Taking my first bike trip

[Gray Gato]

Hi,
I'm taking my first bike tour in September and have chosen a rather toughie. Husband and I are doing a Utah National Park tour with altitude, climbing and long daily rides.

Any advice from veteran tourers? I hear I should take my own shoes with pedals, but what do you do when you get off the bike?

Also, what do you do when you have to answer the call of nature?

Any other advice would be appreciated.

[DeniseGoldberg]

From your post, I assume you are going with a touring company and using one of their bikes. If you use clipless pedals normally, I definitely recommend taking your shoes and pedals. And if you have a favorite bike seat, take that too!

Check with the touring company to see if they supply handlebar bags and/or rear racks. If the bike has a rack you should be able to strap a pair of shoes to it. But then again - you might not even want anything except your bike shoes during the riding day.

I did a tour in Utah with Backroads many years ago; we rode between Bryce, the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and Zion. What a beautiful place to ride. In fact, one of these days I'm going to go back there and do a solo tour...

On the needing a bathroom front - just keep your eyes peeled for good spots along the side of the road... not perfect, but sometimes, that's just what you need to do. I remember one day on my cross-country trip (sorry, I can't even remember what state I was in!) when there just didn't seem to be any place to stop. But then I realized that I could climb over the railroad tracks that paralleled the road and go down in the dip on the other side. Perfect! I wasn't visible from the road, and there wasn't a train in sight!

You should have a great time on your tour. Happy dreaming in the meantime...

--- Denise