2014 summer touring, where did everyone go??

[AppleTree]

Hartmame would love to see your tour journal when you have it ready...

Our biggest adventure (together anyway) was biking from Vancouver, BC back to the Seattle area. We took a train with our bikes up to Vancouver and stayed in Richmond overnight the first night (south of Vancouver a bit). We stayed on the route recommended by Adventure Cycling, but found the roads and traffic from the Vancouver area to be very difficult. Some areas of high truck traffic and some confusing directions. Oh, and several gnarly hills to boot. Thank goodness we had our smart phones, but we had limited cell service in some areas and didn't want to pay for the expensive data downloads in a foreign country... had some very, very kind people point us in the right direction a few times.

Once we made it past the US border, going south was a breeze! We had beautiful weather the whole time. And other than a scroungy hotel in Blaine, it was perfect in every way just about, scenic and low traffic roads, just rolling hills. We also stayed overnight in Bellingham and LaConner, so no day was terribly long... And we were hotel touring, no camping. I am not a camping girl, to say the least.

We are thinking our next overnight touring might be back up to Canada, this time Victoria, maybe next month. Via the ferry from Port Angeles, which would be fun.

With the new school year starting and fall right around the corner I'm getting ready for a winter of planning for next summer's bike tour and bike overnights.

This summer I rode the C&O and GAP trails with my niece. I'll post a link to my crazyguyonabike journal when it's ready. Until then I hoped to hear what the rest of you did on your summer bike trips??

[Crankin]

I leave in exactly 7 days (almost to the hour) for Lisbon.
I think I have everything i need; bought a travel sized hair dryer to complement my little flat iron, new travel bottles for my hygiene stuff, and a couple of new sports bras. I have so much cycling stuff, I didn't need to buy anything new, except to replace a couple of pairs of shorts. So far, it looks like the weather will be between 60-75, although there could be rain (praying there won't be). I am leading 2 forty mile rides this weekend; after that, I might commute one day and perhaps another small ride, but I am going to rest. We fly Friday night, get there Sat. morning, and the tour starts Monday morning, with a walking tour of Lisbon. I should be all adjusted to the time change by Tuesday. Day 5 has the long and partly steep climb.