rawly old

In as much as it's already mid-October 2015, It's time to be thinking forward. So...Let's
hear your touring plans for 2016. How, where, when etc., Maybe others might want to join
your ride; maybe they'll think your nuts to try. It's your ride; do it your way!

azza_333

7-8 weeks, from top of Japan to the bottom of Japan, have not set a date yet, it will depend if I find someone to go with or not, I have tried touring alone and it does not suit me.

elcruxio

We have a summer Honeymoon planned. 4 months in Europe. Not sure where yet but we'll start from Finland and hopefully end up back here. I had a dream of dunking my rear tire in the baltic ocean and front tire in the mediterranean, but I suppose it'll be too hot in the mediterranean in the middle of summer for cycling so we'll have to stay in the more nothern regions.

But no matter. That just means we well need to do a second tour where we go from Nordkap to the southern end of Italy some time.

imi

I've got a lot of work to do in '16, but will get away in March/April to the deserts of SoCal to be there when the desert flowers.
Then maybe down to France during the soccer Euro Finals in june/july

It's cool riding around in a country when there's a major soccer tournament happening. I've done this in Portugal and France previously.
Ride all day. Find a campsite, go into the town or village, have a couple of beers and watch the games good times!

I've got dual nationality english/swedish, so double the chance of Gold... or of being knocked out in quarter finals by penalties two days in a row

rawklobster

I spend time last July figuring out my route for my Bordeaux -> Budapest -> Belgrade trip in July 2016! It's going to be EPIC. Just need to figure out camping in the more populated areas. I think I was spoiled by Hiker-Biker sites along the Pacific Coast Highway.

bikenh

If I don't leave in another month or so and head south for winter on a winter long bike trip/TOUR(more touring then tripping) then I will probably wait until mid June, like normal now and head out for another 2-3 month trip to somewhere...I'll find out where when I get there.

mev

2015 isn't done yet. For those interested in a supported ride December 26th to 31st, there is the San Diego Hostels 59th annual Christmas ride: Christmas Bicycle Trip | Get Involved with HI USA

I did the ride in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009 and likely again this year.

LuckySailor

Intending on walking the Camino pilgrimage in September with my 75 year old dad. He and mom did it last year in 28 days, and he wants to do it again. Trying to put together a tour along the Danube with my wife on a tandem in August, since we will be in Europe anyhow. Planning to ride Vancouver to Arctic Circle in 2017.

azza_333

Hoping to do a summer 2-3 week Korea trip as well.

staehpj1

No real plans for a 2016 bike tour yet. Right now my 2016 plans are more backpacking oriented, but I will probably wind up doing a tour at some point in 2016. Most likely it will be kind of spur of the moment. For me they usually are not planned too far ahead, even the multi month ones I often plan only a few weeks ahead.

indyfabz

Maybe this for my western tour that I try to do every year:

MONTANA 2016 - Missoula, MT

But maybe something different like a loop in NW Washington. Haven't ridden out that way in 16 years.

rawly old

If you decide on western WA, let me know. Depending on the type of ride your looking for I'm familiar with a
number of routes you might enjoy, some road, some trail. The Montana route looks entertaining, but not
quite conditioned for it yet at 67, but I'm workin' on it. Western WA has loads of backwoods old fire
roads where you can search for Sasquatch or the elusive spotted owl. One route I'd really like to try is a
Pacific Coast trail from Ozette to Mora campground. It's a really remote stretch of coast rarely visited.
Then who knows, WA seems to be attracting lots of tourists lately. (dunno why?)

Chris L

I'm not thinking of 2016 until I'm finished with 2015. I'm probably heading to Thailand at the end of the year for a few weeks exploring the northern part of the country. Then I'll start thinking of 2016. Ecuador seems pretty appealing.

schnee

Finland / Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania - as far as I can get - next July.

axolotl

A friend and I are planning a trip to Colombia. (That's ColOmbia, not ColUmbia.) We'll fly to Medellin, then tour in the zona cafetera and perhaps one other region.

rm -rf

I like how the route ends with a 68 mile shallow downhill.

indyfabz

Yeah, although of the 40 or so miles before you get to I-90, 30 are unpaved. Not long after you hit the paved section you pass a fishing outfitter. The woman who runs the place has a coffee bar and sells snacks like Cliff Bars. It's like a little oasis. The other option from P'burg is to backtrack to MT 38 and take Skalkaho Pass over to Hamilton and then head back to Missoula. That also has a good stretch of dirt and hits about 7,300'. I rode it in 2014 and got caught in a cold deluge on the descent. Surprised it didn't snow. The nice thing is that a short portion of the road was partially washed out and officially closed, so there was no through traffic. Getting through the slide area on a bike was very easy. We had hoped to ride Skalkaho in 2011, but there was a huge washout at a waterfall than runs under the road so we ended up taking Rock Creek. The fallback plan had been to follow I-90 west from Drummond, but earlier in the trip we just happened to run into an employee of Adventure Cycling Association at a hot springs resort. He told us about Rock Creek Rd. Sometimes you just get lucky.

mnmkpedals

I'm WA also and planning to go Mt. Vernon to Glacier BP, then Amtrak back to Seattle/Tacoma. I have to plan my tours way in advance in order to try to coerce friends to come along and make sure they don't just "couch" it and over do it. This time might go solo across Northern WA and meet them in/near Spokane or Sand Point since some can't get the time off for the whole thing. As for route, I am just looking at a slightly modified version of the Adventure Cycling northern TC route. But I am interested if folks out there have done alternatives to that?

axolotl

Would your route include the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes and the Route of the Hiawatha? I see that the Route of the Hiawatha is described as a "mountain bike and hiking trail", and I'm wondering if it would be suitable for touring.

mnmkpedals

No, looks like we're headed through the northern cascades, rather than the southern route. I know there's a good blog (crazy guy...) that gives a route from seattle to Glacier that starts most of the way on the John Wayne/Iron Horse Trail out of seattle and across most of the state that way, and it routed up to Trail of Couer d'Alene but we're doing full road, not any gravel, so we ruled that route out. Plus, there's the matter of a nasty bridge crossing the columbia if you go that south route. I can dig up the link to that route map if you want.

1Mule

Seattle to San Francisco in June 2016. Currently spending money hand over fist upgrading my gear. Gonna be fun!