Category: Bike Touring
World bicycle travelers Pat and Cat Patterson (at left) are on the road again, but Robert Hollandsworth is having to abandon his bike tour in Texas.
Two years after they completed a four-year bicycle tour through 57 countries on 4 continents, the Pattersons are pedaling their loaded bicycles through foreign lands again — this time in Southeast Asia.
The Pattersons are proof that it's never too late to fulfill your dreams. They're both survivors of messy divorces who built a successful real estate business in southern California until they realized it was time to stop the rat race and see the world
Pat, who's pushing 70, and Cat, in her late 50s, explain their motivations …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/02/22/one-bike-tour-begins-another-ends-early/
Last year's sunny blue skies aren't expected to make a repeat performance at the 2009 Chilly Hilly bike ride that kicks off the Puget Sound area recreational cycling season on Sunday.
It might be sunny on Friday, but the weather forecast for Bainbridge Island on Sunday is flat-out rain.
I hope the forecasters are wrong on that, but I'll suggest reattaching fenders, tightening up the brakes a bit, and digging out the Gor-Tex raingear. Probably take along an extra pair of gloves and maybe wool socks …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/02/20/2009-chilly-hilly-fashion-advice-raingear-and-fenders/
If you've ever traveled by bicycle, you'll know that while some motels or campgrounds encourage or at least tolerate cyclo-tourists, others are reluctant to take us in.
My touring buddy and I have been turned away from a campground in Colorado (“We don't allow tents,” the owner sniffed) and interrogated by the manager of a rooming house in Kentucky before we were able to stay.
To make it easier for bicyclists to find lodging on their trips, a bicycle advocacy group has launched Bed and Bike America that lists bike-friendly hotels, motels and campgrounds that cater to bicyclists.
The project is just on the ground floor, with just five hotels signed up in the US — Arizona, California, Missouri, Wisconsin, and 1 in Ontario. Let's hope this thing gets going, and I'm sure it will. There are dozens of B&Bs and hostels that have popped up along popular rail-trails and bicycle-touring routes …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/02/06/new-website-lists-lodgings-that-cater-to-bicycle-tourists/
Bicyclists who like the rarified air of the Rocky Mountains and enjoy the camaraderie of mass bicycle tours are in luck this summer.
Two week-long bike tours — Ride the Rockies and Bicycle Tour of Colorado — are scheduled to leave Glenwood Springs on back-to-back weeks, enabling cyclists to go from the completion of one ride to the beginning of the other.
Organizers for the Denver Post Ride the Rockies announced its route this weekend. It begins with registration in Glenwood Springs on June 13, covers 380 miles of the Rocky Mountain scenery and returns on June 19. It's the first year in its 24 year history that Ride the Rockies has been routed as a loop…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/02/02/glenwood-springs-launches-ride-the-rockies-and-bicycle-tour-of-colorado-in-2009/
Falling debris hazards in five John Wayne Pioneer Trail tunnels, including the 2.3-mile-long Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel at left, have convinced Washington state parks to close them until further notice.
The closures are bad news for the many bicyclists and hikers who pass through the tunnels at they hike and bike the 100-mile-long rail-trail over the Cascades from Cedar Falls to the Columbia River.
Shutting down the tunnels not only removes interesting historical landmarks from the Iron Horse State Park, which contains the rail-trail, but requires trail users to take long detours — sometimes out to Interstate 90 — to get through the remote area.
A request for funds to repair the tunnels, estimated at $9 million, are included in the 2009-2011 two-year budget cycle …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/01/31/washington-state-closes-all-5-iron-horse-trail-tunnels-indefinitely/
Who's up for a 7-day rolling party across Iowa? Whoa. Did I just see 10,000 hands go up?
The Des Moines Register on Thursday announced this year's route for RAGBRAI, naming a west to east route that starts in Council Bluffs on July 19 and ends in Burlington on July 25.
At 442 miles, it's one of the shortest in the history of the recreational bicycle tour. To make up for that, organizers picked a hillier than normal route with nearly 23,000 of total elevation gain.
The lucky few named as host towns for the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa are Council Bluffs, Red Oak, Greenfield, Indianola, Chariton, Ottumwa, Mt. Pleasant and Burlington…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/01/30/ragbrai-announces-a-shorter-hilly-bike-ride-in-2009/
Last fall, Nate Bartlett rode his bicycle to his new school — 1,100 miles away.
The 19-year-old from western Massachusetts was due to begin classes at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, as an incoming freshman. He thought it might be fun to turn his last few days before college into a bike tour.
His father, Sam, readily agreed to ride along. The pair gave themselves two weeks to make the trip …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/01/29/bicycling-to-school-through-6-states-and-a-canadian-province/
Trail supporters in New York state are pushing for completion of the Erie Canalway Trail.
Originally completed in 1825 to carry commerce from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, the canal is now the focus of lively towns along its path trying to lure tourism dollars to their communities.
Some 260 miles of bike trails (officially multi-use trails) run through the Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor, which includes the Erie, as well as other historic canals in upstate New York.
Eventually, 366 miles of bike trails are planned between Albany and Buffalo. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/01/28/finishing-the-erie-canalway-bike-path/
Ryan Bowen has all but completed his 4,000-mile cross-country bicycle trip to commemorate Tuesday's historic inauguration of Barack Obama.
His blog, Biking for Obama, reports the 22-year-old from Los Angeles arrived in Fairfax, Virginia, this afternoon, and on Saturday he's due in Arlington. Then it's time to get ready to party.
The final stage meet-up and celebration is scheduled to leave about noon on Sunday from the Reagan National Airport for a bike tour around the mall and final destination at an as-yet undisclosed final party location …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/01/16/biking-for-obama-tour-arrives-in-dc-area-in-time-for-inauguration/
A lightly traveled two-lane road across an arid plateau in New Mexico. A dirt track in a remote valley in British Columbia. A level crushed-limestone path through a tunnel in Wisconsin.
These are among the bike routes chosen by Adventure Cyclist magazine in its list of Top Ten Bicycling Tours in North America.
It's the second year in a row that the publication for the Adventure Cycling Association has chosen 10 destinations for cyclists.
The 10 bike touring choices in the January issue are in no way meant solely for the road-hardened cyclo-tourist who revels in lugging his equipment-laden bicycle over mountain passes. There are rides for mountain bikers, recreational cyclists …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/01/16/magazine-picks-10-top-bicycling-tours-in-north-america/
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