Howdy -

Here's a simple solution I use when touring and when I want to cross water bodies. As most of us realize, automobiles have dominated transportation planning for the past 50+ years. Where there used to be many ferry crossings across major rivers - now they have all but disappeared - replaced by widely-separated megabridges - - often with no shoulders or outright bans on bicycles. How do I cope? Well, most of those old ferry landings are now ramps for recreational boaters. If you are willing to wait a bit you can hitch-hike across most rivers. The real advantage is that roads leading up to the old ferry crossings on either side of the river have very little traffic since cars can no longer get across.

Another option I have used on a few rivers is to ship a decent (not K-Mart) raft to a little post office and switch over to river mode en route. I include a pretty good sized inner tube for the bike. So I inflate the raft and inner tube - - bunjee the bike securely to the inner tube - - double my tent drop under my panniers so that they don't punch any holes in the raft - - and set off down the river trailing my bike behind me on the inner tube. I stayed out on the Missouri River in Montana a couple of days - - then pulled into another little town and packed everything up and mailed the raft back home. Takes a bit of time to switch modes - - but it's a great way to enjoy two alternative means of travel without a lot of specialized hardware.

Best - J