Bike Tour options

[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!