If you ever travel to the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound to ride your bicycle, you'll undoubtedly hear that Lopez Island is the flattest of the bunch.
I'm here to tell you that, at least for bicyclists, it ain't necessarily so.
My son and I recently took a 30-mile loop around Lopez Island as part of a two-day benefit bike ride. At the end of the previous day's 30 miles around San Juan Island, quite a few people said the Lopez Island trip would be much flatter. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/07/bicycling-lopez-island/
When you're half dozing after a long bike ride and you hear someone say, “I saw whales!” there are only a few places you could be.
One of them is San Juan Island, the main island of a cluster that sit in Washington State's Puget Sound hard by the Canadian border.
The small islands — San Juan, Lopez, and Orcas — are popular with bicyclists and many bicycle touring companies make a good business running cyclists out to the islands, feeding them, bedding them down at bed & breakfast inns, and sagging a few up some of the steeper hills. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/06/take-a-bike-vacation-on-san-juan-island-in-washingtons-puget-sound/
A record 2,300 bicyclists are riding in this year's AIDS/Lifecycle, which began its 7-day tour down the California coast on Sunday.
Starting in San Francisco, the rolling fund-raiser made its first stop in Santa Cruz, left, on Sunday night at Harvey West Park.
The “inside” story of the event, which raised $11 million for AIDS research this year, is provided online at Experience AIDS/Lifecycle 6. The website offers bike tour images, four blogs, and a podcast all updated daily. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/06/04/aidslifecycle-bike-tour-underway-in-california/
This weekend, my son and I are riding our bicycles in the Stanley Stammpede, a charity bike ride to benefit the Stanley Stamm Children's Hospital Summer Camp.
The outdoor camp enables children, such as my developmentally delayed daughter, the opportunity to experience a typical week-long summer camp.
In spite of their disabilities, children like my daughter still like to be active and do things that other kids do. At left she's enjoys riding a trike at a recent family camp. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/05/29/bicycling-the-stanley-stammpede-charity-ride/
Is there a way to improve the detailed maps of the passage to the Pacific Coast charted by Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery more than two centuries ago?
The Adventure Cycling Association says there is. Five years after printing the first set of Lewis & Clark Trail maps for bicycles, the bike touring organization has reprinted the maps with improvements. The updates include:
— More cycling-friendly routing in places, including off-road bike paths and freshly paved rural roads;
— More accurate elevation profiles;
— Added alternative gravel routes;
— Updates to route services, which now include libraries …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/05/10/new-and-improved-bicycle-touring-maps-for-lewis-clark-trail/
As you can see from the NOAA map at left, any cross-country bike route is going to take cyclists through the so-called Tornado Alley.
When I was researching yesterday's article on “Bicycle touring safety in Tornado Alley,” I asked the Adventure Cycling Association, which publishes maps covering 36,000 miles of bicycle routes in the US, what they suggest.
Julie Emnet, Adventure Cycling's development director, has this advice:
“Generally, you can see bad weather and potential tornadoes from a long distance away …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/05/08/what-adventure-cycling-association-says-about-tornadoes/
The tornado that quite literally wiped Greensburg, Kansas, off the map on Friday struck about 50 miles south of Larned, one of the longed-for stops on the TransAmerica bicycle route across the Great Plains.
While our hearts go out to those suffering in the twister's aftermath, let's consider some ways to stay safe in tornado country while pedaling through on bicycle tours.
First, the safest locations touted for shelter during tornadoes might not be available to bicyclists out on the open road. Time and again, the experts say that if you're caught out in the open during a tornado, the safest place to be is lying flat in a ditch or low area. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/05/07/bicycle-touring-safety-in-tornado-alley/
Not all college students are heading off to summer jobs or fooling around at the beach this summer.
For instance, more than two dozen students for the University of Illinois are cycling 4,000 miles cross-country this summer to raise money and awareness for the fight against cancer. And a Purdue University sophomore plans to ride cross-country with the American Lung Association to raise money for asthma research.
They're just an example of college students who are joining cross-country bike rides this summer to raise money for charity….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/05/04/cross-country-charity-cycling-for-college-students/
The other day I greeted a neighbor as I coasted into my driveway after a bike ride. We exchanged pleasantries, and I told her I'd just returned from a ride out May Valley Road.
“Oh, we don't bicycle out there anymore. It's too busy.” This from a woman who thinks nothing of heading off to Austria for a bike tour with her husband.
Mushrooming population on the eastside of Lake Washington has pushed up traffic on this road in the past 15 years. But for a johnny-come-lately like myself, it's still a fun, winding road for a spin. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/05/02/april-ride-report-nearly-in-the-groove/
After 53 miles in the saddle Saturday, Face of America 2007 riders were feeling sufficiently road tested for the start of Sunday's final 55-mile leg from Frederick to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.
As members of Team Semper Fi rallied at the start point, the able-bodied and disabled Marines on the team joked darkly about the challenge ahead.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/04/30/face-of-america-day-2/
Adventure Cycling Association Trail biking Rails to Trails Conservancy League of American Bicyclists
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