C&O canal with kids

[sfa]

My 11 y.o. daughter came home from school this week with homework about the C&O Canal, and got excited to read about cycling the length of the canal, so now she's all fired up to do this (see? And people say kids don't learn anything practical in school these days.). And I'm excited to do it with her--she'd be the perfect trail companion. She's not chatty (I generally prefer to ride alone!) and while she gets whiny when minorly inconvenienced, she's absolutely stoic in the face of major discomfort.

I don't know if we're going to be able to do it this year since DH just started a new job and can't get the time off to take care of our other child, although we might be able to swing some respite care for him. At the very least we'll spend this summer getting my DD physically ready--she likes riding her bike, but like most kids pretty much uses it as a toy to ride around the neighborhood and the schoolyard.

Any tips for preparation, specifically about getting an 11 y.o. in shape for this kind of riding? Everything I've found online about kids and cycle touring seems to involve dragging them in a trailer or taking them on a tandem. I know kids do this trip all the time, and I've read some of the trip reports from these people but they seem to start at the start of the trail. I want to know what they were doing the two months before that! How about packing for two (including camping equipment) on one bike? I don't think my DD's bike will be able to hold much of anything. I have a touring bike so I can load it down, but I might do better with a BOB type trailer. Would a trailer do all right along the canal, or would it get bogged down in the mud and ruts? Having never cycled on the towpath OR with a trailer, I'm not sure how this would do, but it seems like the simplest solution.

Thanks!

Sarah

[lph]

That is SO cool! What a great plan :)

I don't much about bike touring, but we've hiked and skied and camped a lot with our now 12-year old. Our experience is he doesn't need or like specific "training", but we make sure he's been active daily and on his feet a lot in the weeks in advance. My guess is that with biking it's easy to adjust the intensity so that you can take it easy to begin with, but comfort on the bike is really important to get right from the start. How about lots of short evening trips just the two of you, just so she gets used to sitting on a bike daily?

I think you'll really enjoy having a trailer. We used one a lot when our son was small, and it was a godsend for hauling stuff.

[Cataboo]

What kind of bike does your daughter have? A lot of kid's bikes are awfully heavy. I know the 24" walmart thing that my niece has it almost 30 lbs. If she doesnt have a light bike, maybe think about getting her something lighter... A lot of the old steel rigid fork trek mountain bikes pop up on craigslist for under $200 and if she's about 5 foot or so, she could ride a 14 inch one.

As for gear... maybe credit card camping would be a bit easier...


What kind of tent do you have? You could strap the poles to her bike if it has a rack, and then carry the rest on your bike. Unfortunately, really lightweight tents are really expensive. Good gear is. I use hammocks when I want to go light and I'm pretty certain it's not going to rain and I know there's gonna be trees around :
http://www.amazon.com/Byer-Maine-A103016-Moskito-Hammock/dp/B00092M246/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1267722443&sr=8-1

That one's pretty comfortable, small & lightweight, has mosquito netting... but you'll get wet if it rains on you. You could pack some tarps to go over them if it starts to rain, or you could just have a get a hotel for nights it's gonna rain rule 'cause tarps add bulk.

Luckily it will probably be warm so you can probably get away with minimal in terms of a sleeping bag - maybe just some fleece sleeping bags would work.

Headlamps with batteries, maybe some solar chargeable flashlights that can charge on the bike during the day (costco sells a 2 pack which are light & work well. )

Food... restaurants may make that a lot easier, otherwise... camp stove & fuel... If you don't have a good lightweight campstove, that again gets expensive... but you can look up pepsi can stoves and how to make them, that could be a good project for you & your daughter... they're small & light.

As for conditioning.. if shes an active kid, she probably doesn't need much. How many miles are you planning on riding a day? 20? 50? I guess I'd start off taking her for short rides a couple times a week... 10 miles? and then gradually build up the mileage to make sure that at least twice before the trip starts she's done about the mileage you guys intend to do in one day.

I'll ask my friend what his parents did when they were young... They lived in Belgium, and his parents used to have all 5 of his siblings tour with them, riding to the Netherlands, etc. Definitely all of that is flat, but I think the younger kids were like 8 or so when they were doing all of that.

[Zen]

Considering that you might not be doing this ride this year why not start out by taking the bikes you have now and going for some test rides?

Carry day supplies in a rack trunk for now and add on from there.
Do one overnight, see what you missed having and what you didn't need.
IMO, panniers would be better for the towpath surface and you could probably find a deal on craigslist for those.

ETA- If you do go this year, holla. I'm going that way myself.

[sfa]

Thanks for the feedback! We'd like to plan on camping partly because we just like to camp, but also because it gives us a bit more flexibility for distances that we ride--we can pull in early if we're getting tired or the weather is bad, or keep going if we're feeling good. I'll always have my credit card nearby, though, for when we're in dire need of a shower and good mattress. We already own a lot of the camping equipment, although DD will need a new sleeping bag (she's been using one someone left behind in our camp years and years ago, when she was three or four years old!) and we'll need a backpacking tent since the family tent is too huge and heavy. I can borrow that from a friend, though. The fleece sleeping bag is a good idea--probably a lot cheaper than the expensive lightweight bags, too!

The panniers I own are too small for two people, but the good Arkel panniers might be able to hold our equipment. I don't know if I can put a rack on DD's bike--she has a pretty decent Novara mountain bike that fits her well now and should be good on the trail. I'll look into getting a rear rack on it so she could at least carry her own sleeping bag and clothes.

I wrote to a guy who rode the GAP and C&O last year (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=RrzKj&doc_id=5918&v=AT)with his kids about training, and he sent a good reply that I'm going to repost here in case someone has this same question in the future:


You should definitely ride the canal with your daughter! Neither of you will ever forget it. My kids were 12, 10, and 6 at the time of the ride so your 11 year old is definitely old enough.

For training, we just spent the summer going on bike rides as a family. Denver has a massive network of rec trails which we took advantage of. We started out small (5 to 10 mile rides) and worked up to large (50 mile all day rides).

To make the rides fun for the kids we did a couple of things specifically. First, we did not emphasize speed at all. We rode at whatever pace was comfortable for everyone, meaning we rode as fast as the slowest person wanted to.

Secondly, we gave each person on the ride 1 or 2 "Pull-Over Cards" (depending on the length of the ride). Each person could "play" their Pull-Over Card whenever they wanted to. That way we could include a lot of kid-initiated breaks for things like snacking, going to the bathroom, resting, playing at playgrounds, floating stick boats in streams, etc. while at the same time the kids had to make some decisions about the best use of their limited Pull-Overs.

I think these two things were the keys to our training success. Instead of training rides they became more like family adventure rides. Our average speed on the trail during these rides (including pull-overs) was around 5 miles per hour as a result.

I need to stop reading journals on Crazy Guy on a Bike. I'm getting no work done.

Sarah

[Cataboo]

lol. I lost an hour or two to crazy guy on a bike yesterday, as well.

I asked my friend who used to bike tour in Belgium as a child... They didn't specifically do any training, but they all rode their bikes fairly often anyways as a means of transportation (to get to school, youth group, what not)... And all the kids had done the 40 mile bike ride to their "country" house in belgium... So it wasn't a stretch for them to go biking to the netherlands.

Rei currently has a 20% off coupon for items on their outlet site.. they do have some seattle sports panniers and some sunlite handlebar bags.

At the very least, you could put a handlebar bag on your daughter's bike and have her carry her snacks and such like that. and a headlight.

You might want hydration packs for water.

[Zen]

Check Old Man Mountain (http://www.oldmanmountain.com/) for a rack to go on a bike without eyelets/.

[PscyclePath]

The Adventure Cycling Association has a wonderful little handbook: Pedal Pioneers: A Guide to Bicycle Travel With Kids that walks through the trip planning and preparation process, as well as useful info for life once you get out on the road: http://www.adventurecycling.org/outreach/pedalpioneers_guide.cfm

Some good stuff in there...

[Tri Girl]

so are you still doing the ride this year? Curious minds want to know. ;)

[Eden]

I don't know how I missed this the first time it came up..... I can tell you the experience from the perspective of the 12 y/o.....

My mom started wanting to bicycle tour when I was about that age - probably 11 or 12. We started off with day rides, progressed to some shake down over night tours on weekends (she was completely new to it as well) and culminated with a 4 or 5 day ride in Nova Scotia.

I did not have a particularly light bike. It was a Ross girls step through 10 speed. It did have drop handlebars (I was and still am quite short, so an adult sized road bike was out of the question and kid sized road bikes, much less mt bikes much at all weren't exactly plentiful or normal when I was 12). My mom kept the rides pretty mellow. We pretty much went at my pace and probably didn't ride any more than 30 miles in a day ever. I had a rack and did carry my own gear - my clothing, my sleeping bag and my sleeping pad. My mom took the heavier, bulkier stuff like the tent. I remember mostly enjoying myself.

When I was 14, stopped growing and was finally big enough for an adult sized bike I got a much lighter 21 speed and started out riding my parents :rolleyes:

[sfa]

Not doing the ride this year--we've pretty much always had it in mind for next year--but I'm thinking of taking a long weekend this fall on my own to ride part of the trail just because it's there and I could use a break from my family!

But holy moly, I'll probably have to get DD a new bike before next year. The girl shot up over the past couple of months like you wouldn't believe! Well, I guess you would if you've been through puberty. But you know what I mean. Seriously, since I posted this thread back in March and now she's grown about three or four inches. One day I could rest my chin on the top of her head and the next day I couldn't.

But this is a good thing, bike-wise, because now I can get her something big enough that it'll easily take a rack and we can buy something with this trip in mind. I'm going to wait until the winter or spring, though, to see if her growth rate slows down (please, please, please let it slow down!).

Thanks for the advice and the links for racks and the ACA publication (now downloaded and waiting for me to read). I love planning things, so I'm looking forward to getting this together.

Sarah

[Zen]

Join this Yahoo group to ask questions and for lots of other great info-
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coTowpath/

Two good websites for planning-

http://bikewashington.org/canal/

and

http://canal.mcmullans.org/

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb14/zencentury/P1000844.jpgit's not all like this, but be prepared.

[Tri Girl]

I don't know how I missed this thread initially, either.

I'm glad it's still on the radar (and good that she's grown so she can get a "real" bike that can carry some of her things).
I wish my parents did things like that with me when I was younger. Might have gotten me interested in cycling/fitness earlier than my 30's). :D

Be sure to keep us posted. :)