Solo Touring

[Tri Girl]

thanks for sharing your lessons learned! All good things to keep in mind.

I'm so excited for your trip!!! Good luck, watch out for beautiful Florida weather, and have a BLAST (and check in when you get back)! I can't wait to hear all about it.

[owlice]

Have a great time! Take notes! Share when you return! Have a great time!!!

[owlice]

How was it? Please tell!

[Biketouringrook]

I totally apologise for my long delay in providing details.......I was so overwhelmed when I retunred with classes and other stuff. But here goes:
The trip was better than I had expected. Solo touring is so awesome! I had not one bad experience that turned me off, not even when I got lost. Although I did bunk out.......When I arrived at my first campsite, it was night time, and I was frightened to death when a racoon came up from behind and tapped me on the leg. He would not go away. He walke all over my tent that I had laid out. I had to spray him wiht my "Halt." to get him to leave (that's just like a man).

The camsites were beaustiful. There weren't many tent campers, most were RV's. I felt totally safe throughout the whole trip. On state park facility was so hughe, it had to cycle another 5 miles inside of the park to reach the campgrounds. I had only one flat tire on my trailer, and no other malfunctions. At one point, after setting up my tent, I was so tired, I fell asleep whilet texting on my phone. When I awoke the next morning, the phone was laying on my chest.

Lesson Learned:
1) you can never have too many lights or batteries (my flashlight began acting up, so I had to make use of my bike light)
2) don't take all of you daily meals along, just take breakfast (I was so tired when I arrived at my camp site, I did want to cook anything. Once I cycled to Burger King).
3) If you have a bike map, follow it (I was trying to follow both my bike map and Garmin GPS. I was so confused. The GPS took me through some of the seedest neighborhoods)!
4) if you are not familiar with the area, and not sure where you are going, don't listen to you MP3 player ( I missed my turn and went ten miles out of the way before becoming suspicious).

Now, for my next adventure, I will be touring the "Underground Railroad" from Milford, OH to Erie, PA. At the start of April I will drive to Ohio, park my car somewhere safe, cycle to PA and cycle back to OH where my car will be waiting. The trip should be around 900 miles, providing that I don't get lost. For this trip I purchased some cold weather cycling clothes, a North Face Minibus 23 tent (oh, yeah, forgot to tell you all that I ripped the screen part of my old tent trying to scare the racoons away that sound like ten thousand creature trying to gain entrance), and a North Face Women Green Kazoo sleeping bag. I am so excited about this trip. There will be so much history to see.

In either July or November, I will tour the last leg of the "Uderground Railroad" into Ontarion, if it's not too, too, cold in November.

Again, I apologise for the long delay.

[Tri Girl]

So glad to hear back from you BTR! Love the pictures!! Glad that you had a great time and that you really enjoyed yourself! I get freaked out at night when camping alone- every sound sounds like a million zombies coming to eat me.
Thanks for reporting back. The UGRR sounds fantastic- can't wait to hear all about it!!

Ride on!

[Biketouringrook]

Cool! I love your blog spot, Tri Girl. The snow looks so beautiful. I have been in South Florida for 4 years now, and don't think I can do the snow and cold anymore.

[AnnieBikes]

I have cycled the whole Underground RR route and it is awesome!! You will love the section you are planning to do! The bike trail is 55 miles from Milford to the North...and just beautiful riding. Have fun!! The lady that Donna322 was talking about (70 yr. old who rode cross country alone) was on the trip with me on the Underground RR in 2008!

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/2...groundRailroad

[Catrin]

I just found this thread, lo these months later. Thanks for sharing your journey with us and looking forward to hearing about your travels next time

[shootingstar]

In either July or November, I will tour the last leg of the "Uderground Railroad" into Ontarion, if it's not too, too, cold in November.

Again, I apologise for the long delay.

Biketouringrook, it is recommended if you do southern Ontario portion of the Underground Railroad, to do it in summer or before November.

I am familiar with this area..one of my closest friends..lives in the same town as the historic site for "Uncle Tom's cabin", the home of Josiah Henson. It is in the town of Dresden, Ontario. Which Harriet Stowe based her book on. Yes, the site gets busloads of visitors annually from all over Canada and U.S. It is really a piece of Canadian black history that is incredible.

I have visited/toured and stayed with my friend several times over the last 2 decades. Most recently, last summer.

SHe and I went to some other Afro-Canadian museums related to the whole area and Underground Railroad. About 30 kms. away from Dresden or less, is North America's oldest /first schoolhouse for children of freed black slaves. (early 1800's) It is now a historic site. We were given a tour by the site curator who is a great-great grandson of a pioneer black schoolteacher in the area.

My friend, who is high school teacher ,and I were impressed by the museum's sophisticated curriculum they have devised to teach kids in the region, on life as a Afro-Canadian child during that era --the kids actually take upon the role of a black child of a long-gone class featured in an archival class photo, and the present-day schoolkid is requested to research life about of that child. A real lesson that integrates history, geography, sociology, etc. The children spend several days based out of the historic school site so they can get immersed.

There are 2 different museums on Underground RR in that area in addition to the Josiah Henson's site.
http://www.uncletomscabin.org/
http://buxtonmuseum.com/
http://ckblackhistoricalsociety.org/


The area tends to be flat for cycling. And it is Central-Eastern Canada's tomato region..lots of tomatoes are grown in the region.

[Biketouringrook]

Oh, wow.....I am just so overly excited! Thanks for the wealth of information. I would rather do the last portion of the "Underground Railroad" during the summer season. Are the summers in that particular area dry? Here in South Florida summer is the start of hurricane season, and I am so deathly afraid of "thunder and lightning." I'd rather deal with the cold, than to deal with the thunder and lightning.

[shootingstar]

That area of southern Ontario rarely experiences hurricanes. The summers in that area (like any TE forum member from the Toronto area can tell you....which is over 300 kms. northeast of Dresden) can be humid with temp. 80-90 degrees F., particularily in July and August. Area can get thunder and rain.

Dresden sits in an agricultural, flattish area. (but it's not like the prairies). I did mention briefly about this area with photos at TE last year: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=33843


I have not yet bike toured in Dresden, but used to live, work and bike in Toronto area for 14 yrs. We did several different self-supported bike trips involving camping elsewhere in southern Ontario.

One of the links I gave above, refers to the Black Mecca --it was a small town of blacks at that time, that became literary-arts oriented with a high level of literacy among the blacks.

President Abraham Lincoln sent one of his officials to visit this community in Ontario, to see what lessons/insight could be gained for some blacks after the Civil War. As I mentioned in the older link here, Fredrick Douglass, a prominent black activist of that era, dropped by this area and was impressed / amazed.