The day had finally come to start my second ever bike tour! My brother and I were both excited to hit the road, but also concerned. All of Eastern Canada had been in a pretty severe heat wave with temperatures climbing to around 35°C (95°F), that along with high humidity
Continue reading »Planning my 2nd Bike Tour
As I posted previously, my second bike tour was to be a group tour with my brother and some friends who had never been on a bike tour before. In fact, of the four of us who were to go, I was the only one who had ridden more than
Continue reading »Gear Selection Guide
I’m starting to plan a short tour with a few friends who’ve never done a bicycle tour before. They were looking for a guide that covered the essentials needed to try out bicycle touring without breaking the bank, so here we go! This gear is a must for any bicycle
Continue reading »LA 2017: Gear List
Going into my first bicycle tour, I did a lot of research into the ideal gear to use and bring. For anyone considering a self-supported bicycle tour, I thought I’d put together a list of the gear I used, and for some of it, let you know why I brought
Continue reading »Train: Coast Starlight LA to SJ
Wit the bike tour done, it was time to catch the train back to the Bay Area. For that, Amtrak runs the Coast Starlight, a daily train from Los Angeles to Seattle. This would be a fun trip. For a bicycle tourist, the first great thing about the Coast Starlight
Continue reading »Day 11: Leo Carrillo SB to Los Angeles
The last day of the bicycle trip had me starting at the edge of Los Angeles County. I woke up freezing cold again at camp. I had figured it might be warmer camping near the ocean, but Leo Carrillo’s campground is in a canyon that seemed to collect all the
Continue reading »Day 10: Santa Barbara to Leo Carrillo SB
Day 10 was also shaping up to be a bit of a stretch day. This day I was due to ride just under 100km (65mi) from Santa Barbara to make my campsite at Leo Carrillo State Beach. To make things more complicated, I also had to deal with my flat
Continue reading »Day 9: Santa Maria to Santa Barbara
So, thanks to my hasty planning of the second half of my trip, I accidentally booked my campsite for tomorrow night, outside Malibu, a day early. It should have been for two nights from now. Not wanting to forfeit my camping spot, I was left with the prospect of having
Continue reading »Day 8: San Luis Obispo to Santa Maria
The rest day (and rain) over, it was once again time to hit the road and continue south; this time on the actual Pacific Coast Bicycle Route! I followed Google’s directions taking me out of SLO via the airport on CA-227. But when I crossed the sign posting Pismo Beach
Continue reading »Day 7: Rest day in San Luis Obispo
Having met up with Rob, and with rain in the forecast it was pretty serendipitous that I had planned to take a rest day in SLO. And oh boy was it ever raining! From the moment I woke up, it was pouring rain. It gave me a chance to research
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