C&O canal with kids

[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 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/outr...eers_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

[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/

it's not all like this, but be prepared.