Is it safe to just "Wing it?" re: Route?
 

I'm struck with a problem. Maybe business managers and obsessive-compulsives never run into this issue, but the idea of google mapping every road on a bike tour, checking for traffic, slope, and distance, and planning a route day-by-day seems outlandishly difficult and daunting to me. Just typing a general destination in Google Maps and hitting "Bicycle" nets me 20-30 pages of instructions.

In the northeast US, is it safe to just bring a few general maps and make up the route as we go along, consulting maps when we need work-arounds or orienteering? Or does everyone spend a few weeks painstakingly solidifying a blue line from A to B?

Myself and my ride-mates would be more likely to see hills as "challenges" and cars as "obstacles," so a little danger is fine. I don't want to get stuck on the highway, though.

Nothing at all wrong with 'winging' it. Or unsafe either long as you use some common sense. Asking directions can make for some interesting, occasionally rewarding, interactions.

Google is, least for me, a fun exercise. Useful for plotting the big picture. Figure the details out as I travel. I don't pay any attention to the printed instructions. Too daunting.

Make a general plan just to be sure you aren't starting something you dont have time to finish. Within that, improvise.

"Consulting maps when we need work-arounds" was my m.o. last summer. I discovered while traversing VT that it was easy to consult a map or a Delorme's Atlas at just about any convenience store. It was also a good excuse to get out of the sun, enjoy the a.c., drink an iced tea or something like and take a break.

It depends on what you enjoy.

I like to plan my routes so that I don't end up on busy highways with no shoulders when a bit of research would have identified a country road going to the same place. It is easy to spot a road on a map that goes directly where you want only to find it is not suitable for bicycles when you get there.

If you prefer to "wing it," don't be surprised if you have to choose between a busy highway or a long alternative route that (always) goes over a steep mountain and adds dozens of miles to your day. That said, some of those alternative routes are the best ones!

I usually start with a rough plan in place and "usually" know what my major routes are, but I won't hesitate to head off down an interesting side road if the fancy strike. We have done "quarter rides" where we would flip a quarter at a junction in the road to decide where to go.

Aaron :)

Like raybo said, just winging it can put you on some very unpleasant roads or areas when a little advance planning could have put you on a much more enjoyable route. Besides, I rather enjoy the planning process.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu

That's how I tour. And I pick up more maps as I go along. We haven't brought any maps with us on the tour we're on ... we just pick them up as we go. And they often are quite general.

I couldn't be bothered spending a few weeks painstakingly solidifying a blue line from A to B, and besides, no sooner do you finish that and get riding, but you discover that there's construction and you have to reroute anyway. :D

As others have said, for me knowing a bit to avoid really yucky roads can mean avoiding an unpleasant day. This advice comes of course from having some unpleasant experiences, but depending on the area and such, winging it can be fun too. I generally like knowing where campgrounds are for the end of the day, and having only toured using maps, sometimes only locals can tell you that x road is used heavily by lumber or quarry trucks or whatever , so talking with people can really help when winging it.

Is there a list of unsafe roads? Like a large database of highways that aren't bike-friendly, specifically for the northeast? Does anyone know which highways in MA, VT, NH, and ME are unsuitable?

Ditto. My last ride was 1006 mi from KCMO to Marietta, GA. General plan: Head East from KC, head South from St. Charles. Buy maps. What an awesome way to travel ...

I decided to join the 21st Century this year and purchased an Iphone this spring. I found an app from All-stay that shows tent campgrounds throughout the US. I also got the app for Warm Showers and for Yelp. All of them give directions through the on-board Google map app that is resident on the phone from Apple. For my route through the South, I had planned my general route using Ride with GPS but for day to day directions, I used the Google Map app. I'd pick a distance that I wanted to travel and then find something in the area and let the Google map give me the route. The Google map app isn't perfect since it only gives you the choice of car (following mostly interstate highways), bus (??) and pedestrian. I used the pedestrian maps but they had their own problems in that they would sometimes take you on hiking paths which weren't negotiable by bike.

Overall, however, the phone allowed me to follow my general route but make adjustments to the routes as needed. I'm not a huge fan of electronic technology on tour but the stupid smart phone allowed me a level of flexibility that I've never experienced before. I'll definitely use it in the future.

In general, if you see a route that travels in a straight line, Google up close and you'll see trucks and cars in abundance. If you see a route that has the word "Hill" or "Mountain" it's proably a safe road.

My wife and I usually use a modified "winging it" technique. We know the the towns, parks, etc. we want to see and just plan a day or two ahead to get us there. Some of our preliminary destinations will also change depending on time, weather, and topography. We started a 3 month tour last summer with only the first day planned to get us out of a large city (Lisbon). That plan changed before we got out of town after we talked to a ticket agent at the ferry terminal who showed us a better route. We had a few "pinch points" (be at the finish of the Tour de France and doctor's appointment in Paris, visit a cousin in Barcelona, and catch a plane in Amsterdam) where we needed or wanted to be on a certain date, but otherwise our goal was to spend 3 months cycling around Europe.

We actually put more energy planning a 5 day tour with our 2 daughters next week, than we did on a 3 week tour in June. It is their first tour;and we did not want to explain the fine points of wild camping, eating cliff bars for dinner, or having to push an extra 20 miles at the end of a long day. We want them to have a good time. Our route, camping spots, motel, and grocery stores are all nailed down. For our trip in June we started putting our gear together 2 days before we left.

We are planning a 6 week tour in September/October, and we know the cities that we will visit or ride through, but we won't do much specific route planning. The transportation to the starting point and the return trip are the two items that I like to have figured out. However, the return transportation can be arranged about 2 weeks before the end of the tour when arrival times and location are a little more certain.

I believe that the amount of planning depends a lot on the complexity of the route. This may sound counter intuitive, but we tend to plan less for the more complex routes than we do for the more straight forward routes. It seems like the amount of detail gets overwhelming, and they are seldom ridden as planned anyway. Also, distances between services, abundance of campgrounds and lodging will dictate how much planning is required. In an area with a campground every 20 miles, planning is not too critical. Areas where food, water, or lodging are 60 miles apart, more planning is required to prevent getting in a tough spot. Usually planning 2-3 days ahead will prevent most problems. Sometimes, we just accept those "problems" as part of the venture.

Part of the adventure for us are the unknowns. Having said that, I do use a GPS to help in route finding, locating alternate routes, campgrounds and lodging.

It is frightening how dependent the younger generation has become upon various information technologies. Rather then increase the possibilities available to us - it seems electronic media have created even more straight jackets.

I'm certainly not a member of the younger generation. Information technology doesn't create more straight jackets but opens up far more possibilities. I wish I would have had the stupid smart phone when I toured the Natchez Trace. It could have made a rather boring ride...I'm a plains boy and I tire quickly of trees...into a far better adventure by providing me with information about the area surrounding the Trace.

When using paper maps, I seldom stray off the route that I've mapped out because I have little information about the areas off my route. Most of us are constrained when we vacation and have to make the best of the time we have available. If you don't know what is off your route, you are less likely to deviate from it. With a whole world of information at my finger tips, I can go off route to find far more interesting places and explore the world more which is the reason that I travel by bike in the first place.

Information technology has the POTENTIAL to open up far more possibilities - but if the result is simply 800 flavors of Coke and/or Pepsi, I would argue that it does not. The poster asked if he he could "wing it" - deviate from Google. My question would be, "When did Google gain such influence and who gave it to them?"

I think the poster also suggests the obsessive compulsive part of electronic communications. 25 years ago, I did not have to have a WiFi hotspot overnight and at lunch. If I stopped at a town library, it was for the facilities, a little air conditioning, maybe a glance at the newspaper, and a long rest in an arm chair where I might catch up on post cards. A telephone booth was never that far away - but being mostly disconnected was the actual idea.

If you look at riders' journals, you see how being connected to the electronic world often trumps being connectd to the world people are experiencing at the moment. Yes, you can Google "Jeffrey City" - but it's far more rewarding hearing about from the old-timer behind the bar. Today, if I forget to turn off my phone, it will ring when I am riding. Yes, I know there can be emergencies, but how did I survive years back when someone couldn't reach me at 11:42 a.m.?

I too see the advantages and disadvantages of both traditional and electronics, the new stuff is pretty neat as Stuart points out, and for me its a pretty neat tool.
As for limitations of both, here's a recent example. Last week while camping for a week, we had our bikes along to do short rides. My wife and would ride into town to get groceries and a cafe visit. Some friends came up and we biked together as well. During a grocery trip where I had a good 25 lbs of stuff, my friend wanted to use his smartphone to try a diff routeback using a trail system that according to his phone was a few kms shorter. I said I'd be open to it as long as it wasnt too rough. We ended up on a farmers field path that was getting smaller and smaller and had to turn around, which while wasn't a big delay as we didn't have a tight schedule, no-one likes wasting time. Also, from the google map satellite shots, some roads that appeared to be paved were in fact dirt, again not a big deal but slower and I had to be more careful of larger.or sharp rocks.
End result it was more time to get back, prob 45 mins more.

A few.days later I went out for the afternoon on my own in a new direction, with a county map with me. I sort of just winged it and at some point the nice road I was on changed to dirt at an intersection-the paper map didn't show this either. Wasn't a.big problem, I took another road as I wanted to keep moving a bit faster and there were options.

So it seems to me that there's always going to be surprises, the important thing is to use judgment with the time you have and other factors. My afternoon of going off somewhere new was fun, I found a really nice spot right by the water for a snack and shade break and I got a nice 65km ride in.

It's pretty simple. Stay off the interstates. Use google maps or buy as you go to identify possible routes a day or so in advance. Some of the highways have effectively been supplanted by interstates and are pretty quiet. You'll work it out. As a non-North American I rode right across Maine, NH, Vermont and upstate NY into Canada last year without having fixed on a route in advance. It was no problem.

Depends what your goal are I guess. If you want to see the sights of an area then don't tie yourself down to a specific route. If you've got a long distance to cover and accommodation prebooked that you need to make in time you may not want to find you took a big detour that means you're not going to get there.

There probably isn't a comprehensive list. One thing you can do it go to DOT websites for the state in question and look at traffic volume. I have seen recommendations based on those numbers. Low volume is considered less than 2,000 vehicles a day, moderate is ~5,000 vehicles a day. You have to use some common sense. I have seen roads with low traffic counts, but all the traffic was heavy trucks due to the location.

Aaron :)

I use the ... try it then ... stick with it if I like it; and if I don't like it, try something else ... method.

And paper road and tourist maps can be useful.

I've used that method in Canada, Australia, parts of Europe, and now most recently Taiwan and Japan.


I'm not big into planning. I think Rowan and I did the most planning I've ever done for a trip for our 8 month trip. We booked flights, and we booked a hotel in Hong Kong, a hotel in Taiwan, and a YHA in London. That's it. The rest we're winging.

Here in Japan, we flew in quite late with no hotel booked and when we arrived we managed to get a room in the hotel attached to the airport. Last room available. Otherwise we were going to sleep in the airport. In the morning, we booked the hotel for tonight, our last night here. Then we set off with only a vague idea that there was a cycling path of some sort, somewhere near the airport.

I get a bit nervous if I haven't found accommodation by about 6 pm, but better that than booking everything along the way.

And I'd be a whole lot more tense if I planned every little detail of the trip.

We're flying to London tomorrow, and then we've got 3 months in Europe. Aside from the 2 nights at a YHA in London when we arrive, and the fact that we're flying out of Paris about 3 months later, we have no plans at all. And that's the way I like it. We'll go wherever we want to go ... wherever the wind blows us. :)

My tours have usually started with either a route from Adventure Cycling or one recommended by someone else. That said, I have typically just winged large sections of the route once under way. Sometimes that might just mean deviating for fifty to a hundred miles or so at a time and sometimes it meant leaving the route for most to all of a large state.

I like the way that has worked out for me. It allowed for plenty of flexibility, a good idea of how long/far the ride would be, and no need to do a lot of pre planning. I don't see why just winging the whole thing wouldn't be fine too though.

Aside from having daughters along - this is somewhat consistent for me as well. I plan differently for a 3 day mini-tour than for a 3 month trip. On a 3 day mini-tour I don't have much time to adjust to changed circumstances so have at least a rough route, likely candidate places to stay worked out. On the other hand, if I'm traveling through an area as part of a 3 month trip - I'll have a rough higher level goal in mind (e.g. get across a continent), have made the bigger choices (e.g. visas, traveling in right time of year for climate) and will otherwise work things out each morning based on weather, what I've heard from locals and rough overall plan. I might have a rough idea of route for next couple days (e.g. getting to next pinch point or major city) but otherwise work things out as I go along.

Yes, I will be another to put my hand up about spending more time planning a short tour than a long one. I often would get out maps of my home state and study the condition of roads, where they went, what possibly might be there. It was still a great adventure going away for two or three days with a loop set out. Getting back home and to work often was the pressing need to ensure the tour worked out as planned.

However, one of my all-time favourite local efforts was what I called my "Aimless Wander Tour". I left home, decided as the turns came which way to go for the next three days. Having a clue about possible free camping sites or at least towns with paid ones helped.

My first big adventure overseas was to Europe in 2003, and apart from the section involving the Paris-Brest-Paris randonne, the remaining three weeks were spent knocking about northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands with a Michelin map booklet that essentially showed roads down to the B-level. All I really wanted was a map that showed significant towns, which the booklet did, and so long as I was headed on those general directions, I was fine.

I discovered the battle theatres of World War One, the joys of riding along the canals on various bike routes, and places like Maastricht and the Ardenne Mountains.

Obsessively sticking to a route is far easier to do with paper maps than with Google, especially if you carry all that information at your finger tips. I know because I've done it. With readily information available, the 800 flavors of Coke/Pepsi becomes options that you can taste at your leisure.

As for carrying a phone on tour, you can be as connected...or disconnected...as you choose. The interesting thing about cell phones is that they have an off button and every single one of them comes equipped with voice mail. Personally, I don't jump for my phone every time it rings. If I'm doing something...like having a conversation or riding my bike or fishing or any of a thousand other things... and I don't want to talk with someone I don't answer the phone. Just because a phone is ringing why do we, as a society, treat it like a crying baby?

As for getting information from people in bars, I don't frequent them. They have nothing that appeals to me.

I like to have a plan. I like to have a route. That's not Google-dependence, that's me. Before the Internet, if anyone still remembers that far back, my Dad taught me to find where I was on the map, find where I wanted to end up, draw a line, and look for roads that kept you close to that line. I modified that method to favor certain colors and/or widths of roads and to avoid others, because if there's a big, fat line that leads right to your destination, probably every other vehicle is on the same road, which can be crowded riding, and if the line barely shows up, likely no one bothered to pave it, and that could be rough riding. It was the pre-Google version of the bike route function.

Now I let Google do that part. Sure, you can just pick a direction and go. I'm always trying to get somewhere. I can handle detours and circuitous routes, but I need a destination, or I'm just not motivated to move forward. That's me. But that doesn't mean there's no "winging it". Google, or a line on a map, or a point on the compass, is just a starting point. Last year I spent a few days biking to the coast. I used Google to plan my route, printed out cue sheets, and used them extensively. I'm glad I did. But Google sent me down a road that wasn't a road. Private property, and, even if I were inclined to trespass, no indication that I could do it unnoticed or that it went where Google thought it did. Then we're back to winging it, or at least planning on the fly. I still had somewhere to be, I just needed a new way to get there. Winging it took longer than Plan A, so I camped sooner. The next day it happened again. Miles added on, plans changed. That's traveling. In that case, I had a time-line. Too many diversions or too much backtracking left me playing catch up. But ideally even a planned trip has a lot of wiggle room.

Last month's trip took me through my childhood home town. Even the mighty Google doesn't know those roads like I do. Neither Google nor I knew about the bridge being out though. Stopped at the last house before the bridge where someone was doing their landscaping. "Is that bridge 'out' or 'closed'?" 90% of detours are for cars, and a bike can skirt around the edges, but a bridge that isn't there generally falls into that 10%. "That bridge is gone." I'm told. "I guess it's the long way around then." "Well... there is a path, along my fields, along my neighbor's fields, and on to the road you want. You might have to walk. You probably won't get shot." Neither I nor Google would have come up with that route, either. I didn't get shot. I did get some prickers in my legs, but none in my tubes, and that's what matters.

I like to know where I'm going to sleep. I like to have an idea of how to get there. But even then winging it is part of the game. The only wrong way that I know is to not enjoy the ride.

On long trips I like to plan a couple of days to get into the swing of things,after that it's follow my nose.

Like if I'm going to cross the U.S. from west to east,I know the sun rises in the east,so If I keep going that way,at some point I will see the Atlantic ocean.

I ride to the nearest town's book shop, after landing in other countries,
and often find the map I need there.

repeat approaching running off the edge of the last Map.