Pedalshift Tour Journals

As the US shivers through the polar vortex, let's talk about prep for next week's cross Florida bike tour! Details on the route, the gear, the flying, the meetup in Orlando and much more. Warm up to the first Pedalshift tour of 2019! Housekeeping XFL Tour: I'll be rolling my own route across central Florida from Tampa on the gulf coast to Cocoa Beach on the east. Preview episode drops in two weeks! Podcast sponsor slots are available starting in the new year... check out pedalshift.net/sponsor for more info. Meetups & Live Shows XFL Orlando meetup Saturday 2/9, time TBA - pedalshift.net/orlando. Pedalshift LIVE Friday February 22 at 9pm ET! It will be the wrap up show for the XFL tour... takeways and a whole lot more. We'll do another AMA session too, so send me your bike touring or non-bike touring questions to [email protected] or come and ask in the chat box the night of.   Five Stars followup Andy from Orange still listens!   Hi Tim, thanks for the shoutout in the latest episode, I am indeed still listening. Here are som pics from a recent tour of the New South Wales mid coast in Australia. Keep up the good work. Andrew Andyfromorange   Great American Rail-Trail 4000 miles car free? The Great American Rail Trail is a project that would link up existing trails into a network that stretches from DC to Seattle. Super behind this... imagine riding across country on a traffic-free route??   https://www.railstotrails.org/great-american-rail-trail/   This is such a big deal, we're skipping a best-of this month and I'm scheduled to have an interview with Kevin Mills, the Senior VP of Policy at RTC. That will drop next week while I'm on tour!   The Journal: Preparing the Cross-Florida Bike Tour Florida has the “bones” to be a superior bike touring state and I’m taking advantage of as many of them as I can.   Drivers on secondary roads are reportedly used to bikes. The state has a good site remarking traffic volumes and my route adjustments track either roads with bike infrastructure or low traffic roads that are long and straight where there aren’t shoulders to speak of.   Shout to Greg from MI (yes one of the “Michigan guys” I met on the Katy in 18) for his thoughts on things and the DOT map!   https://tdaappsprod.dot.state.fl.us/fto/ gives you daily traffic usage for Florida roads to help with planning.   Robert in Titusville asks... Why did I not choose the Coast to Coast trail?  Simple answer is once I decided not to make this a camping trip, the best route kept me closer to larger towns in order to get better lodging options. The C2C route is excellent, but it swings well north of Tampa and routes through a lot of rural Florida before winding its way to Orlando. My best guess is if I do another winter tour in FL, this will be my route, but with camping.  Sidebar... I'm unreasonably weirded out by FL wildlife, even though I've camped in South FL before and there was no issue.     Tampa to Lakeland: Day 1 Lyft from airport Cypress Point Park to Lakeland, FL 40 miles   Storyline: Tampa is a bit of a maze of bike lanes and sidewalks, but getting out is ok.    Lakeland to Kissimmee: Day 2 52 miles   Storyline: excellent infrastructure of lanes and trail, then a very rural road (no shoulder) that works well until toward the very end. Transit FF is there to bypass a truly shitty stretch, but a grass walk of less than a mile gets to a sidewalk if the train timing is off.   Highlight: riding a portion of the Van Fleet trail (paved 29 miles - I'm riding about 6)   Google maps is ok but also have a more refined RWGPS for the last 6 or so miles. For GMaps use 1st option through Polk City - lanes and bike trails! Water and food up in Polk City... not much else for 20+ miles and really til Kissimmee In Poinciana, option to take Sunrail to Kissimmee if timing is...

A new year and a new beginners series! On the 150th edition of the Pedalshift Project, we kick off the Bicycle Touring Beginners Series by meeting this year's cyclist and road map some of the topics we'll cover as we check in over the next several months. Plus, updates on meetups and the Pedalshift Project is number one... where? Housekeeping XFL Tour: I'll be rolling my own route across central Florida from Tampa on the gulf coast to Cocoa Beach on the east. Preview episode drops in two weeks! Podcast sponsor slots are available starting in the new year... check out pedalshift.net/sponsor for more info. Meetups & Live Shows Miles of Portraits touring the US - join us at the DC REI on 1/24, 6:30-8:30pm, followed immediately by a meetup at Wunder Garten. XFL Orlando meetup Saturday 2/9, time TBA - pedalshift.net/orlando. Pedalshift LIVE Friday February 22 at 9pm ET! It will be the wrap up show for the XFL tour... takeways and a whole lot more. We'll do another AMA session too, so send me your bike touring or non-bike touring questions to [email protected] or come and ask in the chat box the night of.   Five Stars I've just not realized that my five-star review reads have been limited to US Apple Podcasts because that's what I can see... until now! Canada, Australia and the UK, I can see you! Newest five star shouts: Dale Maclaren A fantastic podcast that motivates me to get in the saddle and turn the crank FAB_5000 via Apple Podcasts ·Canada ·01/02/2019   From someone with no business considering touring An enjoyable and informative blog. I’m not fit for any bike tour that extends past my local ice cream shop, but this is inspiring me to go farther. fatguygetsskinny via Apple Podcasts ·United States of America ·01/02/2019   International five stars that deserve belated shouts: Great new podcast I really like this new touring podcast. It seems to tick all the boxes: some cool interviews, information about gear and life in the road. Can't wait to see how it progresses. Andyfromorange via Apple Podcasts ·Australia ·11/02/2014   Such a great podcast! I really am enjoying these podcasts. So much information and very well executed. JasonBikeboy via Apple Podcasts ·Canada ·06/14/2018   Top Touring Talk The Pedalshift Project is a refreshing change from a lot of the bicycle touring podcast's i've listened to, and Tim Mooney obviously puts a lot of thought and effort into creating a show that is both informative and entertaining, his enthusiasm for bicycle touring is infectious and will make you want to load up your bike and head off on tour ... very inspirational Devon Wilfy via Apple Podcasts ·Great Britain ·01/23/2016 Pedalshift: Huge in Slovenia Also, I'm learning the Pedalshift Project may not be the most highly ranked outdoors podcast in the States (we're in the rearview of a lot of hunting and fishing pods!) BUT just this month the show hit #1 in Slovenia and #2 in Jamaica! If you are from one of those countries and found this show, man I want to hear about bike touring there! ;) Bicycle Touring Beginners Series Meet Steve Martin, the beginning bicycle tourist for our 2019 bicycle touring beginners series!   In Steve's own words... IN SEPTEMBER 2017 I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH YOUNG ONSET PARKINSON'S DISEASE AT AGE 41. It changed my life. I don’t know why I have Parkinson’s. It’s a total mystery. I have no family history of it, I’ve not been exposed to the chemicals known to cause it, and have no other risk factors. No clue. But I’m not going to let this be a meaningless disease. I’m going to use this to make a difference. Learn more about Steve. Steve, your backstory is an important element to this 2019 tour and it starts with your plans for a cross-Colorado bike tour in 2017. What were your plans and what intervened? What have been some of the challenges you're overcoming with Parkinson's and the treatments you're...

The Great Allegheny Passage 2019... What's in store for the trail? Allegheny Trail Alliance's Doug Riegner returns to the pod with the full scoop on the GAP! Housekeeping XFL Tour: I'll be rolling my own route across central Florida from Tampa on the gulf coast to Cocoa Beach on the east. Preview episode drops in two weeks! Podcast sponsor slots are available starting in the new year... check out pedalshift.net/sponsor for more info. Meetups & Live Shows Miles of Portraits touring the US - join us for the two DC area events where I'll be MCing and helping out the Q&A... Tyson's REI on 1/22, 6:30-8:30pm  DC REI on 1/24, 6:30-8:30pm, followed immediately by a meetup at Wunder Garten. XFL Orlando meetup Saturday 2/9, time TBA - pedalshift.net/orlando. Pedalshift LIVE Friday February 22 at 9pm ET! It will be the wrap up show for the XFL tour... takeways and a whole lot more. We'll do another AMA session too, so send me your bike touring or non-bike touring questions to [email protected] or come and ask in the chat box the night of.   The Interview Another chat with Doug Riegner (check out our first discussion, right when we met way back in episode 051). The trip I refer to specifically was highlighted in Pedalshift 084. All tagged GAP content on the site can be found here.   Doug Riegner is the Director of Community Relations of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, a coalition of trail organizations charged with promoting and enhancing the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-trail system between MD, PA.  During the off seasonDougworks to publishTrailGuide, an authorized publication of both the GAP trail and 184.5-mile C&O Canal Towpath. Through his work with TrailGuideDouguncovers, develops, and maintains healthy relationships with local communities & leaders, visitor bureaus, and trail related businesses along the 335-mile corridor.     Doug is also a National Parks Service Trails & Rails volunteer serving on the Capitol Limited “Amtrak” train between Cumberland and Washington DC.   In your best elevator pitch, what's the Allegheny Trail Alliance and what is it doing to make bike touring in the region better? 2018 was a challenging year for weather on the trails - what's the status of the tunnels and trail conditions as we head into the off season? There were some rumors that Ohiopyle was going to get a hiker/biker campsite at trail level - were those rumors true and is there any new info on that? Any other news on camping options on the GAP midtrail down to Cumberland? You've mentioned on some of the forums that the C&O is getting some resurfacing work done - do you know if NPS sticking to its guns on the historic nature of the towpath surface, or are they making some exceptions (like Big Slackwater's concrete surface)? We like crazy stunts in addition to tours around here - marathon through-riding of the CO/GAP is definitely one! How much of a thing is it? It feels like there's been a real growth in numbers in bike touring traffic the last few years. Does ATA have any data on that? What's your go-to order at Yough Twister? We're a solid few days into 2019. What's the thing you're most looking forward to on the GAP this year? Pedalshift Society As always we like to close out the show with a special shoutout to the Pedalshift Society! Because of support from listeners like you, Pedalshift is a weekly bicycle touring podcast with a global community, expanding into live shows and covering new tours like my upcoming XFL trip this winter! If you like what you hear, you can support the show for 5 bucks, 2 bucks or even a buck a month. And there's one-shot and annual options if you're not into the small monthly thing. Check it all out at pedalshift.net/society. Kimberly Wilson Caleb Jenkinson Cameron Lien Andrew MacGregor Michael Hart Keith Nagel Brock Dittus Thomas Skadow Marco Lo Terrance Manson Noah Schroer...

It doesn't take more than a few listens to the Pedalshift Project to know I pine for the state of Oregon... pretty much on a daily basis. You always hear about people who move to Oregon... well, I was the damn fool that moved away.

That's why I try to get back as often as I can, and when I do I try to get myself and a bike out to the coast and soak in a few days or more of bicycling and camping down the Oregon coast. There are few places with a better reputation for bicycle touring, and fewer still that measure up to the hype.

In the summer of 2016 I was a grizzled veteran of Oregon coast bicycle touring. I'd done it as a part of the full Pacific Coast in 2014 plus as a part of two trips to San Francisco the year before and after. But this time, I didn't have the time to do the whole thing. Sure I could have banged out miles but this time I wanted to go slow and savor the central part of the coast... Tillamook, Pacific City, Newport... places I think about when I'm dreaming up other tours. Places that I compare almost every tour I've ever done to.

This trip was shorter, more relaxed, and probably more fun than some of my other adventures. Just goes to show you don't need to escape for weeks on end to really escape.

In the spring of 2016 I revisited one of my favorite routes that just so happens to begin practically in my backyard… the C&O Canal. From Cumberland to Washington, it’s 184.5 miles of adventure. It just didn’t exactly go according to plan… Download the rest at pedalshift.net/plus.

In the spring of 2016 I tackled one of my favorite, challenging stretches of the California coast on a Brompton folding bike. Follow along from Half Moon Bay, through Santa Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur, Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo on the adventure! Can a loaded folding bike handle the hills of Big Sur? What kind of curveballs will this tour throw at me to overcome? It’s all in Pedalshift Tour Journals Vol. 5: California Coast! Learn more and get this journal and more at http://pedalshift.net/plus.

The US Pacific Coast bike tour is one of the premiere extended bike tours in the world. Amenities mixed with temperate weather and solid challenges make for a trip of a lifetime.

Learn more and get this journal and more at pedalshift.net/plus.

My trip was a modified version of the traditional Pacific Coast bike tour… instead of starting in Vancouver, BC my tour began in earnest in Victoria, BC. To be precise, I started in Seattle and took a ferry from there to Victoria, and continued north to Sydney, BC before making the turn south. I rode every inch to the US/Mexico border except for a short stretch from Anaheim to Oceanside (largely to try the Amtrak Surfliner).

As I reflect back on the trip, I realize how much of it I retain in my memory. Some of the portions of the route were well-known (the Oregon coast, Leggett Hill, San Francisco) and some were brand new bicycling experiences (Washington state, Big Sur, Los Angeles). What amazes me is the detailed knowledge I retain of small stretches of the ride. The 100 feet or so at the top of Leggett Hill where I can get a cell phone signal. The places I know I stopped for a bar and a look out on the Pacific from vistas off Highway 1. The precise spots I pitched my tent at Burlington campground along the Avenue of the Giants.

I remember the songs that got me over the many hills of the route. Thanks Nirvana. And thanks also to Good Morning by The Dandy Warhols… that was always the first song I’d play as I pedaled away from the prior night’s campsite home.

I remember the people I rode with. The United Nations delegation (aka a couple of guys who were European natives, so this American needed to get all UN about it). The school teachers on their summer breaks. The Pedaling Yeti, the cool guy with the dreads and chill demeanor juxtaposed with the physique of a dude you do not mess with.

Will I ever go back? Without a doubt. But I know the adventure will never be the same. The 2014 ride can never be duplicated. But that’s why this Tour Journal is such a treasure to have because I can revisit the ride anytime I want.

I grew up within a stone’s throw of the Erie Canal in Fairport, NY. It’s a quaint town outside Rochester, NY. Back in the early 1800s, the canal was a major economic powerhouse that fueled the growth of western and central New York.

Learn more and get this journal and more at pedalshift.net/plus.

By the time I was around, it was little more than a watery green line that we were dared to swim in… fodder for elementary school field trips… and the towpath was a scary place where people were reportedly mugged all the time. I always thought that was a parental fabrication to stop us from swimming in the muck, but my crime data from the 1980s is a sadly incomplete.

Despite the warnings, the canal path was a ticket to adventure. As a kid you knew you could ride out as far as you wanted and only needed to turn 180 degrees and you’d be back in the familiar streets. Permanent breadcrumbs, if you will. So I was able to ride my Huffy to exotic places like Pittsford and Bushnells Basin. Only a few miles away by map standards, but to a kid on a bike? May as well have been the moon.

So as you can imagine, the Erie Canal means a lot to me as a seeker of adventure by bike. So it’s no wonder I sought to ride along most of it in the summer of 2015. It didn’t take long (an hour or so) to go well beyond anyplace I ever got on that Huffy, but if I could go back in time and tell young Tim about my adventures past the turnaround points, I bet he’d be pretty impressed.

If you ever wanted to get to know western and central NY… the parts that are definitely not New York City… this is the route for you.

The Chesapeake and Ohio National Historic Park towpath stretches from Washington, DC to Cumberland , MD. From there the Great Allegheny Passage connects Cumberland to Pittsburgh, PA. That’s about 330 miles of contiguous, car free bicycle touring paradise.

And it was cursed. Well, at least for me. I’ve ridden the C&O multiple times, since it’s southern terminus is practically in my backyard. And I’d ridden the GAP up from Cumberland to the summit of the Eastern continental divide… but I never had time to continue on. And Pittsburgh alway beckoned… like a siren. But we all know what happens to sailors who follow the call of the sirens, right?

Learn more and get this journal and more at pedalshift.net/plus.

In 2014 I finally had a chance to through-ride the GAP and C&O, choosing to start in Pittsburgh and bike home. That failed pretty spectacularly, with a tire blowout and some pretty fierce tendonitis. You can read more about that trip over at pedalshift.net (just search GAP and follow the aroma of failure).

The following spring, I was determined to make it happen. This time I was solo and I also chose to reverse the ride, going from DC to Pittsburgh. And the curse lifted. Sort of. I finished, but I’ll let you be the judge of whether my through rides of the GAP and C&O are cursed.

This route is one to repeat again and again. There’s so much to see, so much history… so much to love about being on a bike and away from cars and rolling deep into the wilderness.

When I moved back east from Portland to Washington, DC something caught my eye. I forgot how close everything was in the northeast. On the west coast you can go hours between major cities… but on the east coast they feel like they overlap.

And they kind of do. The Bo-Wash corridor is an old term for the nearly constant urban strip that stretches from Boston in the north through New England, New York City, Philadelphia and down to the nation’s capital. It’s Amtrak’s most important route because a train can usually get you from DC to NYC’s city centers faster than you can wait out TSA and get from suburban airports to where you really want to go.

Learn more and get this journal and more at pedalshift.net/plus.

But it was the transit systems that had my attention. If the outer reaches of each city’s transit systems overlapped just enough… couldn’t you take local or regional busses and trains all the way?

The answer is: yes. And I did it in the summer of 2015. It’s neither the fastest, nor the cheapest, not the most efficient way to do it… and I’m still not sure it was actually fun, or more an experiment in sleep deprivation. But I did it. And the story is told in this Tour Journal.