rest days. Makes about 90-120 km/day. Should be fine. I will ramp up my long-distance training gradually during the next 2-3 months in preparation. I'm aiming for a date around the second week of June.

When I lived in Sweden (Uppsala) I spent some time travelling around Denmark visiting family I have over there in Aarhus. When I came back to Sweden I lugged some cheap Danish beer back with me when I took the ferry from Frederikshavn to Goteborg. Never again will I do that. It isn't heavy to pick up at first but it sure is when you have to carry it for a few kilometres.

Denmark is a beautiful country with great beaches. If you can, make sure to bike along the "beach roads" on the west coast of Jyttland. Also, try to make some day trips to some of the islands around Copenhagen if you haven't been to them already. Silkeborg is a nice place to visit as well but it is in the interior of Jyttland. This is one of the few places you will find large hills and lakes in Denmark. There is also a great ice cream place near downtown that makes great ice cream. Skagen is a nice place to visit as well.

When I lived in Sweden (Uppsala) I spent some time travelling around Denmark visiting family I have over there in Aarhus. When I came back to Sweden I lugged some cheap Danish beer back with me when I took the ferry from Frederikshavn to Goteborg. Never again will I do that. It isn't heavy to pick up at first but it sure is when you have to carry it for a few kilometres.

Denmark is a beautiful country with great beaches. If you can, make sure to bike along the "beach roads" on the west coast of Jyttland. Also, try to make some day trips to some of the islands around Copenhagen if you haven't been to them already. Silkeborg is a nice place to visit as well but it is in the interior of Jyttland. This is one of the few places you will find large hills and lakes in Denmark. There is also a great ice cream place near downtown that makes great ice cream. Skagen is a nice place to visit as well.

I grew up just 54 miles from the very tip of Skagen - across the water in Sweden! :)

Been to Denmark many times on family holidays, but always in a car. Denmark is pretty small as it is, but in a car, it's near microscopic... On my bike, I hope to establish a new mental image of the size of Denmark.

When I was 13-14, we rented a small house near the beach close to Løkken. Nice, but unusually cold for the season that time.

I do plan to ride along the beach roads. Not only to avoid the heavy traffic on the major roads, but also to see more, and for the fresh air sweeping in with the sea breeze.

Unfortunately, my financial situation is as grim as ever, as I'm a poor-ish student. You were in Uppsala, you say, so I assume that was as a student as well.

2-3 weeks of hike n' bike in the Laurentian hills of Quebec during fall colors. Several 3-5 day trips during summer.

Bikerpelli in May. It's a three-day, 142 mile mountain bike ride on the Kokopelli trail from Fruita, CO to Moab, UT. Check it out: www.bikerpelli.com.

First week of September heading to Rome to circle around the whole of the south, going down the med coast to the other side to the Adratic coast and back to Rome. 2 weeks. It will be strange as I always travell alone, not out of choice but it always pans out this way, a friend who has heard of my trips got inspired and wanted to join me on my journey. I have always said yeah no probs let me know when you are ready and that the last I hear of them. This one though has enlisted in a gym, been tranning for months and has now bought a new bike. So I have told him we will do a couple of tours in the UK 3 -4 day short ones so we can synchornize ourselves and our kits before we go for the big one.

First week of September heading to Rome to circle around the whole of the south, going down the med coast to the other side to the Adratic coast and back to Rome. 2 weeks. It will be strange as I always travell alone, not out of choice but it always pans out this way, a friend who has heard of my trips got inspired and wanted to join me on my journey. I have always said yeah no probs let me know when you are ready and that the last I hear of them. This one though has enlisted in a gym, been tranning for months and has now bought a new bike. So I have told him we will do a couple of tours in the UK 3 -4 day short ones so we can synchornize ourselves and our kits before we go for the big one.


That will be a great trip!!! We did something similar last May and I wish I was heading back this year.

my buddy and i are going from columbus ohio down to kentucky, where we'll ride part of the trans am adv-cycling route going east until we hit the blue ridge parkway. then we're going to ride the whole blue ridge and ride through the great smokey mountains. then back up to kentucky, then back up to columbus ohio.

i can't wait

My wife and I are getting ready to start our first tour ever. We will follow the Grand Illinois Trail, a 535 mile road and trail loop around northern Illinois (http://www.bikegit.org/trails/git/index.htm) Side trips for sight seeing and special events will add another 120 miles.

It will be a credit card trip spread over a number of weekend and long weekend segments.

We’ve been spinning away on trainers all winter and just got the bikes back out on the street two weeks ago. Chicago weather permitting, we ride the first segment April 1.

kesroberts: any tips for that part of the trip would be nice..we will be camping all the way.

Hi CdCf yeah i know it's in Norway a typo it should be Genner in Denmark this is what happens when you've loads of maps and you brain is made of pudding. Hope you have a great time riding in Denmark everything from Germany is going to be new to me.

Wilber Hot Springs. Have the wife follow me several hours later in a car.