Bike Tour options

[hulagirl]

Aloha ladies! If we don't get into Ride the Rockies this year, I'd love to hear suggestions for any other bike tours that you all may know of or have experience with. Heck, it doesn't even have to be with a company - hubby and I can do our own deal.

We would prefer NOT to camp. Only because we are coming from Hawaii and we will have to ship quite a bit if we tent camp. Bike hostels, KOA campsites, cabins, whatever.

5+ days would be great. Gonna cost a bit to get everything over the pond, might as well make it worth it.

Prefer the left side of the country just because it's easier to get to. ;-) That doesn't mean the coast - we can do direct flights for pretty cheap into Vegas (head to Utah) and Alaska.

Any suggestions of rides you've done and loved would be great. We'd go with our LHT (husband) and I would probably take my Cross Check.

Mahalo!

[indysteel]

What time of year are you thinking about?

[hulagirl]

The best time for a cycle tour of that area...whatever it is. We are pretty flexible.

[indysteel]

Gosh, so many options. The San Juan Islands, California wine county, the coast from San Fran to Santa Barbara, the Oregon coast. Take a look at adventurecycling.org for ideas and routes.

[Pedal Wench]

<<< If we don't get into Ride the Rockies this year, >>>

There's also Bicycle Tour of Colorado - it's the week after RtR, and no lottery. I'm a devoted RtR fan, so I have no other experience.

We put together a nice tour for friends with rides out of Dillon/Silverthorne and Gunnison for friends last year, and this year we just did the Grand Circle - Zion, Bryce and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Both were awesome, but I think this year was the best. Hotels all the way, and awesome riding everywhere!

[Veronica]

We put together a nice tour for friends with rides out of Dillon/Silverthorne and Gunnison for friends last year, and this year we just did the Grand Circle - Zion, Bryce and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Both were awesome, but I think this year was the best. Hotels all the way, and awesome riding everywhere!

Hey, I want to be your friend. :)

Veronica

[Pedal Wench]

Hey, I want to be your friend. :)

Veronica

Remind me next summer! :)

[SFLiz]

I was just spending time today looking into the same thing for my hubs and me. I'm thinking about a few ideas/options along the coast:

1) 3-day tour of Carmel Valley/17-mile Dr. of Pebble Beach/Monterey Coast;
2) 3-day of Solvang/Santa Barbara; or
3) 5+ days to cover Big Sur/Cambria/Paso Robles (wineries). Was just mapping out options. I google mapped rough course and saved the route.

The last one might interest you since I estimate 5+ days needed for that. I've never done this before so I don't know how I'm going to handle logistics. I refuse to camp because I did my share of roughing it in my 20's in the Army. I no longer sleep outdoors or "camp". My friends who still serve think I'm a wuss now in my older age. <shrug>

I'm contemplating using a sag-type service that will alleviate logistics/feeding/hydration/transpo challenges. Anyone with experience with such services? Did you think it was worth the cost?

[Veronica]

Twenty years ago we did a self supported tour from Mountain View to Santa Barbara. It's beautiful, stunning scenery and something I want to do again. We camped all but two nights. There's a great book - Bicycling the Pacific Coast - has great routes and reasonable mileage each day. Having done it, I think it is possible to plan to stay in hotels or B & Bs every night 'cause that's the way I want to do it next time. :p We have a BOB trailer and racks could go on the other bike to carry the gear.

We also used a SAG service when we toured Hawaii in 2003. What we learned on that trip is don't pick B&Bs that are far out from town or make sure your bikes have lights. Getting to dinner some nights was a challenge. Fortunately, lots of people wanted to hear about our trip and were willing to drive us to dinner! The SAG there was great - even brought us a spare part when I broke a bolt on my seat post.

Veronica

[shootingstar]

Air Canada has a web seat sale...right now. Weather in Vancouver, British Columbia is still great. Not rainy yet. Not until October. It is 100 km. south of...Whistler where you could still get good hiking..now. Before snow flies/wet rain in October, etc. Vancouver Island also has a few wineries.

I will add that Vancouver International Airport is directly hooked into the light rapid transit train and takes you directly into downtown with your bikes in half an hr. from the suburbs where the airport is.

And VAncouver is only 40 km. north the U.S. border. There is an Amtrak train also that will take you between downtown Vancouver and Seattle/Portalnd with 2 trains per day that have a bike train car where you can roll on your bikes. Check out the Cascadia train.

Think of Canada, that "foreign" country.

Or try Quebec, Route Verte bike routes..since fall colour is bright, beautiful.in Ontario, Vermont and New England states area.

[hulagirl]

Air Canada has a web seat sale...right now. Weather in Vancouver, British Columbia is still great. Not rainy yet. Not until October. It is 100 km. south of...Whistler where you could still get good hiking..now. Before snow flies/wet rain in October, etc. Vancouver Island also has a few wineries.

I will add that Vancouver International Airport is directly hooked into the light rapid transit train and takes you directly into downtown with your bikes in half an hr. from the suburbs where the airport is.

And VAncouver is only 40 km. north the U.S. border. There is an Amtrak train also that will take you between downtown Vancouver and Seattle/Portalnd with 2 trains per day that have a bike train car where you can roll on your bikes. Check out the Cascadia train.

Think of Canada, that "foreign" country.

Or try Quebec, Route Verte bike routes..since fall colour is bright, beautiful.in Ontario, Vermont and New England states area.

Holy cow YES! I could plan a ride from Anchorage down the coast of Canada to Bellingham and then take the Alaska Marine Hwy (ferry) back up. Or just do a one way. Or vice-versa. That could be a VERY cool ride. Cooler, mountains - all the stuff we are looking for. Thanks for bringing up Canada!

Anyone ever ride Ragbrai? I'm from Illinois and not really into heading back that way...especially to ride across Iowa. But hey, it might be awesome????

[shootingstar]

Better check a detailed road map of British Columbia. There are hardly roads that run straight from the most northern tip of B.C. along the coast to Vancouver......it's a ragged coastline and heavily forested with temperate rainforests (it is the area of the rare Spirit Bear, or white bear).

I believe it's around Bella Coola there's a road...etc. A huge part of B.C. is wilderness, mountains, forest, a semi-arid area Okanagan Valley where there are wineries. :)

Seriously consider a British Columbia Ferry ride from Prince Rupert midway along the Pacific Coast --it's a fjord-like area ..with bald eagles, salmon, whales (at different times), etc.No need to take an expensive cruiseliner journey!

[hulagirl]

Yeah...I know there isn't a coastal road. ;-) I do know that folks drive up the Anchorage so there must be a way...just might not be a way that is good for bikes. Would have to check.

And the Alaska Ferry is crazy cheap. You can even set up a tent on the back deck to sleep in! For no charge! Just two passenger fare. Pretty darn cool. I'll also check the BC ferry. But the Alaska one runs from WA up to SE Alaska and covers all that good stuff too. Winner is the cheaper one!

Thanks!
Denise

[hulagirl]

Oh...Google is my friend! Found some references to something similar to what we are both talking about:

"Not too sure about the Anchorage-Tok bit (have been told it is good), but Joanne and I can highly recommend riding Tok (AK) up to the Top of the World Highway, down to Dawson City, onto Whitehorse and then down to Skagway. Take the inside passage to Prince Rupert (great cheap trip on the ferry) and then take the Yellowhead Hwy to Prince George, then onto Jasper and Banff. The whole trip was absolutely fabulous and we think you would absolutely love it. You can find details, distances and photo's in the journal section of our website - www.where2pedalto.com"

I'm going to check that out!

[shootingstar]

If you plan to go this fall, then I would suggest within this month.

[Sky King]

this is a great thread, am making notes! was going to suggest tour de wyoming but I think it involves to much camping. Don't blame you for not wanting to deal with that.
this is probably to far to travel for you, but years ago we did a week in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. All the little lakes had cottages so was perfect. I think the loop was around 130 miles and beautiful.

[roguedog]

Looks like california's been covered so here are the one's I have on my wishlist:

Kettle Valley rail trail in BC
The Willamette Valley Oregon Bikeway with perhaps a diversion to the coast thru Smiith river Falls
Utah Canyonlands (Skinny Tire Festival)
Old Kentucky Home Tour (http://www.okht.org/)
Bike Virginia (http://bikevirginia.org/)
GAP
Katy Trail
Erie Canal
Cycle Oregon (http://www.cycleoregon.com/) or the Farm to Farm Century (http://rideoregonride.com/farm-to-farm-century/)

[Wasp]

The hubby and I rode part of the kettle valley railway, it's quite scenic and easy pedaling for the most of it. We took our hybrids and took our time. Parts of the trail can get quite busy on weekends and holidays etc.

As far as cycling parts of Alaska to Jasper this late in the year......
You might want to reconsider, I don't think it would be all that pleasant of a route to be cycling. Your going to run into all kinds of not so nice weather. Plus it's getting dark around 730pm now, and the temp is dropping once the sun goes down. Our rainy season will start soon enough, that would be something else to consider. If you happen to go, pack warm waterproof clothes.

[Wasp]

And warm gloves :)

[hulagirl]

Thanks all...we've done some research and since we will be doing this ride with family, we are looking for a supported "event" much like RtR. However, the elder men in our group are a little concerned about the difficulty of the ride (rightfully so).

So we have turned our attention to Cycle Oregon. But, I'm hearing a lot of background noise about the event getting too big for it's britches. And there are some vocal folks that were not too pleased with this years ride. I've also heard that they are thinking of making a new event for the younger crowd that really wants to RACE everyday. I've also heard complaints about folks not being all that friendly and if you didn't know anyone you were pretty much SOL. My biggest concern is folks saying that the food was pretty bad and usually they ran out of dessert or salad or chocolate milk or something at an aid station or dinner. Grrr...that wouldn't be very cool.

Anyone hear anything similar? Or are they just cranky?

[Sky King]

Which ride are you thinking of - the week long or the weekend? Getting away for a week hasn't been possible but we have done the weekend and had a great time. I get there newsletter and they sure seem like an open communication group of people. I bet if you email they will be pretty responsive to your concerns.

[hulagirl]

We are thinking about the week long ride. And thanks for the tidbit about sending them an email. I might just do that and see what they say. Mahalo!