spinnaker

Same to you brawny. If you need help at the Pittsburgh end jf the GAP just speak up (see above).

Amtrak is making noise that they will allow roll on roll off service after June but so far I have not seen anything definite.

tombilcze

Thanks for the offer. We've looked at the Montour option. Coming from Akron, it's easy to take Rt.60 south from the Turnpike to the airport. It might be out starting point. We're watching the GAP Yahoo Group activity and see that we may be able to start farther back into the Pittsburgh area around the Waterfront development.

tombilcze

Brawny, the Amtrak train option from D.C. to Pitt is pretty doable. I've considered it. I think the train leaves D.C. around 4:00 p.m. and gets into Pittsburgh around Midnight. The fair is pretty reasonable. I checked for the date I was interested in and it was around $50. My cycling buddy and my family want to meet us in D.C. So, we will have them take us home. We kind of wanted to do the train option.

SouthFLpix

Thinking about doing the Trans Canada Highway, from East to West. Need a touring bike though (working on it).

Caretaker

Same as 2010, two weeks in France.

Still can't speak the language but God! I love the place.

brawny

Thanks Tom! That does sound do-able - and the price is reasonable. I've signed up to a couple of yahoo groups (Great_Allegheny_Passage and coTowpath) that have info on the two trails so that I can get my fill of background before we dive in. The wife and I always tour loaded like you and your friend are, and also try to camp trailside wherever possible.

Congrats on the weight loss - we're both still Clydes, but working on it!

brawny

You might want to consider doing it West to East, as the prevailing winds can suck the life out of you pretty quick on a long tour like that...

Good Luck with your tour. Its an impressive goal!

RepWI

I would like to tour the North Shore of Lake Superior with my daughter. Probably from Duluth north a couple hundred miles of so.

Another tour I would like to do is to be dropped off in the Black Hills of South Dakota and ride back to west central Wisconsin.

Other than that maybe a few weekend type local tours.

brawny

Thanks Spinnaker!

We're looking at a late July / early August time frame, I think. Its the best guarantee of warm weather (and less stuff to carry).

I notice in some other threads that you've ridden the trails a few times over the years. If we go forward with this, I may be in touch to pick your brain over logistics.

Thanks again!

OldFencer

Did A 315 mile Del Rio to Austin, TX week-long tour last month with a couple of good friends. Got a couple of weekend over-nighters lined up. And come Fall, maybe complete the 1 Map Section of the Southern Tier I own by riding from Austin to Navasota.

In the meantime, I shall plot, plan and dream...

SouthFLpix

The reason I wanted to do East -> West is that I figured that I would wake up and ride with the rising sun to my back instead of in my eye. Also, in the evening I would be riding toward a (hopefully) amazing sunset, which might help with motivation. To anyone that has completed the route, is my estimate of 6 weeks fairly accurate?

jish1969

This is my first post on the touring forums, I usually lurk on Classic and Vintage. I plan to ride the Erie Canal path from Buffalo to Albany in July on the Univega Gran Touring I recently acquired...

fishtoes2000

Yes, please stay far away from our city. We eat skittish cycling tourists.

As for my 2011 touring, I did have plans to ride from Detroit to Cleveland next month by back tracking on the forthcoming Adventure Cycling Underground Railroad route's Detroit spur (Detroit-Ann Arbor-Adrian-Toledo-Oberlin). My return car ride has cancelled on me and I don't have time to ride back home, so those plans are on hold.

However, I am riding with a group in September that is developing a Windsor to Niagara bike touring route along Lake Erie. As I understand it, this will connect with the existing Waterfront Trail. https://www.waterfronttrail.org/ I hope to return to Windsor via the Bike Train.

brawny

I'm sure you'll enjoy riding the north side of Lake Erie. The roads are relatively quiet and scenic, and there are some nice places to stay along the way. You may want to look at the ACA's Lake Erie Connector route, as it covers your proposed route. I've heard that their maps are excellent, but haven't had reason to buy one yet. I've stayed at several of the provincial parks along your route, and they're all good places to stop.

The Waterfront Trail at that end of Lake Ontario is a good ride from Niagara Falls back towards Port Dalhousie, but beyond that more or less follows the North Service Road of the QEW back to Stoney Creek near Hamilton. A good route to make time, but not nearly as scenic as the roads you'll be riding between Windsor and Niagara.

Taking the train back to Windsor sounds like a good idea too. I'm not sure you can get from Niagara Falls directly to Windsor by train though. You'll probably have to either bike (along the Waterfront Trail) or take the Toronto-Niagara Bike Train to Toronto to pick up a Via train that goes to Windsor.

Good luck with your tour!

gavtatu

damn.. i hate i can only manage three days !
i wanna head down to carnac, in brittany, france, with all the neolithic stones !
gonna ride from st malo, my nearest ferry port, 110 miles on the saturday, look around on the sunday, and 110 back on the monday !
i love it...!!!

Newspaperguy

I'd recommend west to east for this. Prevailing winds are from the west. In the Prairies, the headwinds are nothing short of demoralizing.

When you're in British Columbia, I'd suggest other routes than the Trans-Canada Highway. From Vancouver to Chilliwack, the highway traffic is heavy. Use Highway 7 instead. You'll bypass Abbotsford and Chilliwack, but the route is much more enjoyable. Also, consider taking Highway 3 to the Okanagan Valley before connecting to the Trans-Canada.

Bubba Zanetti

Actually, I'm staging in Puyallup. hwy 7 to Morton, on 12 to Packwood.

marmot

Outstanding! I had not heard about this plan, but it's a great one: gentle terrain, quiet roads, reasonable distances, great nature parks, nice scenery, beaches, good eats, vineyards at both ends, and some little fishing towns that remind me of the Maritimes. I'd love to do that ride.

RepWI

After a week long look at running for the WI state senate, I return to the joys of deciding when and where to tour.

dannwilliams

I was thinking the same thing! I looked at Amtrak, but they don't go there. How long do you think it would take to ride back?