bike touring
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Sierra Cascades Day 11: Detroit to Portland
If I don’t write about this day, I can pretend we will ride on to the next destination. Our tour won’t have ended, D.C. won’t be calling me home. But our final day on the road is over. We are in Portland now, our journey from Sacramento to Portland complete, and Felkerino breaks down the… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 10: Bend to Detroit
Leaving Bend was a surprisingly subdued experience, once the city streets were behind us. We followed one of the Oregon Bikeways for the first 15 miles- the best cycling miles of the day. In retrospect, we should have figured out if there was an Oregon Bikeway long cut to the town of Sisters because once… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 9: Crescent Junction to Bend
The small towns in Oregon have been good to us. They manage to survive with decent to good lodging options, a convenience store, and often a nearby restaurant that opens early enough for bike touring breakfast and late enough for bike touring dinner. I’m grateful these towns hang on, unlike what you might find in… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 8: Prospect to Crater Lake to Crescent Junction
“Adventureland, where you can ride the Tornado, see a family show, and hear a rock and roll band!” During my childhood in Iowa, an amusement park called Adventureland was the summer go-to place for families, second only to the state fair. When we reached the rim of Crater Lake, and that old Adventureland jingle began… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 7: Ashland to Prospect
Summer, where did you go? We rose away from Ashland, following the cerulean patches between the clouds, sure that we would find you and ride some miles in your company. But all we found was springtime. Blue disappeared and clouds blocked the sunshine. Temperatures hovered in the mid-40s to high 50s, making for comfortable climbing… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 6: Mt. Shasta to Ashland
Cloudy and cool this morning. Wahoo! The sun can take a break from burning a hole in my retina. We eat and coffee up at Seven Suns- best breakfast burrito ever- and roll quietly out of Mt. Shasta. No one follows us, but I can feel the mountain’s gaze on me. Even partially shrouded, the… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 5: Burney to Mt. Shasta
Every day I sleep a full seven or eight hours, but each day that passes our cumulative miles make themselves known throughout my body. We’ve achieved true touring pace, I tell myself. A bowl of oatmeal and we’re on the back road out of Burney. Yay, we don’t have to deal with that no-shoulder rise… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 4: Mineral to Lassen Volcanic National Park to Burney
Climbing from Mineral and back up Morgan Summit ended up not being as daunting as I imagined. Knowing that Lassen Volcanic National Park awaited us around the bend inspired us forward, too. Our friends and Instagram buddies told us Lassen would be an eye popping ride, and we took our time pedaling through it. This… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 3: Graeagle to Mineral
“I was up above it, now I’m down in it.” –Nine Inch Nails, Down In It We departed Graeagle- on a sweet sweet downhill- and pointed the bike toward Quincy. Highway 89 was quiet in the early hours, which was helpful to our tour-tired bodies. At Quincy, Felkerino was tempted to stop at a restaurant… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 2: South Lake Tahoe to Graeagle
It’s a good day of bike touring when your only what-if is whether you should have eaten dinner on a picnic table at the Tastee Freeze or held out for the possibility of finer fare down the road. Felkerino and I eased our way out of South Lake Tahoe and after a few miles of… Continue reading
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Sierra Cascades Day 1: Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe
If anyone ever suggests you start a tandem bike tour by biting off 147 miles with over 12,000 feet of climbing from Sacramento over to South Lake Tahoe, laugh at that person. Tell them to think seriously about what they are doing. Advise no. Now Felkerino and I pack light since we credit card tour,… Continue reading
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Traveling Light and Self-Contained: Jerry’s Cross-Country Bike Tour Secrets
Last summer, our friend Jerry spent 9 weeks bike touring 9,300 km across the United States and parts of Canada. I talked with Jerry a few times about his tour – once before he left, once while he was in the midst of his ride, and again after he finished. He also shared snapshots of his… Continue reading
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Idaho-Montana Bike Tour: By The Days and Miles
Over the holidays I received the gift of free time, and spent a fair amount of it going through photos from Felkerino’s and my 2015 summer bike tour of Idaho and Montana. In retrospect, it appears we had a grand adventure. While it was happening, our good times were interspersed with humbling moments and some… Continue reading
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Giving Thanks for Long Rides: Jerry’s 2015 Coast to Coast Bike Tour
As we head into Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share a recent conversation with our buddy Jerry, who rode his bike coast to coast this year, beginning in Alaska, passing through Canada, and back into the United States until finally reaching his Washington, DC., home over nine weeks of riding. Continue reading
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Unexpected Letdown
Almost two weeks have passed since Felkerino and I were last turning our tandem wheels through Idaho and Montana. This bike tour, combined with my recent work travels, really helped me appreciate my Washington, D.C., home. Continue reading
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Day 11. Crouch to Boise, Idaho: Coming Full Circle
I’m wrapped in the good vibes of finishing our loop of Idaho with a brief foray into Montana. As you may have guessed if you read my previous post, we took the pavement today. Continue reading
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Day 10. Cascade to Crouch, Idaho: Taking Off the Training Wheels
Greetings from Crouch! It smells delicious here, like a sweet wildflower I don’t recognize. The dry air heightens my senses; the afternoon sky is pure blue, and there is no haze, anywhere. Continue reading
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Day 9. McCall to Cascade: An Invitation to the Idaho Mountains
After days of roadside observation of the stand-offish peaks on our tour, Felkerino and I received an invitation to the mountains in the form of the Adventure Cycling Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route. And so we went. Continue reading
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Day 8. Riggins to McCall, Idaho: 50 Miles Up
Today Felkerino and I had a hard time getting our bike touring act together and ended up leaving Riggins at 9:30 a.m. Gasp! Continue reading
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Day 7. Kooskia to Riggins, Idaho
To make up for our 90-mile gradual downhill to Kooskia, we spent much of the following day climbing. Continue reading
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Day 5. Adventure Cycling Headquarters
We are currently overnighting in Missoula, Montana, after a short mellow 50-mile day from Hamilton. Continue reading
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Day 4. Lost Trail Pass into Montana
After three days of riding and fretting about my bike tour fitness, I’ve now decided that it’s a much better plan to focus on pedaling rather than worrying. This approach makes the day better. Continue reading
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Day 3. Challis to North Fork, Idaho: Salmon River Serenade
Today’s episode in bike touring found Felkerino and I sidling along the Salmon River for most of the 82 miles we covered. Our route was via highway Idaho 93, but it was quiet except for the perpetual singing of the Salmon River. Now that’s the kind of highway noise I could get used to. Continue reading
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Day 2. Pickup Truck Dreams in Idaho: Lowman to Challis
We began today with a quiet exit from Lowman, a town nestled between the mountains. As we rode I wondered how life would be if, in order to go anywhere, I had to climb thousands of feet away from home. Continue reading
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Day 1. Riding Out the Bike Tour Kinks: Boise to Lowman, Idaho
It’s our first day touring Idaho and I already feel in the teeth of it all. After some urban trail riding out of Boise that took way longer than it should have due to our lack of familiarity with the area, we ascended away from town. Continue reading
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Joy, Adventure, and Solo Bike Touring: Zoe of Women BikeDC
I started riding when I was 7 or 8. On a trip to the county dump with my dad, we found a gem of a purple bike in the heaps of trash and took it home. He fixed it up, my grandpa spray painted it pink, and I was off! –Zoe I first met Zoe… Continue reading
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Letter from Jerry: 3500 Kilometers into Bike Touring Alaska to D.C.
As I write this, our friend is out on the road somewhere, pedaling steadily eastward. Jerry talked with me before he departed for his big cross-country bike tour, and you can read those thoughts here. Now that Jerry’s been traveling for a few weeks, I thought it would be great to catch up with him… Continue reading
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Our Friend Jerry is Going Coast to Coast: Bike Touring Alaska to D.C.
Over the last couple of years, Felkerino and I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jerry, a local cyclist and fellow D.C. Randonneur who will be riding a solo coast-to-coast tour from Alaska to Washington, D.C. Continue reading
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Choose Your Own Eventure: C&O Bike Tour to a Marathon
Hello friends. I’ve just returned from a weekend concept ride I’ve been plotting for the past year. It involved a 134-mile mini bike tour from Washington, D.C., out the C&O to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and the Freedom’s Run marathon. I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I ended up with was a satisfying fall… Continue reading
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Colorado 2014: By the Days and Miles
Every day that goes by, our 2014 Colorado tour becomes more memory. I’m surprised to feel saddened by that, since one of our intentions while there was to feed our wanderlust and tire ourselves out so that we would be at peace with settling back into our life in Washington, D.C. Maybe that peace will… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 