Katy Trail ride

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Thanks for the info. Beyond the shuttle service, were you totally self supported? Did you have any trouble riding a loaded bike? My husband's bike is rack friendly; mine is not. Perhaps this is a good excuse for me to buy a touring bike, however!

We just got back from our honeymoon, so we wouldn't do this anytime soon, but I can't get your blog out of my head. I've been on weeklong tours, and I just love doing them.

No, we were punks. We used a group that hauled our stuff from each b & b/inn. We did carry stuff in our panniers but didn't have to other than necessities we needed while out riding.

Neither of us had done any touring before (this is the rationalization section of my post.. ) so we decided to pay the extra $$ to use this company: http://www.independenttourist.com/index.html

We will carry our own stuff when we go back this fall. We'll use the same shuttle (was included in the price of the independent tourist package) service or use Amtrak.

We're really sort of embarrassed by it because the main thing they did was carry our stuff, so the moral of the story for us is Pack Light!

Looking back and actually by day 2 we were convinced, we could have easily used a lot less *stuff* (too many clothes) and done fine carrying all our stuff on our own.

With that in mind and to kind of test myself, I packed my panniers full the last couple of days and there was no issue with riding/controlling the bike. I was surprised but I didn't really notice it except for the weight.



P.S. Regarding your need for a touring bike , I can only say good things about my Jamis Aurora Elite. I finally got to see the merits of the disc brakes too.