Harutz wins.

Huh?

No, for Harutz to win capitalism would have to crumble.


...I'm working on it...:thumb:

Because, as we all know, communist countries have such better amenities and facilities for bicycle tourers. Also, I'm sure the older folks around here fondly remember the days when all the best biking equipment had to be smuggled out of the Soviet bloc nations.

Does somebody really have to win?

Nurse! Get this man a sedative, he's freaking out!
And I think I heard him mutter something about John Wayne getting jiggy on the Space Station...

OK, Mr. Passive Agressive, whatever you say.

I'm a rank newbie watching this thread with a lot of interest and a bit of apprehension. If I understand right, Gus, it looks like you've done a lot of work to nail down your plans with a lot of detail. Is it common/recommended to have daily destinations mapped out completely in advance? Or is it more a reflection of individual touring style?

To me, the idea of flexibility in a route and schedule is attractive; but, I worry that failing to plan ahead could be a factor in busting a budget.

You might want to ask these questions in a new thread ... it might be an interesting discussion.

There's always a middle ground. I'm very flexible when I tour. Sometimes my route changes radically from what I planned when I first threw my leg over the saddle and left the driveway. At the same time, I doesn't pay to get in the middle of nowhere and realize you don't have any money to get home.

I think that the majority is probably in the plan daily goals as you go camp. Most of the people I met on tour planned a couple days ahead at most.

I am not sure I get the "break the budget" comment. If anything flexible schedule makes it easier to stay at free/cheap places. If you get an invite to stay with someone you can go a little farther or cut the day a bit shorter. If a town doesn't have any place to stay for free or cheap you can push on to the next town.

For me planning all the stops in advance isn't an option I have ever even considered.

W-Eyed, we have cold winters here! LOL! I don't necesarrily stick to my itinerary, it serves as a guide and gives me several alternatives. Most times when I'm out, I check my ACA maps during the ride, and peruse my itinerary on my netbook in the evening. The free overnight stops are nice to know things. People, addresses, and phone numbers are readily available to me.

Does the typical tourer need this much detail? I don't think so. If you're on an ACA route and have their maps, you have just about all the info you need. My itinerary helps me day to day in other little details of the route. For instance, west of Berea, and westbound there is a very easy to miss turn...Jack Turner Rd (I believe it is), my itinerary alerts me to what to expect from the the looks of the turn. I was riding with several people that day, and I had warned them of the turn off. Three of them missed it anyway, but those near me did not. My itinerary has a multitude of little bits of info like that.

Yeah, like I said, winters are cold here!

Sounds wise -- responsible without sacrificing spontaneity. I just signed up for my free ACA membership for first-timers. :thumb:

Yeah, not sure how well founded my concerns are. I was imagining being tired, hungry, stuck someplace without reasonably priced options. But I guess you're rarely actually "stuck". :)

It may depend to some extent on where you plan to tour, but I have not generally found that to be a problem. There have been a few times when I have been sick or just exhausted and decided to splurge on a place with more or better amenities, but I don't think advance planning or lack of advance planning was a factor.

The fact that most of my touring has been in rural or small town America may be a factor and I suspect it might be harder to find impromptu camping opportunities in the east. I have not spent much of my touring time near the east coast and when I did we used contacts with family and friends.

If you plan to use Warmshowers or Couchsurfing hosts a bit more planning might be in order, but even then I would be inclined to let them know up front that my schedule is iffy and that I will contact them when I am close by. I find it kind of hard to balance the responsibility to keep potential hosts informed with a flexible schedule. As a result I have decided to use them sparingly in the future. I know that I probably inconvenienced one host by waking him and then bailed on accepting his assistance because we decided we were probably imposing too much on him. (Sorry, Brian in Reno)

I went across the US two years ago without any plan or route. I just wanted to get myself home quickly and under my own power before summer ended so I was averaging about 90 miles a day. Most days I would try to ride 100+ miles, but I also had a few short days and bad weather days that dropped that amount. Don't listen to the naysayers. I would say any sufficiently motivated young healthy person can average 100 miles a day over the summer. The limiting factor will be if your butt or knees break down or if the days are short and you run out of sunlight.

For the route, I would stop in at libraries and check Google maps and emails every few days. I tried to cut a straight diagonal across the US. I had a pad of paper I would jot down highway numbers and towns that I should cross.

As for camping. I mostly started looking for a site when I noticed the sun was getting close to the horizon. A few times I never found anything I would call a campsite. Mostly that was in ranch country where there were no trees around and all the property was fenced fields. One time I slept under an abandoned rail car. One time I slept in a large (and dry) culvert under the highway. It was actually pretty nice with a fire inside. And more than once I just rolled myself up in a sleeping bag and tarp in the ditch next to the highway.

The longest uninhabited stretches (without stores) I came across were around 70 miles and those were rare.

That's the sort of trip I love reading about. Helps me feel more confident about stealth camping in the land of cows and cornfields. Don't suppose you have a journal online? :)

Really, sometimes it's more interesting to read about the places people find to camp than the biking part!

I did start writing up a rather long trip report. I stopped halfway though, before the part about crossing the US, and I have yet to finish it.

http://cyclingnorthamerica.blogspot.com/