Bicycle Touring 101: Spring is in the air!

Spring is always on it's way when the river is liquid again. Notice the ice still attached to the tree.
Click to enlarge.

At least in the northern hemisphere that is. For our friends in the southern hemishere the start of fall is just around the corner. They still have time to savour a few more bicycle touring adventures including perhaps a tour devoted to chasing the changing of colours on Deciduous trees before either pursuing a cooler weather tour or perhaps enjoying a good book or two about other people's bicycle touring adventures.

In the northern hemisphere the signs of approaching spring are all around us. The days are gradually getting longer again, daily average temperatures are on the rise, prevailing wind direction is changing, ice is clearing off the local rivers and the incredible urge to get out on the road and experience another bicycle touring adventure is on the increase.

I am planning several bicycle touring adventures this year before summer arrives. I have a new/used Bob COZ trailer that I want to try using for a tour so that I can see for myself how much of a difference a trailer makes compared to using saddlebags to carry your gear. I've been using the trailer for grocery trips and general errands when I need to carry bulky cargo but I haven't had the opportunity to try a bicycle tour with it yet!

Sitting in my gear closet are some additional accessories for my Hennessy Hammock. These items include the cold weather add-ons like the Underpad, Overpad and Overcover. I've used the hammock down to just below zero degrees celsius in the past and at that temperature it has been a bit of a cold sleep. It will be interesting to see how much difference the new gear makes.

Another sign of spring is the steadily lengthening days. Two months earlier and it would have been very dark when this picture was taken!
Click to enlarge.

Bicycle touring isn't just about the equipment through despite the numerous pages on this web site devoted to discussing the various bits and pieces that you can use during a bicycle touring adventure. In the past there have been very successful tours using a variety of reasonably well maintained bicycle types. I encourage you not to let a lack of "proper" touring equipment deter you from giving a bicycle tour a try.

For me one of the best parts of bicycle touring involves the unexpected. This could be meeting new people, discovering new places or even seeing your friends and family as they try something new. Several of my friends at work have hinted that they would like to try a bicycle tour. I always laugh when they drop their hints because they are very careful to always use the word "short" at the same time. For whatever reason these guys have the crazy idea that a bicycle tour means you have to go 120+ kilometers in a day.

The reality is that a bicycle tour can be whatever length of time or distance that you would like it to be. For my friends I am going to recommend doing a one or two night tour out to a conservation area with campsites and hot showers no more then around 50 kilometers from home. Add in some steaming mugs of hot chocolate, a warm campfire and likely some burnt marshmellows and we have a recipe for what should be a great time with numerous stories to tell (or make up) after the fact.

Bicycle Touring is all about good times for me and that, more then anything else, is what I would like them to find when they try their first bicycle touring adventure.

On the solo front I am also planning some more personal bicycle tours. In the summer time I will likely circle at least one great lake to continue my Great Lakes Circle Tour adventure. I have already gone around Lakes Erie and Huron so I have my choice of Lakes Ontario, Michigan or Superior. This year I am leaning towards Ontario mainly because I can still ride to that one from my front door without needing a train or plane ride.

All of this snow will soon be gone!

This picture shows one of the trails though the woods that I use during my commute home. This trail is actually quite narrow and sometimes tricky to ride making for an adventure sometimes especially during a snow storm. Soon it will be but a memory until next year!
Click to enlarge.

On the web site front there are some new things to mention in passing. There is now a bicycle touring book review section on the site. As time elapses I will continue to add book reviews to the list on an ongoing basis. If you would like to submit your comments about any of the book reviews or add one of your own about a bicycle touring related book then please drop me an email using the Email Editor link on the top and bottom of each page.

Another new section is the Featured journals section. Each journal listed in this section are from other web sites on the internet where someone rode a tour and then took the time and effort required to write an excellent journal to allow us to share the journey too. I will slowly be adding new featured journals but please feel free to Nominate a Journal if you know of one that you believe is a great example of a bicycle touring adventure.

Hopefully it's well known how greatly the efforts of the Bicycle Touring 101 contributors are appreciated. I have tried to show this through the creation of the Bicycle Touring 101 contributors page as well as with the BT101 sponsor deals. On the Contributors page you will find each contributor listed with a link to their own personal web site if they have one and a list of the pages where they have contributed to the web site. There are currently 60 contributors listed and soon several more will be joining them! Recently I added a link to this page in the Special Highlights section of the Home Page so please drop by and give that page a look.

More interviews are coming this month. Several are already underway and a few are close to being ready for your viewing. There will once again be a new poll and in a few days, after several months of use, I will be shutting down the original poll about the Bicycle Touring 101 web site.

Last month saw many more web sites link to Bicycle Touring 101 and many of the web masters who did so also contributed articles as well. It's sometimes very interesting to read what text is included with a link when the link is created since that can give you an idea of how the site is being perceived by others. I found this one from the Bicycling Colorado web site fascinating.

"Bicycle Touring 101 - Despite the innocent title, a great collection from the basic to the wonderfully eccentric and adventurous"

To me that sounds a lot like high praise especially since many bicycle touring adventures can also be summed up in that same quote! My thanks to the contributors who have done so much to help that statement to be a true reflection of the site's contents.

In closing, if you live in the Northern hemisphere then you might want to start thinking about putting away your heavy winter clothing in just a few more weeks and start planning your next bicycle touring adventure instead.

For the readers in the Southern hemisphere enjoy what remains of your summer and fall (and perhaps consider signing the guestbook since it seems to be lacking southern representation even though Austraila and New Zealand both are in the top five countries to visit. It sure would be nice to have a few more flags in there! - grin)!

The day after I posted this editorial I woke up to weather reports calling for 15 - 30 centimeters of snow before night fall! Personally I found this rather amusing! I usually enjoy riding in these conditions and today was certainly no exception but I still hold firm in my belief that spring is just around the corner and it's time to start thinking about our next tours!