Farewell to the West Coast and final thoughts

Sunday, June 2, 2012

 Last night James disassembled our bikes, packed them and our other gear into the bike boxes our host (and owner of Bike Flights) had given us and we left them in the Bike Flight office. The owner was kind enough to get up at 4:30 am to take us to the airport for our early morning departure.  He printed out the labels he had in his records and had Fed Ex pick them up on Monday.   I must give a huge thanks to Bill and his family for their wonderful hospitality.

This was the first day that we hadn't ridden our bikes in two weeks.  It felt strange to walk with a couple of small bags as we went to our gate at the airport.  While we were on our tour we didn't keep up with the news going on in the country or in the world.  We picked up a newspaper and learned that Doc Watson, a favorite folk music artist had passed away.  We were sad to learn the news.  I must say that it was nice to have 2 weeks away from all of the media hype which is either fear inducing or pointless information about the lives of Hollywood TV and film stars -- that I didn't miss.

I can definitely say that I'm hooked on touring and we have plans to have additional adventures on our touring bikes.  It forces one to slow down and observe the world around them as they are going to their destination.  I love the sensory aspect -- not only do you get the sights, but the sounds and smells add to the experience.  We met very friendly people and it seemed that traveling by bicycle opened up conversations that would not have been attempted had we been in a car.  The final aspect that I found attractive was the simplicity of the whole experience.  The bicycle in itself is a simple machine and to carry one's belongings forces one to narrow down the material items to the basic needs.  This in itself simplifies life.

We were very fortunate not to have any major breakdowns or crises while we were on our bike tour.  I give James a lot of credit for this and some of it was luck.  James did a great job making sure he had our bikes set up correctly, studied the equipment and purchased the equipment that he felt would deter a lot of mechanical problems.  I have what we used in the first blog post if anyone who is reading and considering doing a bike tour needs additional details.

What we did that worked

I wanted to provide a brief summary of what we did to prepare for this tour and what we discovered while on our tour that worked for us.

1. Shipping our bikes to San Francisco, CA and back home using BikeFlights was a great first step.  We got a great rate, great customer service, and it was much better than having to deal with the bikes at the airport. The owner is a cyclist and has previous experience working with the airline industry so he gets both sides.
2. Doing a practice run two weeks before the tour so we could make adaptations to the bikes and gear before we left.
3. Using waterproof panniers - I recommend the Ortlieb's.  We spent  a little more and bought the type that fold down and have pockets on the side rather than the "roll-down" type. We were able to put our high frequency used items in the outside pockets (maps) so they were readily accessible.
4. Found as many alternate routes to Hwy 101 as we could.  It was extremely busy and it was nice to get on a side road with less traffic.  Keep in mind that a lot of times those routes will have more terrain but we were ok with it.  I recommend the steps I outlined below for any bike tour. 
• Use the Cycling Adventures map as a starting point and then read the blogs and forums on their website.
• Get on Google maps and use the "google map" guy to get a view of the roads to see if they had a shoulder.
• Look at the "traffic density (or volume)" information for the roads you will travel (I know this is available for each state in America, I'm not sure about other countries).  This information is posted on most Department of Transportation for each state's website. If the highway listed on the Adventure Cycling route was reported as high traffic density try to find an alternate road with less traffic volume.
• Bring physical maps with you and don't rely on the GPS on your phone.  It is difficult to get an accurate view of the "big picture" of an area.  We used pages from the Gazetteer for the areas we were in.  He cut them out of the book so we had them for a reference.  These maps have all of the back roads and terrain information and have maps for each state.  You can buy them from Amazon.com or your local Wal-Mart or Target (keep in mind they will only have the states that the store is located in).
• Once you are in the area, look for maps made by locals for the area (like the Krebs Cycle map we found).  Some are great, some aren't worth buying, you have to make that decision.
• Talk to individual's working in bicycle shops.  Some are better than others.
5. If you do this tour in the spring - take wool long underwear, 2 to 3 pairs of wool socks, and a wool base layer to sleep in at night.  You will also want a stocking cap.  It gets chilly once the sun goes down on the coast.
6. I'd only take one sleeveless jersey (or none) and take 2 long sleeve synthetic shirts.  I found myself wearing the shirt I bought in Eureka, OR each day.  Rain gear is necessary too.
7. If you can't eat a big breakfast when you wake up, trying eating a small one and then waiting until you reach the a town 30 min -1.5 hours later to stop to eat breakfast at restaurant.  It worked well for me.  I had developed an appetite and could eat a lot more food that carried me through the day.
8. Allow yourself to have rest days -- especially if your body is telling you that you need to give it some rest.
9. One thing we didn't do was allow ourselves to spend more than one day in a spot.  There were a couple of places that I would have liked to have had more time to explore the area.
10. If your tour is during a holiday - if possible, I recommend staying put during the day that everyone is traveling to or from the destination spot if you are unable to find an alternate route.

I hope you find this information useful and maybe this blog has inspired you to try bike touring.  I highly recommend it!  It was a lot of fun.

When ever we take our next bike tour, I'll post a blog about that experience.  Happy riding!