Bicycle Touring 101: The route - Deciding where you want to go in advance of the trip

A paper map, guidebook, cdrom maps and a measuring device are all resources available to help you with your planning.
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Planning a route can be a huge undertaking with plenty of forethought or a very simple spur of the moment decision. Sometimes it's a bit of both.

Some cyclists like to start planning their future bicycle touring adventures well in advance of the starting date. Their planning is not just limited to the route but often also includes places to stop for the night, special sightseeing opportunities and numerous alternatives should they decide to make a route change part way though the trip.

Another group likes to have a very rough destination in mind and then make routing decisions as their tour unfolds.

Sometimes a tour is a mix of both with some rough planning just before leaving followed by more carefree routing that occurs on a daily basis as the tour progresses and the mood strikes.

I generally plan my longer tours as the tour progresses. I usually limit my actual pretour planning to making a rough guess at the amount of time I will require to complete my tour. I do like to read about the areas that I hope to tour through before the tour if possible.

Other times I have literally just allowed the wind to push me along and see where it would take me with the knowledge that as the ending date for the tour approached I would need to cover the necessary distance to return home. Planning consisted of a good map and the ability to determine where the wind was coming from. The good map was needed so that while following the wind I could aim for roads that would put the wind squarely behind me. Later on the last day the map was essential to give me a short, safe and fun route home.

Whichever way that you plan your tour there are a number of resources that can help you whichever way that you go.

Paper based maps range from standard gas station/high level maps to topographical and detailed level backroad maps. I find that I like to tour with very detailed maps that show as many roads as possible but especially the backroad/small farm lane type roads that take me away from heavy traffic and allow me to immerse myself in the scenery while pedaling along.

One handy accessory to consider for these type of maps is a map ruler. This device allows you to very easily obtain a rough calculation of the distance between various points on a map. It is very useful to have this kind of information when attempting to determine approximately how many days a trip will take. An example of this kind of ruler is shown in the picture that accompanies this article.

A large variety of maps are available today from a number of companies. I plan to mention a few paper based planning resources in the pages that follow this article.

Another option to help plan your tour are computer based maps. These maps usually come on cd-rom and provide you with ways to zoom in to your desired detail level. Many also feature a handy distance calculator making it very easy to estimate daily distances if you are attempting to do some pretour planning.

While I do have some of these types of maps available to help me plan a tour I don't take them with me on the road. Without a computer of some kind these resources are not useful to me and so far I haven't taken a notebook along. Some cyclists do and report tremendous success from doing so.

Many guidebooks exist for different areas of the world ranging from cross-continental tours right down to books that provide detailed directions for short distance, lightly loaded or credit card touring.

These books are generally well researched and provide you with tons of useful information at your fingertips. If you like knowing that a route has been preplanned and therefore only a minimum of surprises should occurr then this is one option you might want to consider.

Often guidebooks will include detailed directions, some background information on the areas you are passing through and some hints on places to stay, eat and visit during your adventure.

Personally I usually use guidebooks to help me get a general feeling for what a tour through an area will be like but when the tour actually occurs I leave the books at home and plot my own course. During my Round Lake Erie tour I had a guide book with me and used it with great success to help with routing through some of the major cities of my route like Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo and Detroit.

Many cyclists do use guidebooks when they tour so you should definately check them out to see if they work well for you.

A very enjoyable past time both before and after a tour is to read reports from other touring cyclists who have been through the area that you are planning to tour or that you have toured already. Often the pictures will either build anticipation about your tour or they will help you to relive moments from your very own adventure through those areas.

Numerous web sites including crazyguyonabike, biketours.org and many personal bicycle touring home pages exist that are just a short search query away on Google, MSN, Yahoo etc.

As time passes I will present more specific examples of some of the places where you can find this kind of route planning information including companies that focus on maps, software packages that are available, useful guidebooks and of course more reviews of bicycle touring journal web sites and home pages.