Messages

61

Routes / Re: Biking across America this fall: doable?

« on: September 07, 2009, 01:04:50 pm »

sure, it's doable.
but as enjoyable as say doing it BETWEEN  may and september months? 
prob not. 
esp if you're doing 40-60 miles a day, that'll take you several months to do the entire trans am route, which puts you in virginia late december?
just something to think about

michael

62

General Discussion / Re: Camping on Blue Ridge Parkway?

« on: September 04, 2009, 08:43:23 pm »

hey mr. bent.

i rode form cherokee, nc to rockfish gap, va about a year ago and was faced with similar situation regarding campsites being somewhat thinned out, esp when biking it when everything is shut down for the season, which was my case. 

more often than not i woudl pitch my tent at closed campgrounds or at overlooks....sometimes there's a nice patch of grass along the overlook or a small island of trees/grass separating parkway from overlook parking lot.

i was never confronted by anyone or anything...but then again, i was biking it during "off season"

...i forget if mentioned in this post or not, but def invest in "bicycling the blue ridge parkway"....great resource, hands down.

michael

63

General Discussion / Re: Cycling in thunderstorms

« on: July 25, 2009, 07:25:37 pm »

the first thunderstorm/biking combo was on transam, also in 2007.  i was camping in kentucky campground below a dam and around midnight it was torrential downpour and lightning every several seconds.  needless to say my tent flooded through and i was damn scared for my life.  when i got up to leave in the morning i noticed the end of my fork (carbon fiber) was a neon blue coloration.  so, my bike was either hit by lightning or had conducted a great deal of electricty from the nearby picnic table that must have been hit.  who knows, but to this day the fork on my bike has seared, neon blue ends.

more recent i was on a 4 day trip in colorado and biking up cottonwood pass...when i started the climb the skies were blue, after 7 miles of the 14 mile climb the sky turned black and lightning bolts were hitting the ground 25 yards up the road from me.  since the storm was headed right towrads me i dove for cover under a rock outcropping off the side of the road.  five minutes later hail and snow was falling all around and found myself trying to hitch a ride to the buena vista. 

...maybe you could carry a shovel with you for digging ditches if the dark clouds start rolling your way!

64

General Discussion / Re: Sort of a medical question

« on: July 20, 2009, 09:30:05 am »

you could let her bike infront of you?

65

Routes / Re: Chesapeake Bay

« on: July 16, 2009, 12:58:10 am »

there is a good book out called "25 bicycle tours on delmarva"...you should be able to find cheap copy off amazon.com or something.  i used it to plan a 3 day bike trip out there and found the book to be quite useful with good advice.  if you plan on doing tour there this year make sure to do it before the ferries close and it might be wise to call ahead.  there are some neat wildlife/bird sanctuaries (blackwater wildlife refuge was one i camped at) and highly recommend it to bike through at the very least.

michael

66

Routes / Re: Allegheny Passage + C&O Neophytes

« on: July 14, 2009, 07:40:58 am »

hey
check out this site....i've been using it to help plan trip i'll be doing from d.c. to maine via c and o, g.a.p., northern tier...i'll be starting on july 25th.  obviously, hot and humid.  but yeh, check out this site and it has link to g.a.p. trial information.  gives locations of campgrounds, water sources, towns, etc.  real great site.

http://bikewashington.org/canal/

michael

67

General Discussion / Re: Cycling in TN

« on: June 28, 2009, 03:38:21 am »

this site might help...they give some suggested routes, etc. 

http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/bikeped/routes.htm

i think it'd be worth your while, and physical effort, to swing thru tennesse...if you're starting transam in yorktown then you'll get to blue ridge parkway in a few days and just keep taking that south right into southern terminous and town cherokee, nc....from there you could bike through great smokey mtn nt'l park and head on towards nashville. scenery on parkway is unbeatable and, in my humble opinion, a helluva lot better than biking through kentucky...plus less traffic.   

i do recall finding a blog about a couple who did a xc tour but started near outer banks, nc and went thru smokey mtns and straight thru tennessee...if find that blog you could plot their route on map and find appropriate roads.

hope that helps a bit and good luck.

michael

68

General Discussion / Re: Cycling and camping in bear country ? !

« on: June 20, 2009, 05:11:58 am »

don't mean to add more to already lengthy reply, but an example of how peaceful black bears can be....

..was doing bike tour up on skyline drive and at 0500 i awoke to see an adolescent black bear perched in a hickory tree right above my tent.  he was hanging out, eating hickory nuts and the shells were falling like rain upon my tent.  it was quite the special experience to sit lie and watch this animal for 2 hours straight and watch the accumulation of hickory nut shells fall around and in my tent.....

69

General Discussion / Re: Cycling and camping in bear country ? !

« on: June 20, 2009, 05:01:31 am »

well, first off the pepperspray and whistle are good ideas.  i always keep them within arms reach in my tent.  obviously, never take anything with a scent (food, toothpaste, deodorant, etc) in your tent with you....stuff all your food and cosmetics in a bag of somesort and hang it up in a tree about 25 yards or so from where camping.  bring some sturdy rope with you so you can toss it up, over tree branch and then pull the bag up to the branch....dont' pitch tent near dumpsters or other campers who leave food lying around their campsites.  basically, practice common sense....don't approach bears, cubs, etc. make lots of noise so they aren't spooked suddenly by your presense if you happen to go romping through the woods, don't corner them, etc.   i feel most of this is for hiking in woods moreso than bike touring, but still good to keep on the back burner. 

....bears are like people, really.  some are good, some are bad, right?  more and more though, environmental factors have been causing bears to become more aggressive, and creative, in finding food sources/water sources...  especially with us homo-sapiens replacing their forest homes with with cookie cutter houses.  that leaves them with limited options for food, especially come autumn when their priority is stocking up on body fat to make it through the winter. 

my personal experience with black bears varies greatly.  back home in virginia (foothills of blue ridge mtns) we had a bad year of black bears with one topping off at 500lbs.. killed off 8 of our chickens and killed one of our llamas.  the same bear had killed a dozen or so goats on a farm a few miles away too.  the bear was eventually tracked and put down d/t becoming too accustomed to humans and what their yards had to offer....at the same time i've been hiking in same stretch of woods back home and the bears go running at first sight/sound/wind of me.

....most fear we have is in our own heads anyways.  bears are the type of animal where it's easy to imagine horrible and horrendous scenarios.  but if you look at the statistics, there's more chance in being hit by a car while pedaling your bicycle. 

i guess we're all fortunate enough to be human beings and not bears because, in all honesty, the bears have a much, much, much greater chance in being killed by a human than we have in being killed by them.

(sorry if this rambles...working graveyard shift right now and my brain don't work right at 3AM)

70

Temporary ACA Route Road Closures / TransAm road delay/construction - Yellowstone/Tetons

« on: June 18, 2009, 10:12:27 am »

was up at yellowstone/tetons nt'l parks this weekend hiking around and the road between south entrance to yellowstone and north entrance to grand teton nt'l park is under pretty heavy construction.  road is being torn up in various places throughout this stretch with only one lane being open, and that lane being only dirt. 

http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/roads.htm

71

General Discussion / Re: Numb Feet

« on: June 14, 2009, 09:23:42 am »

you should not be experiencing foot numbness this early on...in my opinion.  if when you bought bike you had it properly fitted (i.e. seat height, seat angle, handlebar pitch, proper sized bike frame, etc)  your body should be working as one with the bicycle.....not against it.  if your budget allows try investing in some clip-in pedals.  the cycling specific shoes are purposely solid and rigid as to prevent unnecessary flex/twisting/squirming/mashing of your foot with each downward and upward movement.  the shoes you are currentl using prob have too much "flex" in them causing unnecessary pressure points throughout your foot.  further, if your foot isn't properly aligned with the pedal (even by a few degrees) you'll start to get discomfort and numbness d/t an unnatural angle your leg/foot is moving.

the only time i've ever experienced foot numbness was the last couple weeks of biking the transam bike route...but that was after 4,200 miles or so of pushing the pedal.

hope that helps some!
michael

72

Routes / Re: Great things to do on TransAm trail

« on: June 13, 2009, 02:21:37 pm »

just thought of another thing ya'll could do...that is if fly-fishing is something you already do.  i brought along my fly-rod and a small box of wet/dry flies and found a few times (mainly out west) when the mid-day temps were too hot and the cool, flowing river was too tempting to pass up.  nothing like standing waist deep in a river fishing while waitin for the mercury to drop a bit before biking on.  you could easily bring along a spin rod...if you decide to do this make sure you know the specific fishing regulations for each state and where public access is, temp fishing license, and rules/reg for tackle (i.e. barbless, etc) if you use spinning rod rather than fly-fishing....it's shocking how many blue ribbon streams the transam bike route follows/passes near.....

73

Routes / Re: Great things to do on TransAm trail

« on: June 12, 2009, 05:40:14 am »

i verged off transam route when got into colorado and opted to bike through rocky mountain national park...it was great camping...and you can say you were biking up over 12,000' on trail ridge road.  the scenery is by far some of the most amazing on the trip...in my humble opinion. so yeh, def hit up rocky mtn nt'l park. ya'll won't regret it.

michael

74

General Discussion / Re: New to Touring

« on: May 28, 2009, 09:47:56 am »

as far as the fuji bike goes...i've had a fuji roubaix 2002 model...it used to be my racing bike until i started touring and converted it into a touring bike.....if you put some fatter tires on it it works great in handling a full load....add a brooks saddle and it's even better ride.....i had to latch on a seat post rack seein it didn't have the attachments for normal racks....changed out the shifters to bar end shifters..i've also used a b.o.b. trailer on it and it handles it real well...so, i'm just sayin with a little tweeking you can turn that bike into a perfectly fine touring bike...not sure what type of fuji you have, but the roubaix is aluminum frame with carbon fiber fork.....i've taken it on pretty rough dirt roads for about 15 mile stretches with full load and it works fine...not as rough a ride as i initially thought would be.  good luck!

75

General Discussion / Re: Camping Cost!?

« on: May 26, 2009, 06:22:57 pm »

one thing i've gotten in habit of doing....not all will approve i'm sure...but roll into a campground at 9 or 10pm and find a patch of ground farthest from the "check in area".....usually the owner/supervisor has made their rounds by that time....then i'll get up early and roll out of camp at 6-630 am, again, before the supervisor makes rounds again....of course, obvious downside is having to set up camp/make dinner, etc in the darkness.....good way to tap into those nocturnal senses i reckon.  if you get to your destination with plenty of daylight then kill time by exploring the town, going hiking, etc. until night fall...

michael