What was it that prompted you to go on your first multi-day tour?
How old were you at the time? What type of equipment did you use?
For me, it was the sense of adventure and the challenge of doing something just about
nobody my age was doing at the time. I was 14 when my school buddy and I, with our
parent's blessing, decided to ride from the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, up through
the Fraser and Thompson River Valleys into the Interior of the Province. We knew absolutely
nothing about bicycle touring, or how to prepare for one, but that didn't deter us. We wore
street clothes, including denim jeans, carried our possessions in canvas strapped packs on
our backs, and didn't know enough to bring along plenty of water, relying on the streams along
the way. My bike was an old 28" wheeled man's CCM and my buddy had a new 26" Raleigh
3 spd. Although we suffered from rashes from the jeans and canvas straps, we had a blast and
that trip hooked me into touring later on in life. Along the way we met many curious people that
wondered about us so far from home, had to use pebbles in our mouths to stimulate fluids when
we couldn't find safe water, and scrounged meals from construction crews....it was a lot of fun
and adventure for sure! That was in 1960.

I've been doing hub-and-spoke style tours since I was quite young, with my family. Travelling with our bicycles was completely normal.

Then, when I was 17, my father decided to cycle from Jasper to Banff in 3 days. We all came along, in the car and arranged accommodation and supported him, etc. Then I cycled the last day with him.

When I did that, I decided I would cycle from Jasper to Banff in 3 days too.

Several years passed, and then in 1994 I cycled my first century in preparation for that trip. Plus quite a bit of other cycling as well.

Then in 1995, when I was 28, I cycled from Jasper to Banff. I did the first 2 days, took a day off, and did the 3rd day. Now, it wasn't a loaded, self-supported tour. My husband at the time drove the van with the stuff, set up camp, and so on. But nevertheless, it was a multi-day tour.

I was the youngest of 6 kids, and my brother who was second eldest of all, used to drag me all over the county with him. Mostly walking, or hiking, as he called it, but sometimes bicycling. One day, (I was probably 7 or 8), he informed me that we were going camping, and we proceeded to raid the kitchen for supplies. Anyways, we rode about 5 miles, to a local lake, and had a blast. It felt like we were freezing during the night, but we were actually just fine, just not as warm as we'd be, home in bed. Oh, I rode an old green single speed 20" Schwinn, and he had a 26" big kids' bike. I don't remember the brand, but it was blue, lol, with racks. Thanks for reminding me, that was a great weekend. 😎

I've only done one supported long tour which was up in the Yukon and a section of BC that I had
missed on a previous tour. I had my wife follow along with our truck, spare bike, and camping gear
because of the remoteness, especially on the Dempster Hwy to Inuvik. I have to admit having her
along was a great way to go, but I actually prefer to go solo.

I did my first overnight ride in 1999, the weekend that JFK Jr. died. My excuse was to get my best friend, a guy who had always had physical limitations and was recovering from hip surgery at 37, out of his depression.

He had a K-Mart Huffy. I had my 3-year-old GT Outpost, which I still ride today. Only back then, it had all its stock components and accessories. We rode thirty miles from our hometown on Long Island to a place called Port Jefferson, which has a ferry that crosses Long Island Sound to Connecticut. Then we rode about another eleven miles to an old HOJO hotel my wife and I had discovered many years earlier in Milford, CT.

The ride took forever, as I was constantly waiting for him to chug his way up even the slightest hills. He also had to stop at a convenience store for water every ten minutes or so, because he didn't have a water bottle. Both of us were riding with backpacks and in cut-off denim shorts, so we were roasting all the way in the 90 degree + heat. When we finally arrived, we felt like we had conquered the Southern Tier or something. Then we drank too much and rode back to the ferry the next day totally hung over. (Ended up taking the train home from Port Jeff!) This was a great accomplishment for him that he has never stopped talking about, so I am glad I did it. For me, personally, it was the beginning of my love for (what I call) bike touring.

I rode the same route about a month later by myself and it took me about 1/3 the time. THAT inspired me to do my first multi-day trip the following year. This trip involved a ride out to the Pt. Jeff ferry again, then a ride up the coast of Connecticut all the way to Narragansett, Rhode Island. I have never calculated the mileage because I used so many off-the-beaten path routes, park cut-throughs, etc to really figure it out. I do remember that most of the few days were about 50 miles, while one day was more than 70. My average speed was about 10-11 mph, including stops for photo opps and payphone calls home. It was on this trip (in Old Lyme, CT, to be exact) that the chafing of my thighs finally got to be too painful and I finally traded in my cut-offs for a $50 pair of bike shorts. Of course, I have never turned back (although some of you have pointed out that I have been wearing them incorrectly all this time!).

My father's health began to deteriorate significantly after that tour, and in the summer of 2001, I only took a shorter ride. He died that year, and then came the 9-11 terror attacks in NYC. From that point forward, life was a bit more hectic, with job changes, etc. Plus, it took a while for me to want to get on a ferry or be away from my wife (in the event of an emergency) again. By 2002, I was working at a job that had me on a plane virtually five days a week and totally exhausted by the weekend, so while I continued doing short overnights, I had no time or energy for another multi-day.

Now that I am semi-retired and working locally, I'd like to find time for another multi-day ride. The overnights are great, but not long enough to really let go of all the stress and just be with the bike. I have now completed the entire shores of Long Island and Connecticut in pieces, but I think I might like to cover the whole distance in one trip one of these days.

I wanted to ride across the U.S. Supported tours were $$$ and too high mileage/day. So at 34 I did ACA's unsupported Northern Tier group trip from Seattle to Bar Harbor, ME then rode home solo to Philly and on to Ocean City, NJ. Nearly four months on the road.

The first day of the trip was the second time I had ever ridden a fully loaded bike and the first night I ever slept in a tent. No hypothermia to speak of despite some cold days with snow on two passes in WA.

This turned out well:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/54...t-paid-do.html

Way to go! That's grabbing the bull by the horns and just going for it!
That's part of the adventure that's so alluring to some of us!

What prompted me? I was bored with my normal forms of train, plane and car Europe (having been there a dozen times with those methods), wanted to finally get to Belgium and the Netherlands, which pride themselves on cycling, and the fiancee enjoyed the bit of time we cycled around Amsterdam on a long layover there.

I had a 82 Miyata 610, which was beaten up on a previous life that I bought for $85 and rehabbed, and she had an old Maruish mixte. Neither of us wanted to bring "nice" bikes out of fear of the claimed bike theft rates. We were credit card touring, so no camping gear, but we did load up panniers and did a couple long day rides as trip prep. Trip itself was five days of riding from Brussels to Amsterdam, which was plenty enough for her, but also enough to get me hooked!

Thanks. That was back in '99. I ended up taking two other solo tours during my two years off from the working world: Seven weeks in Andalucia and seven weeks or so from Seattle to Cortez, CO. I then went back to reality and didn't do any loaded touring again until 2009.

One of my first, and longest "tours" was when I was about 20.

I was studying in Parma Italy when my passport was due too expire. So, rather than taking the train, I decided too ride my bicycle from Parma to Rome (with a slight pause in Bologna due to rain). Anyway, about 3 or 4 days riding down to Rome.

I got to the US Embassy after a few long days on the road, and they refused to renew my passport because I was staying in Parma which was closer to the consulate in Milano. I spent a few days riding and touring around Rome, and a few flats in Rome (old sewups), then I headed back. I estimated around 1 megameter for the ride.

As is often the case both internal and external forces acted on me, motivating me to do my first touring. As a child our family did some canoe trips but I fell into cycling (great escape device, I had 3 older sisters). I joined AYH at 14 but never took advantage of their network of hostels. I had the seed just not yet the fruit. A couple of years later I discovered the hippy cycling crowd in high school and tagged along with them, finally doing my first overnight when I was 16 with a couple of buddies.


Now I'm 61 and have done 22 multy day tours with over 7000 miles. In a couple of months I get to start my dream since I was 14. Cross country self supported. Andy.

It was early 1970s and I had a 3 day weekend, Trout lake WA to Portland, OR. I needed to be in Portland on Sunday so I could get a ride back home with my wife and kids from the in-laws. It was March, and crossing the Cascades was not a good idea. I ended up staying in a small motel rather than camping, and did it in 2 days instead of the planned 3days.

I just liked riding my bike.

Just out of high school in 1975 in Chicago, I decided to fulfill a dream of bicycling the 1000 miles around Lake Michigan. My father planted that dream, talking how he'd planned it when he was in HS but WWII got in the way--he enlisted in the US Navy then came home and married mom and had nine children.

I grabbed my best friend who had some "modern" 1970s backpacking gear, borrowed another friend's Schwinn Continental (didn't think my ancient hand-me-down Raleigh 3-speed would make it), put $40 in the pocket of my cut-off jeans, and we took off on a two-week trip that would change our lives. We picked our route as we went, in the days you could get free road maps at gas stations.

I'd never heard the words "chamois," "pannier," or "Shimano." I piled camping gear on one of those old spring-loaded book racks, and tied a gym duffel between the brake hoods. It worked. I spent absolutely no money on gear, just a few favors. And I came home with change from that $40. We received lots of meals at campgrounds and even diners from strangers.

A year later, I heard about "BikeCentennial" and realized there were others out there.

Got talked into a four day ride from Vail to Steamboat to Kremling to Dillon Reservoir (Colorado) in 1987.
I was a track runner so I figured what the hell.
After that I was hooked. (Even though I walked up Rabbit Ears pass because of a lack of small chain ring)
I didn't have panniers and don't remember exactly how I was able to fit everything on my back rack.

Started touring when I was in college. First overnight trip during summer after my freshman year.

In high school in Colorado, I had done a fair amount of backpacking and camping. I had also cycled, though never overnight. Some with boy scouts and some with my parents - but I was camping at least once a month.

I went to college in Boston and took my bike with me and didn't have a car. Being in a big city was nice, but also missed being able to go into the great outdoors. My bike was my ticket to getting out of the city. I also had my tent and some camping gear as well.

So I organized a trip for my friends. Basic plan was to ride from Boston to tip of Cape Cod (~135 miles) and then take the ferry back.

The brakes on my bike didn't work well, but that wasn't a big deal since I could put my feet down to help slow me down . Unfortunately, about 10 miles into the ride I went over the handlebars after missing a turn in local city park. Fortunately, I landed on flat of my back. Had a gouge in my back which we bought some bandages and taped me up.

After my crash, it would have been more prudent for me to turn back. However, I was young and invincible and toughed it out - a bit painful in afternoon when I sweated into the wound. We camped on the lawn of a church down on the Cape. Next, morning we finished riding to tip of Cape Cod and awaited the ferry for ride back. Felt triumphant cycling back through the city.

After that ride, I ended up doing a fair amount of further touring. Some were solo trips, some were organized trips with friends. Cape Cod was a common destination, but I saw quite a bit of rest of New England as well; particularly in summer after Sophomore/Junior years when I had a job working with DEC in Marlboro ~26 miles out of the city. I would commute to work on my bike (~50-60 miles round trip) but also sometimes sleep in my cubicle or camp out in the woods near work. Some weekends rather than returning back to Boston, I'd cycle further outbound the rest of the weekend. I did fix up my brakes and even bought a touring bike after my Sophomore year (Lotus Odyssey).

Ha, I rode from Seattle down to Eureka, California some few years back, and had to camp out in Grant's Pass, Oregon one night. No tent, but a pretty decent sleeping bag & jackets. When I woke up, at around 5:30 AM, there was a nice coating of ice on the sleeping bag. I was fine, didn't even really feel cold until I got out of the bag, but it sure made me wonder what was wrong with me. 😲 😉

I started doing long day trips in my early teens, then found AYH in New York City, and started doing weekends to destinations a bus or train ride away, ir/ Penn Dutch area, Catskills, the Berkshires, etc.

When I was 16, a high school friend and I signed up for a 4 week trip in New England, working it's way from Burlington Vt. to Cape Cod at about 40 miles a day. This was my first experience in long term group dynamics, and helped seal my fate as a bike tourist. Soon I was leading trips, and part of a small circle of experienced riders who'd go for "private" trips of 100 miles per day, or in some cases much longer.

Once a cycle tourist, always a cycle tourist, though if I could live the dream, I'd have a 36' sailboat, set up for full time living, with bikes aboard for land transport.

Ha! One of my best memories. When I sat up I'll never forget the crunch sound.

My family was always a bicycling family when I was growing up, but it was always either day rides or utilitarian riding (paper route, grocery shopping, etc). I started backpacking when i was young, but it was 1976 before I got interested in bicycle touring.

That first interest was due to bikecentennial, but despite wanting to do the coast to coast thing in 1976, it just didn't happen. 31 years later I finally decided to ride that route, now called the Trans America. I wound up riding it with my daughter and one of her college room mates. I celebrated my 56th birthday on that ride, which was my first tour.

So my first tour was a coast to coast tour with no previous shakedown tours. For whatever reason I never took an interest in short tours and have never done a week end tour.

If you count hub and spoke tours as touring, which I don't, I have no idea when my first tour was since I have taken a bike along on trips many times throughout my life. To me touring means riding from place to place on a bike for multiple consecutive days staying at various different stops reached by bike. So I consider the times when I drove somewhere and did day rides to just be day riding despite it being in a location other than from home.

I have yet to do any multi-day tours, but I must say that I've enjoyed all the stories in this thread and they have got me to thinking that maybe this year I'll do a two or three bike tour of the northern part of Indiana and maybe into southwest Michigan.

What's with the massive font in your signature line?

Like FBinNY I also started touring in my teens when I discovered the Potomac Area Council of AYH in Washington DC. I had a Schwinn Varsity which was soon upgraded to a Schwinn Paramount. I became active with the local racing scene but preferred touring activities. My first overnight trips were to the Seneca MD Youth Hostel accessed by the C&O canal towpath. A "Youth Hostel" club was formed at my high school and we continued to do bike trips out to Seneca MD and eventually we expanded our horizon to include road trips by car up to cycle the strings of hostels through the PA Dutch Country and also in VT. Along with my more serious expatriate racing friends we did a lot of hub and spoke day trip loops on the Skyline Drive using a hostel at Nethers VA as our base. My first long extended trip? A high school buddy and I rode from VA to Land 'o Lakes WI in 1968 as a graduation present from our folks.

Did 2 short rides in college down in Mississippi. Didnt do anything post college for a handful of years, but once my oldest daughter was big enough to ride, I got back into riding and do a few multi-day trips each year.

I dont do multi-week trips since even though the desire is there, the time off from work and life isnt something I am willing to sacrifice.

Besides riding RAGBRAI for a week(yeah yeah, a supported tour isnt a tour, though it is for some others), I will do 3 multi-day self supported rides this year. I know 2 of them will be within my state, but Im not yet sure if the last will be over in Illinois or out in Colorado.

1st one was around Japan (Honshu) on one of my old mountain bikes with a small backpack. I think the most memorable thing about that particular trip was waking up in a flooding camp site.