Category: Bike Touring
When members of two Virginia bicycle clubs showed up on Afton Mountain a few weeks ago to hand over donations to “Cookie Lady” June Curry, a reporter from public radio station WVTF recorded her comments.
In a radio report, Sandy Hausman tells how the Bike House got started and how June gained her nickname, “Cookie Lady,” way back in 1976.
Now, bicyclists who passed through years before are offering their help. June said:
“Ever since I had my stroke, when I've really needed help, I've got it from bikers. I feel like I owe all of you a great deal …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/12/05/cookie-lady-june-curry-in-her-own-words/
This holiday weekend I took a virtual state-by-state bicycle tour around the U.S. by reading about all the exciting week-long bicycle tours that are available in 2009.
I dug up more bike rides than ever — 133 bicycle tours in 45 states — to update the BikingBis.com list of Across State Bicycle Tours.
That's kind of a generic title for the list. Although a few are patterned on RAGBRAI and actually go from one side of the state to the other, most are high-attendance, week-long rides that simply explore a region of the state by traveling the backroads …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/12/01/133-week-long-bicycle-tours-for-2009/
Normally, bicyclists who stop along the roadside during long rides are “taking care of business.”
But the 35 Acorns of Hope bicycle riders touring Louisiana's coastal plain earlier this month were professional arborists, and they were stopping to plant 2,000 live oak trees.
Acorns of Hope is a 5-year project that's aimed at replanting the thousands of trees along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico that were wiped out by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
Without trees and their roots to hold the soil along the coastline, erosion continues to threaten those who are returning to rebuild their homes and their livelihoods …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/11/30/ride-a-bike-plant-a-tree-in-louisiana/
One of the many ways that the Adventure Cycling Association raises funds for its non-profit activities is to ask members to sponsor a one-mile stretch of a bicycle route.
For $200 (more for a mountain pass), you can dedicate a mile on one of several bicycle maps: TransAmerica, Pacific Coast, Lewis & Clark, or Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Map panels or entire maps are available too.
My friend Bruce and I rode the TransAmerica bike route from Yorktown, Virginia, to Pueblo, Colorado in 1984. Then we picked our way over a few other bike routes to Carlsbad, California. The 1984 bike tour journal is on my website.
Reading about that offer in an email I received Tuesday, I started thinking about which mile of the TransAmerica Bicycle Route I would choose to sponsor …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/11/26/which-mile-would-i-sponsor-on-the-transamerica-bike-trail/
What are the top adventure travel companies geared to bicyclists?
The National Geographic Adventure magazine studied 200 adventure travel outfitters and came up with a list of 157 that received a score of 80 or above in their five-category survey.
Eleven of those were purely bicycle-touring companies that offer adventures in the US and abroad. The list, based on overall scores:
1. VBT Bicycling Vacations
2. BikeHike Adventures ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/11/23/magazine-names-top-11-bicycle-touring-outfits/
Mark your 2009 calendar. Four week-long bicycle tours of the Colorado Rockies already are scheduled for next summer and three have posted their routes online and are accepting registrations.
RAGBRAI might have the history of being the grand daddy of the week-long, mass bicycle tours, but these supported bike tours in the Rockies certainly have bragging rights for vertical achievement.
The Denver Post Ride the Rockies, Bicycle Tour of Colorado, Colorado Rocky Mountain Bike Tour, and High Country Relaxed all promise high passes and amazing scenery …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/11/21/four-week-long-colorado-bike-tours-slated-for-2009/
A nonprofit that works on behalf of all trails — including those for bicyclists– recognized the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route at its annual meeting that ended Monday in Little Rock.
American Trails issued its 2008 Partnership Award to Adventure Cycling Association and the University of Pittsburgh and the Center for Minority Health, who worked together on the project.
The bicycle route takes cyclists along the path to freedom used by many slaves before the Civil War. It stretches 2,100 miles from Mobile, Alabama, to Owen Sound, Ontario.
“Since the route's official establishment in 2007, Adventure Cycling's Underground Railroad Route map sales have been exceptional, with 4,150 maps sold to date …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/11/19/american-trails-awards-underground-railroad-bike-route-among-others/
An environmental group dedicated to protecting and restoring the Chesapeake Bay is launching a campaign — Cyclist for the Bay — to get people out of their cars and onto their bikes.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is asking people to pledge to use their bicycles whenever possible, bike to work at least once a week, and spread the word about the need to protect the bay.
The Chesapeake Bay on the East Coast is one of the nation's natural wonders. At the turn of the last century, writer H.L. Mencken called it the world's protein factory, for all the clams, oysters, crabs and varieties of fish that came from its waters.
Today the Bay is choked with pollution …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/11/19/ride-your-bicycle-save-the-chesapeake-bay/
As the “trail angel” on Afton Mountain in Virginia's stretch of the TransAmerica Bicycle Route, June “Cookie Lady” Curry is used to visitors.
But she was totally unprepared when 25 members of the Richmond Area Bicycle Association showed up on Sunday to hand over donations they'd collected to help pay back for all the help she's given to traveling bicyclists over the years.
Champe Burnley, who helped direct the fund-raising effort by RABA, said:
“I think June was expecting me to stop by alone and was surprised, to say the least, when nearly 25 people showed up to celebrate the occasion. … It was a bit chilly this morning, but the warmth of the crowd quickly took the chill out of the air. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/11/17/richmond-bike-club-pays-back-virginias-cookie-lady/
The completion of a 50,000-mile U.S. Bicycle Route System throughout the lower 48 states may be years away, but for Virginia the future is now.
The state currently has the most miles of designated U.S. Bicycle Routes in the nation — 838 miles.
The commonwealth got a head start when Bike Routes 1 and 76 were designated for bicycling more than 20 years ago.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently approved a National Corridor Plan that sets guidelines and framework for establishing a nationwide bike route network. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/11/10/virginia-is-for-u-s-bicycle-route-lovers/
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