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Did that last year. It was AWESOME! Some of the best scenery. Just beware the C&O, it's a bit rough and resupply is sometimes far and few between. They've now completed the "GAP in the GAP" too so you can literally ride from the Pittsburgh airport to D.C. ENJOY!
Tricolor said:
I've never really focused on the 'before death' bit but I'll be riding the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal trails between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC. Going in October means I should see some nice leaves, and the campgrounds and hotels shouldn't be crowded.
Lets see.....
RAGBRAI 4x
SAGBRAW 3x
GRABAAWR 1x
GAP and C&O Pittsburgh to DC
Western Michigan Tour
Grand Illinois Trail
Door County
Time to look for next years supported and bagger tours (only been doing the self supported thing for a couple years but loving it!).....I need to start filling the bucket....list.
Mine all tend to be week long tours since I can't take months off from work, so logistically need to be somewhere close. I envy those that can pick up and go to Tuscany to ride. Also love seeing other rides worth doing here.
Mine is the Great Divide mountain bike route, from the Canadian border (or a bit further north!) to the Mexican border.
~18 days is the record (http://tourdivide.org/Full_GDMBR_Times).
I think 8-10 weeks would be a nice pace.
If I had a good touring bike or at least a more ergonomic one than a '2mm too small for me fixie' I always wanted to do a route 66 ride to Bloomington/Normal and take the train back to Chicago.
I want to own a velomobile: aero rider, Go one, WAV, fietser, and have a group of friends that wanted to trade there cars for fully covered bicycles.
I hunted all around the former Western Maryland in the mid-80s with my father when the only rail-trail section was around Ohiopyle. We hiked over to the Big Savage Tunnel and edged out over the Salisbury Viaduct years before anything was developed. Cumberland was a regular weekend day trip for me back then.
Ill be taking the train to Pittsburgh, assembling the bike and staying downtown for the night, starting off from the Point as early as I can get up. I figure I can do the GAP in two 75 mile days, then take three days around 60 miles each for the C&O canal. I'm not camping so that'll lighten my load a lot and let me carry some extra clothes. After a day in Washington I'll take the train back to Chicago.
Ron said:
Did that last year. It was AWESOME! Some of the best scenery. Just beware the C&O, it's a bit rough and resupply is sometimes far and few between. They've now completed the "GAP in the GAP" too so you can literally ride from the Pittsburgh airport to D.C. ENJOY!
I have wanted to do RAGBRAI since 1978...so that day must be closer ahead than it was then.
And now that the Raleigh DL-1 Tourist is rolling (after expensive wheel and hub re-buildings and moderately successful efforts at reviving the paint), lots of tweedy places are screaming for me to ride them. The Cotswolds would be around the top of that list.
And being a western Illinois auslander, I am forever envious of all the critical mass, slowterium, and other awesome urban rides that are too far away.
But mostly, riding with my family to easy and fun places. Those are the best rides of all.
Nothing much has held me back. At least, not much more than 35 years of procrastination, changing employment, marriage and vacations determined "jointly" with my wife of 25+ years, four children and their countless and wonderful activities, determined pursuit of my other activity-love of karate competition, plus a sort of disgruntlement with the vastly changed nature of RAGBRAI since the rides of my youth. In the '70s, it was kind of a counter-cultural hippie-flavored thing, and now it's a rich-folks carbon-fiber-flavored thing.
So I'll get there one of these days.
MikeF said:
Hey Hector,
What is stopping you from doing RAGBRAI? You might have to go out on a limb and sign up for it.
Hector Lareau said:I have wanted to do RAGBRAI since 1978...so that day must be closer ahead than it was then.
Brett is off doing one of his "bucket list" rides - a bike tour in Colorado. And then I saw this news item about biking around Glacier National Park: http://flatheadbeacon.com/2016/05/10/glacier-park-launches-new-bike... so I thought I'd add these to the collective list.
BTW, here's Brett from his ride today (in front of Mesa Verde)...
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