Fuck I miss long-distance bicycle touring

[aprilstarchild]

Not a day goes by I don't think about the tour Shawn and I did in 2011. Still one of the best things we ever did. And since then I've done a bunch of Cycle Wild trips, and they're fun, but totally not the same. A group of up to a dozen, doing a thirty or forty mile ride from Portland and then coming back the next day, is just not the same as one or

Comments

[seams_unusual]

uh oh. :-)

[aprilstarchild]

Oh, you know we'd probably travel well together.

[clevermanka]

That sounds AMAZING! I'm happy and excited for you.

[aprilstarchild]

You could do a portion of the PCT. It goes through Oregon near Mt. Hood, after all.

One of Adventure Cycling's routes is specifically meant to roughly parallel the PCT, the Sierra Cascades route. It crosses the PCT twenty-five times.

[holyfant]

Oh my, what an amazing plan!

[aprilstarchild]

If you ever get the chance to do long-distance bicycle touring, give it a shot! I hear there's lots of good touring in Europe. And you don't have to camp, lots of people do hostel-to-hostel when they can. (I wish there were more hostels here in the states, that's for sure.)

[glowing_fish]

If you do a Montana tour, you can stay with me! I actually have some other good suggestions for Montana tours if you are interested.

[aprilstarchild]

Oh man, there is SO MUCH gorgeous cycling in Montana. But I admit that I specifically want to do Glacier and the Icefields Parkway again, and part of that is because I can take Amtrak right to the door of Glacier, and then from Jasper I can get my current roommate and her husband (who lives in Edmonton, as will she in a few weeks) to pick me up to hang out with them for a couple of days before taking the VIA train back to Vancouver and then Amtrak to Portland. (Holy shit VIA is expensive, though, compared to Amtrak.)

When Shawn and I did Glacier, it was the latest opening of Going-to-the-Sun Road they'd ever had, and we missed it by a week and had to go around. Going-to-the-Sun Road is kinda stressful and terrifying (and cyclists are only allowed on it for a handful of hours every day, so you don't get to stop much), but I really want to ride it.

But then, sometimes I think I want to do one of those insane alpine passes that switchbacks up the actual ALPS for fun. So I'm probably nuts.

[glowing_fish]

Do you know about the Big Hole valley? It's one of the most desolate spots in the country. Very beautiful, in a desolate way.

[aprilstarchild]

"Desolate" often means "not good for bike touring."