Many of us will be starting short tours soon. These are weekend or overnight tours which we might do for reasons such as:

-- we want to test our equipment, the way we've arranged things on the bicycle, whether we have enough or too much stuff, etc.

-- we've only got a 2 or 3 days to spare from our busy schedules

-- we want to explore the "sights to see" in our local neighborhoods, or the areas where we've gone on a business trip or something


Most people talk about their long tours ... their epic tours. Let's talk about our short tours here.


Here's an example: https://www.bikeforums.net/hosted-travelogs-stories-road/231518-first-tour-season.html

I'm off on my first tour tomorrow. I'm going from Tempe, AZ to Tucson, AZ. I know this isn't a very long ride, but I thought I'd try something a little shorter to start. I'm doing it solo, and I'm "stealth camping" for the most part. I did look at some campsites in Tucson I might stay at for a night. It should only take me two days to get there, and a day or two to check the place out. Then two days back. I'll write a story and send pictures when I get back.

Are you looking for suggestions, or trip reports? Some suggestions:

Ottawa to Montreal, or Montreal to Quebec City via highway 138: Very flat, very fast from west to east unless you're unlucky and get easterly winds.

P'tit train du Nord trail: 200km one-way. There are shuttle services that can bring you to the northen point.

Véloroute des Bleuets: 256km, easy with lots of services.

Véloroute du Fjord: Not an official route. About 330km on highway 172 and 170 on either side of the Saguenay fjord. I'd suggest taking 5 days to ride to the fjord. I got some pictures here.

Mainly trip reports.


Perhaps combined with "Things I learned", if the short tour was an equipment experimentation trip.

And possibly combined with "Great places to go", if the short tour was an exploration trip around your neighborhood.

Hey, great idea for the thread!

Other touring forums have a few of the posters put up their mini-journals... and the feelings as well as the good things and not-so-good things help put into context some of the subject we discuss here while they are fresh on our minds.

In 2006 did over 3,500 miles on tours shorter than 4 days. most were simple overnighters or 3 dayers. great way to get out of town for a long weekend.

some of my trip reports are in this forum, my 3 day bike/ski touring trip up to Mount Rainier National Park over father's day weekend is a noteworthy one I wrote up for bikeforums...

www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=205018

I had to have some major surgery last summer so it nixed my 700 mile Cleveland to Washington DC tour. The week preceding the surgery, Bike Forums member "Hartmann" and I went for a 3 day 212 mile tour through eastern NY and western VT.
The plan hatched by Hartmann and myself was that he would ride solo on Thursday from his home near Castleton Vt to my home near Round Lake NY , spend the night and then we both would set out for Peru VT on Friday. Near Peru we would camp the night and then ride to his house near Castleton on Saturday.
Sunday I would ride home alone.

Friday July 7,Roundlake NY to Peru VT 84 miles.
Hartmann and I were up at 6, after breakfast we were on the road by 7am. We headed east on the old railroad grade from Round Lake to Coons crossing.where we got on NY Rt 67 east for the 5 mile downhill to Mechanicville NY. It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine. We had morning commuter traffic to deal with so we kept single file and stayed sharp. After Mechanicville we turned north a couple of miles and crossed the Hudson River at Stillwater. Both Mechanicville and Stillwater are old canal towns along the Champlain Canal. Both towns were heavily industrialized until the early 1970's. Since then they have fallen on hard times and it shows in their respective downtown areas.

After we crossed the Bridge we began the long climb out of the Hudson River valley to Easton NY. Most of this area has been dairy farms for many decades. Many have gone under the past 20 years due to stagnant milk prices. some have come back as specialty farms, raising every thing from Alpacas to organic produce. Easton itself is just a few houses , a couple of boarded up business and a post office. Rather than take the more direct route to Cambridge NY we side tracked a few miles to ride past Grandma Moses Farm , Grandma Moses was a painter well know for her unique style of painting traditional country scenes. https://gseart.com/moses.html. Riding through the beautiful countryside here it is easy to see where she got her inspiration.

Shorty after Grandma Moses farm we entered the village of Cambridge NY, Cambridge had long been a hub of the local farming community as well as a transportation crossroads into Vermont. While farming has declined, Cambridge has become a popular area for artists along with others than can Telecommute to their work. The small village is thriving, The Cambridge hotel has an excellent restaurant run by a well known regional Chef.

Riding east out of Cambridge on NY 313 to Arlington VT is probably one of the most beautiful routes in the NE.
313 follows the Battenkill river, the famed flyfishing river( for you Orvis fans). Along the river to Arlington are numerous covered bridges.


In Arlington we stopped for lunch at a country store before beginning the climb up to Stratton. The road up to Stratton is a dirt road that meanders up the gap to where it meets the Appalachian Trail before continuing down the back side of the mountain. It isn't a very difficult climb, steady grade most of the way with a couple of short steep sections to get your heart rate up. After Stratton we turned north on the forest roads until we found Rt 30 and then north to Rt 11 To our destination for the day, Hapgood Pond Recreation area
After putting up camp. We walked around the Pond a bit and then I napped until 6pm. For dinner we made veggie and bean burritos. The campground host had a community campfire that evening so we joined in and hung out untill 10pm with about a dozen other people who mostly were hikers.

Saturday July 8, Peru Vt to Lake Bomoseen VT, 55 miles.
Today was short mileage and very few hills over familiar roads,so we did a short hike early this morning for variety. I felt good yesterday but today I'm getting acid reflux from the cyst pushing against my stomach. We packed up and left, As we neared RT 11 the road makes a short up steep uphill turn. Pop! goes Hartman's chain.

Hartman had his chain tool and repair pins for the 9 spd Hyperglide chain. But the repair rivets seemed to be too short no matter what he did, either one plate or the other would pop off the rivet when he snapped off the guide pin. I suspect he was given rivets for a 10spd chain. I use an 8spd sedis chain, so we tried putting his chain back together with a powerlink. it worked except the wider link was floating and causing the chain to slip or ghost shift. We unhooked the power link and shimmed out the link with bits of paper to one side and placed the chain on the lowest gear so the link wouldn't grab the ramps on the adjacent gear. It worked! he couldn't shift but we only had about 3 miles to ride uphill untill we had a 7.5 mile downhill into Manchester which has 3 bike shops.

In Manchester we went to BattenKill Bike shop . They had 9spd hyperglide chain pins, but Hartmann went for a new 9spd Sedis and two spare links. We made the
repair and went off looking for breakfast, Manchester was once a cute little Vermont town, now it is covered with outlet stores and honking tourists jostling over parking spots. We found breakfast in a diner and soon headed out of town.


Leaving Manchester we rode on Rt 30, We had planned to do some backroads and hills but my reflux was making hard effort difficult so we rode on the relatively flat VT Rt 30

After 1/2 an hour riding the reflux seemed to go away so I suggested we tackle the climb on Rt 315 over to Rupert and then get on the rail trails to Poultney.


I have never been over 315 coming from the east it certainly was harder than coming from the west. I was hurting at the top! On the west side is a nice long down hill into Rupert. The Rupert post office is pictured below

In Rupert we had to serach around for access to the rail trail, In the mean time I had a flat on the front to repair.

The rail trail is part of the old D&H rail system that served this area. the right of way winds back and forth over the state line. Vermont and NY had an agreement to each develop thier side of the trail. Vermont has done their part NY hasn't. So You have to bypass some sections of trail that are impassable. In Granville NY we took a short break to have a snack before heading North on VT 31
A Few miles later we were in Poultney VT home of Green Mountain College.


From Poultney we rode the Rail trail to Castleton VT and then on to Hartmann's house near Lake Bomoseen. just north of Castleton. Homemade beer and organic fed steaks was on the menu for dinner! It was incredibly good!

Sunday July 9. Lake Bomoseen to Round Lake 75 miles.
Today is a solo ride home, After Leaving Hartmann's house I headed back through Castleton and and west along Rt 4 back to Whitehall.

This is usually a really busy road but on a Sunday morning the traffic was light. The Skene mansion overlooks the village of Whitehall.

Wanting to beat the traffic before it got heavy I quickly continued along Rt 4 to cover the 10 miles to Fort Ann, Route 4 south for the next 50 miles is part of NYS Bike Route 9

South of Fort Ann 90% of the through traffic disappeared and I had the road pretty much to myself. I rode Rt 149 to the old towpath road and then onto Hudson Falls/ Fort Edward.
I wasn't interested in Breakfast earlier but I was pretty hungry now I made a stop in The Old Fort Diner for Breakfast. In Fort Edward parts of the Original Champlain canal is still in place. Much of the old towpath has been improved into Bike trails.

South of Fort Edward I continued on Rt 4, I soon passed the Grave site of Jane McCrea who in 1777 was killed by local Indians who had a treaty with the British, when the British refused to bring those beleaved responsible for her death to justice,Jane McCrea became something of a martyr for the American Revolution. If you Google her name there are quite a few interesting pages about her.


Soon I was in the village of Schuylerville best known as the site of the pivotal battle of Saratoga in 1777 and the subsequent surrender of British General Burgoyne. The battlefield sets high on a ridge and the many turnouts along the park road affords views like this of the distant Green Mountains of VT



So as not to cover the same route twice I cut through the battle field park and rode the last 10 miles home on the back roads. 214 miles total.
The END


Note: RT 4 Between Castleton and Albany has many Revolutionary War Era towns and points of interest This excellent web site points out many of them

Good work velonomad--thanks for the TR--hope you healed up well.

Here's a good site for touring and journals.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/

I added the third day above.

I took advantage of the great Florida weather to finally ride from Tampa to Gainesville. Half of the first day was on the trail parallel to the Suncoast Parkway. The rest of the first day was on rural back roads and a short traverse on the Withlacoochee Trail. I did have to ride on US 41 for a short stint at the end of day one which I would rather have not had to ride that late in the day. The second day was on US 41 from Dunnellon to Williston and then on 121 to Gainesville. The purpose of the trip was to watch the Gators play Ohio State in basketball and watching the Gators win made the trip that much more sweet. Let's hope the Gator football team does as well soon!!!

Long weekend coming up later this month -- I'm looking at a few days around Crows Nest National Park, Lake Perseverance and into the Brisbane Valley.

and a couple of more trip reports from last season.....


www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=177635

www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=160430

the first is pretty mediocre but highlites being able to stay close to home and enjoy getting lost.

the second trip report is VERY seasonally appropriate and worth the read if you're suffering from a winter case of cabin fever....

velonomad ...

Vermont is beautiful. The BMB route goes quite close to where you toured ... Hwy 100 from Hwy 9 through Ludlow and up to Middlebury. It's also quite challenging!