Topics

1

General Discussion / Toughest Touring Days?

« on: May 18, 2021, 03:56:14 pm »

I made a post earlier today assuring someone that Rainy/Washington Pass is no big deal. And after I hit "send" I thought how individual that sort of thing is. Were the temps low or high? What was the wind doing? How does a person react to elevation?

Rather than hijack that thread I decided to start a new one. What were your toughest days on the bike? It could be climbs, wind, weather, constant elevation change (ie The Ozarks) or other.

I'll go first:

1) Hanksville to Blanding UT: It was long in miles and from mid morning to early afternoon the wind and the temperature were up, and it was very isolated. I lucked out in that the temps went down as I gained altitude around Natural Bridges and I made it to Blanding right at dusk. I was so wiped out that after I showered and was walking to dinner in Blanding I thought I might get stopped and questioned for public intoxication because I could not walk straight. The most worn out I've ever been

2) Monitor Pass Ca: I don't think this should have been that hard but it was the second big climb of the day and I had a very greasy (but delicious!) lunch at a diner at the bottom of the pass and a really hot afternoon made for a truly miserable climb up the pass. Probably the worst I've ever felt on the bike.

3) There's probably a multi place tie for third but I'll commit to Little America Wy to Dutch John (Flaming Gorge) UT. Going up to the top of Flaming Gorge from the north side is 3 significant climbs right in a row, each bigger than the last. The final one being really tough. The gorge is quite the site though.

That said, 20 years ago I was on a hiking vacation in southern Patagonia, we were driving in our rented pick up truck down to Ushuaia, stuffed to the gills w the 4 of us and our 4 packs and the wind (according to the next days newspaper) was 120 kph. And there was a couple we passed on the road w fully loaded touring bikes going into the teeth of that wind. I have never been in a situation that tough!

Pete

2

Routes / Suggestion: Painted Blazes on the GDMBR

« on: September 05, 2017, 10:53:58 am »

Hi:

This is mainly directed at the fine folks at ACA but if it would have been useful to anyone else who has been on the GDMBR, feel free to speak up in support of the idea.

I recently got back from the first 800 miles of the GDMBR. While I am abnormally pathetic when it comes to using technology I am not alone in that regard and my garmin and with the way points was of little use to me so I was using the maps and my odometer exclusively. That might of been okay but the odometer was always off by some amount. There may have been a wrong turn that added 1.1 miles or a stop off for lunch that added .6 miles so I was always getting to a turn and having to stop and write down the difference between the milage on the map and the odometer and note the actual milage to the next turn. It was actually pretty time consuming and distracting from relaxing and enjoying the ride.

I've done a fair amount of hiking on the Appalachian Trail and at all the turns there are 2 white blazes (lines) painted on a tree. Where there are no trees, there is a pile of rocks. This is really useful for staying on route. I'm asking if this would be something ACA would consider adding to the route?

Pete

3

Gear Talk / Garmin Etrex Mount

« on: July 10, 2017, 02:24:31 pm »

I'm going to be leaving for the GDMBR at the end of this month. I bought a Garmin Etrex for the trip as it's battery operated unlike the regular Garmin cycling units which need regular recharging.

For mounting there appears to be 2 choices. There is a small plastic mount that relies on zip-ties that every review of them has multiple people who lost their computers because they fell off. Or there is a mount from a company called Ram that I bought and have mounted but it's quite the extended group of plastic pieces that looks like it would not weather the impact of a crash.

Is there a something else out there I haven't found?

Pete

4

GPS & Digital Data Discussion / How Often are WayPoints Updated?

« on: June 19, 2017, 11:56:19 am »

Hi:

I'm leaving from Banff July 29 on the GDMBR and due to my terrible sense of direction I am more intimidated by the idea of trying to stay on route then the actual ride or bears or anything else.

I have down loaded the addendum and I see right near the beginning there's a detour at Spray Lakes Rd due to bear activity. I'm not sure if this is a permanent or a temporary detour, but if it's permanent, does this detour and any other permanent detour get reflected in the way points?

Thanks,

Pete

5

Gear Talk / GDMBR Tires

« on: January 31, 2017, 10:00:08 pm »

Hi:

I'm building up a bike for the GDMBR later this year. The go to tire seems to be the WTB Nano but it does not come in a tubeless version for my 650B wheels. So I'm curious what other brands/model people have run and if you would recommend what you used.

Pete

6

GPS & Digital Data Discussion / Roll Out For Enhanced GPS Data

« on: November 28, 2016, 10:11:44 am »

Hi:

This question is directed to the folks at ACA but I'm posting it here as rather than writing directly as I believe its of general interest.

The enhanced digital data is for sale on some of the routes, they appear to be the new ones and (i'm guessing) the most popular existing routes (Pacific Coast, Trans Am, WE, etc.).

Do you have a schedule for when additional routes will be ready for release? And if so, when is the Great Divide slated for?

Thanks,

Pete

7

Routes / Route from Southern Idaho to Cedar City,Ut

« on: November 01, 2014, 11:10:44 pm »

Hi All:

I'm looking to put together my trip for next year. I have the month of September and based on previous experience I figure 2500± miles. The final 550 miles of the trip will be ACA's Grand Canyon route.

After pouring over some road maps I'm figuring on starting in Spokane, go east for a few miles into Idaho and pick up 95 going south into 55 into Boise. There I'll pick up 21 into 75 and go see Craters of the Moon NP.

How best to get from there to Cedar City, Ut. is my question.

I'm trying to figure out if it would be better to make my way over to Flaming Gorge and then cut diagonally across the state to Cedar City or if I can piece together a straighter north to south route that manages to skip the traffic/congestion of the Logan/SLC/Provo metroplex that still has plenty of attractive scenery.

I've done the Western Express before and while I wouldn't consider riding those same roads again a hardship I would prefer something new.

Right now I am completely open to suggestions, so if you feel there's must see stuff that falls somewhere between Spokane and Phoenix, please mention it.

Thanks,

Pete

8

General Discussion / Looking for Bike Shop in LA

« on: August 23, 2014, 09:49:54 pm »

Hello All:

I start the Sierra Cascades route in Bellingham on 8/30. On 9/30 I have a plane ticket from LAX back home. I'll need to drop my bike off at a shop in the LA area for them to ship it back (I got a hardshell box, it doesn't come with me on the plane).

I'm sure there are 100's of bike shops in the LA area that I could look up on the web but I'd like a recommendation from someone who knows the business who can speak directly to the fact that they did a really careful job packing your bike. And if they are located within 10-15 miles of LAX, so much the better.

Thanks,

Pete

9

General Discussion / Poll: Additional ACA Web Feature?

« on: June 04, 2014, 01:57:53 pm »

For those of you who have toured using the ACA maps, you know that in each town there is a listing of services (camp grounds, hotels, restaurants, bike shops, etc.). Sometimes you find the places listed to be what you expected, sometimes they are less or more in terms of quality or cost. And because of space limitations, in larger towns there is a limit to how many places can be listed.

I'm looking to poll ACA members as to whether it would be useful to have a space in the "Resources" menu of the ACA web site where you could rate or reference other members opinion about places of business along ACA routes cross referenced to the route map number (ie: TransAm / Map 43 / Restaurants). This would be a in-house "Trip-Advisor" but specific to cyclist's needs.

It could be as simple as 1-4 $ signs for cost and 1 - 4 rating for quality although space for additional info would be helpful.

10

General Discussion / Glacier Skywalk

« on: May 07, 2014, 01:55:46 pm »

One more reason to take the route covered by the "Great Parks North" maps.

http://glacierskywalk.ca/

Last September I started my trip in Jasper so I went right by the construction site for this. Even though it was late on a Saturday afternoon, it was fenced in pretty well so there was no snooping around but you could see from the road it was going to be pretty cool.

pm

11

Routes / Sierra Cascades Question

« on: November 06, 2013, 10:08:21 am »

Hi:

Recently got my maps  for next years trip, I'll be doing the Sierra Cascades route from Suma, Wa. to a little south of Giant Sequoia NP in Ca. (or maps 1-4). I've been in that area of California and I feel I know what to expect there. It looks like in Washington and Oregon there are a lot of days that will be dominated by long (15 to 35 mile) climbs at 3-4% grades.

The two benchmarks I hear regularly for tough climbing routes are eastern Kentucky on the TransAm and days w/ multiple big climbs in Colorado and I've done both of those as part of 100 mile days and I was tired but not toasted at the end of the day.

I realize I am asking for a "apples to oranges " comparison but....My question is to anyone who has done the Sierra Cascades route in Wa. & Oregon and also ridden the TransAm in Ky or Great Parks South. How does the difficulty compare?

I don't camp on these trips so every night I need to stop in towns w/ a hotel so I like to book rooms ahead of time.  In my first 2 long trips I just blocked out days in 80 -110 mile increments and that worked out fine but I'm seeing a lot comment about the difficulty of the route and it has me thinking maybe I should scale back the milage. I got on CGOB and read some journals but they have varied too much between them to settle it for me.

Pete

12

General Discussion / Suggestion for New Forum Topic

« on: October 26, 2013, 10:18:43 pm »

I'm relatively new to this having only been on two bike tours, one each in the last two years. I used the ACA maps both times, Western Express to TransAmerica in 2012 & Great Parks from Jasper down to Missoula then Trans Am to Wyoming this last September. My maps arrived yesterday for next years trip (Sierra Cascades) and I started the time consuming task of looking up the hotels listed on the maps in Trip Advisor and what the alternates were in the towns on route and I thought that this is something the ACA forum could add that would be really useful to it’s members.

What I am proposing is that a forum be added just for member reviews of hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, services, etc on ACA routes and that they be sorted by route/panel # for easy look up.

This would helpful in a several ways:

1)The maps themselves are already filled to the brim and several hotels/campsites/restaurants don’t make the cut. And the ones that are listed don't always seem like the best choice once you get to your destination for the evening. This would make for a fuller picture of what’s available.

2) There are things specific to the bicycling traveler that aren’t necessarily as high on other travelers concerns. For instance, is there any group of people more interested in convenient laundry facilities?

3) By increasing internal recommendations between ACA members it would concentrate our touring cyclists dollars to those business’s that go out of their way to help riders out.

I’m sure this would be a fair amount of work for the ACA staff to set up the frame work for so if other members think this is a good idea, please let your opinion be known.

Pete

13

General Discussion / 1896 Cycling Road Map of California

« on: October 22, 2013, 12:11:03 pm »

This was posted in the on-line magazine Slate this morning. The link is directly to the Library of Congress web site that features it.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl?data=/home/www/data/gmd/gmd436/g4361/g4361p/ct000092.jp2&style=gmd&itemLink=r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4361p+ct000092))&title=Map%20of%20California%20roads%20for%20cyclers.

14

General Discussion / Shipping a Bike to Calgary

« on: July 13, 2013, 09:32:17 pm »

Hi All:

Last year I rented a hard-shell bike box from my local bike store and sent my bike to a shop in SF to start my trip and it was ready to go when I arrived. I thought it worked out great.

This year my trip starts out in Jasper but I fly into Calgary and because of when my plane arrives I'm looking for a bike shop there to ship my bike to and have them re-assemble it and have it ready to go for me.

Anybody out there have a shop in Calgary they would like to recommend ?

-and also-

Does anyone know if there are issues with getting a bike thru customs when shipping from the US to Canada?

Thanks,

Pete

15

Routes / Missoula to Banff

« on: January 13, 2013, 10:09:13 pm »

Hello and Happy new year to All;

I'm looking for a route from Missoula to Banff that does not require a mountain bike or camping so the "Great Divide" route is out.  Suggestions?

Thanks,

Pete