Tours

I have a detailed trip report elsewhere in the blog for this same tour that I took in 2016, which remains my favorite off-road trip to date. In contrast, I didn’t have nearly as much good to say about the first time I took it in 2012, which was colored Read more…

Back to Part 1 Day 4 – June 13: Hancock, MD to Shepherdstown, WV The next morning, after a good breakfast in the hotel dining room, we shuttled back down across the river to start our day’s ride where we had left off in Hancock. The weather continued to hold Read more…

After doing my first tour on the Allegheny Passage – C&O Canal Towpath in 2012, I had the bug to do another fully-supported tour, but without making some of the mistakes of that first tour. It turns out that there were not too many multi-day end-to-end trail routes out there Read more…

Day 5 – Thursday, August 8, 2019 – Tunnel of Trees This was one of the days I had been looking forward to the most since it involved riding on M-119: the famous Tunnel of Trees route that runs for 20 miles along the lake between Harbor Springs and Cross Read more…

Day 3 – Tuesday, August 6, 2019 – Torch Lake to Petoskey Following the previous two days of fairly hard riding, this day turned out to be the start of the best part of the tour. After the previous night’s rain, the weather turned cooler and less humid for the Read more…

In my searches for another bike tour reasonably close to home I had come up empty until a few years ago when I discovered a new tour offered by Wilderness Voyageurs that was located right up in northern Michigan. But when I looked at the itinerary, there were a number of Read more…

Day 3 – Tuesday, July 17, 2018 – Ohiopyle, PA to Meyersdale, PA This was set to be the longest ride of the tour — 42 miles — and would end in Meyersdale. Meyersdale is a town that I’d passed before on the 6-day route, but had never had a Read more…

So here I was at 8AM on a mid-July Sunday at the Wilderness Voyageurs home base in Ohiopyle, PA ready to load my bike and luggage onto their rig for another trip down the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Rail Trail. Twice before I’ve been here at 7AM to start a Read more…

As the Michigander is to MTGA, so the Shoreline West ride is to the League of Michigan Bicyclists: their primary fund-raising event of the year. It is also Michigan’s true “signature ride,” passing through the most beautiful parts of the state and attracting riders from around the country. So after Read more…

This is the first in a series of posts that will cover bike trips that I went on before I created this blog. I came late to bicycle touring, so missed out on a chance to do things like join a club or do the nationally famous rides like RAGBRAI. Read more…

My tour for 2017 was something a bit different: shorter and with more concentration on the places we were to visit along the way. It was another offering of Wilderness Voyageurs and featured visits tosignificant American Civil War sites in southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, namely Gettysburg, Antietam, and Read more…

With fewer miles to do each day, this trip was definitely much more laid back than the last few trips I’ve done. Instead of everyone getting ready to ride as soon after 8AM as possible, on this tour it was more like a 9AM breakfast and getting on the road Read more…

Wednesday, June 8, 2016 Today was our last 50+ mile day of the tour, and would be another full day since the hotel dining room didn’t open for breakfast until 8AM and then we had to return to Hancock to pick up our bikes. Everybody was there when the doors Read more…

Sunday, June 5, 2016 Ordinarily it’s a case of “too many tours and not enough time,” so I would rarely want to repeat a previous trip, and the last time I did the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Towpath tour I remember telling my wife that I was not Read more…

Monday, June 6, 2016 Today’s ride would take us on the more scenic stretch of the Great Allegheny Passage for about 57 miles, up and over the Eastern Continental Divide, and a little way down the other side to the town of Frostburg. Starting from Ohiopyle, we had about 1100 Read more…

Tuesday, June 7, 2016 We had a long day in store. The C&O Canal Towpath Trail is much more isolated than the GAP trail with fewer places to get on and off or to find lodging, resulting in a long 77-mile route for the day. Fortunately this started with the Read more…

Thursday, June 9, 2016 In the morning it was hard to believe that there were only two days of riding left, especially since I felt that I was getting stronger on the bike as I went. The day before, I had felt really good at the finish even after 55 Read more…

Today was the day that we would return to civilization and the end of our long journey. The 35 miles of trail would not take too long, but the guides reminded us that it is always a good idea to try to clear out of the D.C. area as early Read more…

Friday, July 18, 2015 OK, this was officially a day to do a loop ride from New Philadelphia. But although I don’t have a chronic back problem and have never had trouble on a tour before, all of the tough climbing must have gotten to me over the past days Read more…

Thursday, July 17, 2015 This was the day to transfer to the hotel in New Philadelphia, which we were sure would not live up to the Berlin Grande. But first, there was one more adventure in store for us in Berlin. I thought that having to go to the lobby Read more…