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AUG/SEPT 2016 Vol.43 No.7

MUIR RAMBLE ROUTE 18 GRAND â&#x20AC;&#x2122;STANS 24 PROFILE: GEORGENA TERRY 34 A publication of ADVENTURE CYCLING ASSOCIATION

Bike Park your

RIDING THE NATIONAL PARKS, PART III 10

Bike Your Park Day SEPTEMBER 24

4OTH ANNIVERSARY

REGISTER BY September 5 FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A TOURING BIKE Explore national parks, state parks, and other public lands in your backyard by bike on September 24, 2016.

bikeyourparkday.org #Bikeyourpark #findyourpark

CELEBRATING

YEARS

Primal Wear Visit Idaho Travel Oregon Osprey Packs Missoulian

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana Visit Mississippi Destination Missoula Experience Plus!

Letter

from the Editor

OUR STORY AT –40– Four decades in, our adventure continues

CONTRIBUTORS

➺ Working for a magazine is like spending your days in a

time machine that’s on the fritz. In the morning, I might post something online to be read that day, then take a phone call to map out a story that won’t be printed for 18 months, only to hang up and work on a layout for the next issue, which features a cover month that’s still 60 days away. You’re reading this column weeks after our big birthday bash in Missoula, but I’m writing it a month before we cut the cake. I won’t be so bold as to make predictions about the event itself (only that cofounder Greg Siple will charm everyone with fascinating anecdotes and terrible puns), but I’ll look into the crystal ball at the future of bicycle travel. As many writers much smarter than I have observed, travel is a vehicle for empathy, and bicycle travel fosters that emotion better than any other mode of transit I know of. It’s the reason otherwise stoic old-timers and wide-eyed college kids on summer break have the same reaction to the big views and small kindnesses along the way. And why we hear again and again that a big bicycle trip does nothing so well as it revives a rider’s faith in humanity. That’s a valuable currency, one that feels increasingly in short supply. In our high-speed world of constant connectivity, bike travel is a rare chance to hop in the slow lane and actually connect with a world that we’re usually hurtling through. It’s a powerful idea — something that provides solid moorings long after the adventure ends and stories that last a lifetime. Those stories, of course, are where we come in. Though it has fallen by the wayside in the digital era, there’s an old newspaper symbol, –30–, that marks the end of a story. For Adventure Cycling, Adventure Cyclist, and bike travel at large, I propose a new symbol in honor of our 40th year and the adventures that lie ahead: –40–, “To be continued.” Alex Strickland Editor-in-Chief, Adventure Cyclist magazine@adventurecycling.org

Volume 43 Number 7

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CORRECTIONS: • We somehow dropped a crucial line in July’s “The Wheel of Life” on page 16. The sentence in the second-to-last paragraph should read: “After dinner, those of us who were still awake got word that Nicola (one of two doctors on the trip) had diagnosed Bruce with high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), a life-threatening condition that requires returning to lower elevation immediately.”

LEAD DESIGNER Cassie Nelson

COPY EDITOR Phyllis Picklesimer

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alex Strickland astrickland@adventurecycling.org

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Willie Weir Patrick O’Grady Dan D’Ambrosio Jan Heine June Siple Josh Tack

COPY COORDINATOR Dan Meyer

ART DIRECTOR Greg Siple gsiple@adventurecycling.org

TECHNICAL EDITOR Nick Legan

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Michael Deme mdeme@adventurecycling.org

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

JAMIE ROBERTSON works in Adventure Cycling’s Routes & Mapping Department and helps map and maintain our 45,000mile route network. Many recent maps in Adventure Cyclist have been his work, including both in this issue (pages 18 and 27). He is passionate about quality cartography and always looking for new technologies and techniques to improve our maps. If you find yourself planning an adventure in western Montana, be sure to check out his local recreation maps at cairncarto.com/maps.

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Rick Bruner 509.493.4930 advertising@adventurecycling.org

contents

VOLUME 43 ∞ NUMBER 7

ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

is America’s only magazine dedicated to bicycle travel. It is published nine times each year by Adventure Cycling Association, a nonprofit service organization for recreational bicyclists. Individual membership costs $40 yearly to U.S. addresses and includes a subscription to Adventure Cyclist and discounts on Adventure Cycling maps. For more information about Adventure Cycling Association and Adventure Cyclist magazine, visit adventurecycling.org or call 800.755.2453.

SUBMISSIONS INFORMATION:

Adventure Cyclist accepts stories, articles, and photographs for publication from various sources. We publish stories about bicycle travel and other recreational cycling subjects but do not cover competitive cycling. If you are interested in submitting a story or article to Adventure Cyclist, please visit us online at adventurecycling.org/submit for further information and guidelines.

features RIDING THE NATIONAL PARKS, PART III 10 ➺ Cycling through the

CURRENT ISSUE NOTES: “In addition to the stunning landscapes of Central Asia, the beauty of our own national parks, and the history of John Muir’s route to Yosemite, what stands out in this issue is the importance of proper bike fit. From the women’s bike pioneer, Georgena Terry, and devotee Natalie Ramsland to Rivendell’s Grant Peterson — who demanded Patrick O’Grady’s pelvic bone height — it’s clear that we’re not alone in thinking it doesn’t matter what bike you’re riding as long as you love riding it.” – Dan Meyer Copy Coordinator, Adventure Cyclist

OUR COVER: A couple riding the Cactus Loop Road in Saguaro National Park. Photo by Chuck Haney.

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high deserts, lowcountry swamps, and other jewels of the national parks. by Chuck Haney

THE MUIR RAMBLE ROUTE 18 ➺ Following the great

conservationist’s path from San Francisco Bay, across the Central Valley, and on to Yosemite in “the Range of Light.” by Cindy Ross

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GRAND ’STANS 24 ➺ Hospitality and huge peaks in Central Asia. by Beth Puliti

BIKES BUILT FOR WOMEN 34 ➺ Georgena Terry starts a revolution. by Dan D’Ambrosio

SWEETPEA CYCLES 36 ➺ Natalie Ramsland builds dreams in her Portland workshop. by Berne Broudy

This Month Online

➺ For more Adventure Cyclist-related content, be sure to visit our website at adventurecycling.org/adventure-cyclist.

DEPARTMENTS

LETTERS

COLUMNS

08 Waypoints

03 LETTER from the Editor

30 R oad Test Patrick O’Grady Rivendell Joe Appaloosa

42 Life Member Profile 44 Classifieds/Marketplace 50 Companions Wanted 51 Open Road Gallery

RIVENDELL JOE APPALOOSA A future classic? The latest from this famous shop might be just that. $2,600

06 LETTER from the Director 07 LETTERS from our Readers

38 Cyclesense Nick Legan Don’t Fear Technology 40 Mechanical Advantage Jan Heine Performance Touring Bikes

WHAT TO WEAR

These days, form doesn’t have to take a back seat to function when it comes to cycling apparel. We take a look at a some of the latest apparel that looks as good off the bike as it performs in the saddle at adventurecycling. org/2016apparel. ORE GEAR See all of our gear M coverage at adventurecycling.org/ bike-gear-reviews. UBMIT YOUR STORY Adventure S Cyclist is accepting submissions through October 31, 2016, at adventurecycling.org/submit. @xxxxxxxxxxxx: @hoyawolf Saw a tk tk lotTk of tk folks ontkthe @advcyclingassoc tknear tk tk #TransAmericaTrail tkWest tk tk Yellowstone tk tk tk tk tk while tk tk tk tk tk tk tkand tk tkflytkfishing tk tk tkthis tk traveling tk tk tkpast tk tkweekend tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk! @advcyclingassoc

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@xxxxxxxxx: Tk tk @passions_places tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk “Everything is tk amplified tk tk tk tk tk tk @ in #Montana.” Love advcyclingassoc. Tk tk tk tk @advcyclingassoc’s tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk tk short ontk #cycling tkfilms tk tk tk tk. trips in our home state.

Letter

from the Director AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 Volume 43 Number 7 adventurecycling.org MISSION Adventure Cycling Association inspires and empowers people to travel by bicycle.

PARK IT How you can help make national and state parks more cycle friendly ➺ WHEN I MEET with cycling

enthusiasts, one topic that lights up their eyes is cycling in our national and state parks — sometimes they light up with joy and sometimes with aggravation. So I’m pleased to note that one of Adventure Cycling’s biggest advocacy initiatives is improving cycling to and through our parks and public lands. At the national park level, there’s a lot going on. Following an agreement we signed with the National Park Service (NPS) three years ago, we’ve been meeting and forming partnerships to improve cycling safety and facilities in the Natchez Trace, Glacier National Park (NP), Saguaro NP, the C&O Canal, Shenandoah NP, Crater Lake NP, and Blue Ridge Parkway. Our staff is supporting a technical advisory group, which is developing a best practices guide to car-free days in the parks and other ways that NPS and park units can support active transportation. At the state level, we’ve also been making progress as one of the primary cycling groups working with the National Association of State Park Directors. We’ve done everything from help Montana develop new biker-hiker sites at four campgrounds to consult with states like Tennessee that are interested in a noturn-away policy for traveling cyclists at their campgrounds. You may wonder how you can get involved. For starters if you’re a member or donor, you are supporting our advocacy work — thank you! But here’s a more hands-on (or really pedals-on) way to help. You can join us for the firstever Bike Your Park Day on Saturday, September 24. Please join thousands of cyclists in devising your own trip to or through the park(s) of your choice and registering it at adventureycling.org/

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AREAS OF FOCUS Provide the premier tools and inspiration for people to travel by bicycle. Expand and integrate bike travel networks for North America. Create the best possible conditions for bicycle travel. HOW TO REACH US To join, change your address, or ask questions about membership, visit us online at adventurecycling.org or call 800.755.2453 or 406.721.1776. EMAIL memberships@adventurecycling.org SUBSCRIPTION ADDRESS Adventure Cycling Association P.O. Box 8308 Missoula, MT 59807 HEADQUARTERS Adventure Cycling Association 150 E. Pine St. Missoula, MT 59802 STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jim Sayer jsayer@adventurecycling.org

Jim and wife Wendy atop Glacier National Park’s Logan Pass — in late May!

bikeyourpark. (You can also join trips that are open to the public.) Your trip can be as long as you want and can be for one day or multiple days. The main goals are to: enjoy a great ride with friends, family, or on your own; take advantage of our beautiful parks (September 24 is a fee-free day at national parks); and demonstrate that cycling is a wonderful way to experience our parks and public lands. Check out our website to see the hundreds of rides that have been registered, from marquee destinations like Yosemite and Rocky Mountain national parks to more obscure but equally cool places like Pawtuckaway State Park in New Hampshire and Fort Clinch State Park in Florida. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have tens of thousands of cyclists exploring our parks on the same day? I can’t think of a better and more enjoyable way to amplify our voices — and our work — for better biking in our state and national parks. Jim Sayer Executive Director jsayer@adventurecycling.org

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CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER Sheila Snyder, CPA MEMBERSHIP & DEVELOPMENT Julie Huck Annette Stahelin Gage Poore Josh Tack Brian Bonham April Cypher DESIGN & MEDIA Michael Deme Greg Siple Michael McCoy Casey Greene Cassie Nelson Alex Strickland Lisa McKinney Brink Kuchenbrod Jim McTighe Dan Meyer IT DEPARTMENT John Sieber Richard Darne David Barth TOURS Arlen Hall Mandy Hale Linda Baldwin Emma Wimmer Whitney Ford-Terry ROUTES AND MAPPING Carla Majernik Jennifer Milyko Nathan Taylor Melissa Thompson Travis Switzer Jamie Robertson SALES AND MARKETING Teri Maloughney TRAVEL INITIATIVES Virginia Sullivan Saara Snow Eva Dunn-Froebig CYCLOSOURCE Brent Starnes Max Siebert ADMINISTRATION Geoff McMillion OFFICE MANAGER Beth Petersen BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Wally Werner VICE PRESIDENT Andy Baur SECRETARY Jenny Park

TREASURER Andy Huppert

BOARD MEMBERS Todd Copley Jennifer Garst George Mendes Jeff Miller Mike Dillon Joyce Casey Bonnie O'Donnell

Letters

from our Readers

WHO’S THERE? ENJOYING JUNE

I really enjoyed the June issue about the Pennells and Eastman & Overman. It was so great to get such a history about bicycling and bikes. I was also pleased to see the 1895 poster advertising the Overman Wheel Company’s Victor bicycle. I have had a coffee mug with that print on it for probably 20 years and recently have looked at it closely wondering about the story that went with the image. So you can imagine my excitement to turn the page and see it in print. I always enjoy reading Adventure Cyclist and look forward to receiving it and reading the wonderful articles.

Lynn Babcock | Crystal River, Florida

I just finished reading Willie Weir’s “Knock, Knock” in the June issue and believe it is one of the best articles I have ever read. First, the story is very inspirational to everyone at all levels because it is very honestly told from the perspective of a beginner. Willie’s admission that he actually considered ending the adventure after the very first day (Seriously? The King of Adventure almost quit his very first one?) is something we all can identify with — we’ve all been there. But then he goes on to candidly confess that embarrassment in front of his friends back home, not a yearning for adventure, is what eventually propelled him forward that day (we’ve all been there too, but most of us are too vain to ever admit it). Bottom line, adventurers of all levels can identify with and be inspired by the telling of this story — armchair adventurers, aspiring adventurers, beginning adventurers, and experienced, seasoned adventurers. Secondly it is quite an emotional

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telling, making friends and maintaining friendships over the miles and years brings out a warm, glowing feeling of love and humanity. A huge lump in my throat developed as I was introduced to Buster and Millie and shared in their hospitality and life-long friendship with Willie. Thirdly, I burst into uncontrollable laughter and had to drop the magazine onto my lap and reach for a tissue to wipe away the tears when I read, “… making August 9, 1981, the last time my underwear was folded.” I could not stop laughing, because, again, we all can identify with that as well — like the last time I lived at home and my mom did my laundry. “Knock, Knock” pumped up my excitement and anticipation for my future tours and specifically my upcoming planned tour along the Illinois River this June. After reading it, I immediately called my touring buddy in Colorado to make sure he reads it. Excellent.

Dan Koch | Indianapolis, Indiana

PURPOSE

I enjoyed the article “Pedaling With A Purpose” and “Randy Horton’s Excellent Ride” in the May issue of Adventure Cyclist. As a Vietnam Vet, I did the same last year, using about 70 percent of the Southern Tier Route to complete my “Boot Camp-To-Boot Camp Tour” for the Semper Fi Fund (semperfifund. org). The trip lasted 75 days and I raised $75,000 for the purchase of Action Track chairs (ed. note: a motorized, al-terrain wheelchair). I was completely self contained from San Diego to Parris Island, South Carolina. A couple of times along the way, I called Adventure Cycling for route assistance

and I could not be more pleased with the support.

Darryl E. Cloud | Sidney, Ohio

DREAM BIG

I have very much enjoyed your last few articles on Hemistour and the beginnings of Bikecentennial. I had the pleasure of meeting Greg Siple in the summer of 1978, as we were both returning from leading American Youth Hostel (AYH) tours in Europe. I loved cycle touring, so was in awe of Greg’s accomplishments. As we drove from Washington, DC, to AYH headquarters in rural Virginia, we talked about our recent trips. On a lark, I put forth the idea of doing a cycling trip in Russia (then the USSR), since it had just opened its doors to foreign tourists, thinking to myself that going from St. Petersburg to Moscow — roughly 450 miles — would be quite an adventure. My wife looked at me like I was nuts. But I remember Greg’s response very clearly. “Yes,” he noted, “that might be a great final bike tour for my wife and I. Riding from the western border across Siberia to the Pacific Ocean.” I slowly turned my head and stared at him for a few seconds. “Wow,” I replied. “You are definitely playing in a very different league than I am.” As I looked back on that singular experience over the years, it definitely taught me one thing. Think big.

Steve Lonergan | Victoria, BC, Canada

Your letters are welcome. We may edit letters for length and clarity. If you do not want your comments to be printed in Adventure Cyclist, please state so clearly. Include your name and address with your correspondence. Email your comments, questions, or letters to editor@adventurecycling.org or mail to Editor, Adventure Cyclist, P.O. Box 8308, Missoula, MT 59807.

WayPoints

News you can use from around the world of bicycle travel

Knog is one of many existing and startup bike companies turning to crowdfunding for new products.

STILL TIME TO WIN A MARRAKESH Adventure Cycling’s 40th anniversary is in full swing, but there are still plenty of opportunities to win a limitededition Salsa Marrakesh touring

ADVENTURE CYCLIST

COURTESY KNOG

AMSTERDAM’S BICYCLE MAYOR If you live and bicycle in a city, there’s a good chance that you’ve experienced the frustrations of riding in a dense urban environment — especially on streets designed for cars. So naturally you want to lobby for better and safer cycling conditions in your city, but whom do you approach? Local bike clubs? The city council? Your bicycle/ pedestrian advocacy group? Everyone’s got a stake in the game, but no one group’s priorities exactly reflect those of another. What you need is someone to dive into the fracas and mediate to find the best solution and protect the needs of cyclists. Leave it to the Dutch. This summer, Amsterdam will appoint a “bicycle mayor” who will ensure that the city remains on the forefront of bike friendliness. The position is semi-official, in that the mayor will be selected by a combination of public vote and an expert jury and will actually be an employee of CycleSpace (an advocacy group based in Amsterdam). Not being an actual elected official will theoretically allow the bicycle mayor more freedom and fewer bureaucratic restraints. While the concept of an official bicycle representative isn’t new — see for example the recent hiring of Becky Katz as chief bicycle officer in Atlanta, Georgia — the positioning of the bicycle mayor as a mediator whose paycheck isn’t coming from the city, however, is unique. CycleSpace hopes to expand the concept to additional cities throughout the world, with an annual conference of bike mayors to begin in 2017.

edited by Dan Meyer

A PIECE OF KICKSTARTER New rules open equity opportunities, risks ➺ If you follow the bicycle industry, you’ve likely noticed that the traditional method

of getting a new product to market — obtaining a bank loan or begging from investors — has been usurped by this newfangled “crowdfunding” (see “Crowdfunding Breathes New Life Into the Bike Business” in the June issue). From the funder’s point of view, crowdfunding is nice because you can help bring a new product to fruition for a relatively small amount of money and get some goodies in return. But those goodies are all you, as the investor, get out of the deal. You’re not buying shares in a publicly owned company, after all. There is, however, such a thing as buying equity in a crowdfunding campaign. Thanks to a bill that has recently gone into effect, anyone can invest in a crowdfunded startup for an equity stake. (Beforehand, one required a pretty high-test bank account to do so.) This new investment opportunity is known as “securities-based crowdfunding,” according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the rules are a bit different than if you were to call up your broker and have her buy shares in the latest IPO. For one the amount you’re allowed to invest in crowdfunding campaigns is tied to your annual income and your net worth: the less money you make, the less you’re allowed to invest. This rule is meant to protect the investor from the much higher risks, according to the SEC, such as the illiquidity of your investment and the less stringent regulations these startups are subjected to, which means there’s always a chance of dumping your money into an ill-fated venture. If you’re interested, check out the SEC’s investor bulletin at sec.gov/oiea/ investor-alerts-bulletins/ib_crowdfunding-.html and wefunder.com, one of the sites specializing in these new investment opportunities.

bike in 2016. Salsa Cycles and Adventure Cycling have teamed up to create a custom version of their do-it-all touring bike, the Marrakesh. Here’s how to win yours: • Join or renew as a member of Adventure Cycling. • Sign up and ride one of

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Adventure Cycling’s Epic tours in 2016. • Register your ride for Bike Your Park Day. • Give a gift membership or send a friend a sample issue of Adventure Cyclist. • Participate in the Montana Bicycle Celebration July 15–17.

• Donate to the USBRS Campaign. Custom elements on this oneof-a-kind bike include a bespoke paint job, Adventure Cycling and throwback Bikecentennial logos, a rear rack, and a Brooks saddle. Learn more at adventurecycling. org/5waystowin.

USBRS ADDS 194 MILES IN FOUR STATES

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Georgia add designations ➺ Adventure Cycling Association and

the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) announced in June that AASHTO has approved 194 miles of new U.S. Bicycle Routes in four states. Connecticut and Massachusetts designated USBR 7, which follow the Western New England Greenway. Two new spur routes were also approved in Virginia (USBR 176) and Georgia (USBR 621), and Idaho realigned a small portion of USBR 10 through Sandpoint. The official U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS) now encompasses 11,243 miles of routes in 24 states and the District of Columbia. “State departments of transportation (DOTs) know that bicycling for transportation and recreation leads to healthier communities

and more vibrant economies,” said Bud Wright, AASHTO executive director. “This spring, state DOTs are adding nearly 200 miles of new U.S. Bicycle Routes to the existing 11,000 miles of the USBRS. Creating safe routes for people to travel by bicycle enhances tourism and economic development opportunities for the communities and businesses along these routes.” The USBRS is a developing national network of officially recognized, numbered, and signed bicycle routes that connect people, communities, and the nation. Currently, more than 40 states are working to develop route corridors into official U.S. Bicycle Routes to be approved by AASHTO at their spring and fall meetings. When complete, the U.S. Bicycle Route System will incorporate more than 50,000 miles of routes. “The U.S. Bicycle Route System now connects nearly half the states in the nation — after only five years of route designations,” said Jim Sayer, Adventure Cycling Association executive director. “Thanks to hundreds of agency officials, nonprofit leaders, and volunteers, we are well down the road to creating the largest official cycling network on the planet.”

CELEBRATE 40 WITH AMERICA’S BICYCLE ROUTE ➺ The history of bike travel in

the U.S. can now be experienced in America’s Bicycle Route: The Story of the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, Adventure Cycling’s first coffee table book. Written by longtime staffer Michael McCoy and designed by Adventure Cycling cofounder Greg Siple, this beautiful book features over 400 original photos and illustrations, historical and geographical information about the TransAm Trail, and stories and photos of TransAm riders from 1976 to today. “Anyone who spends time with the book will come to understand why people choose to bicycle across America,” Siple said. “Some will even be inspired to do it themselves.” But you don’t need to have bicycled the TransAm — in fact, you don’t even need to be

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a touring cyclist at all — to appreciate the stories of those who traveled America by bike to celebrate the country’s bicentennial and those who have cycled the route since. “One word … awesome!” said Bikecentennial rider Michael Prest. “Just quickly paging through, it gave me goosebumps innumerable times. My thanks and gratitude to the many involved in this effort. The memories it brought back were priceless!” This book is for anyone who enjoys travel, adventure, and the audacity of young people with a vision. It’s available now by calling 800.721.8719 (product code LW-10071) or online at adventurecycling.org/cyclosource-store/ new-items.

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP Companies who support Adventure Cycling Association offer exclusive pricing on products and services to enhance your bicycle travel experience. Adventure Cycling members receive discounts on lodging, gear, and tours from corporate partners such as Burley, Global Rescue, Primal, BikeFlights, Exodus Travels, Velosurance, and Motel 6. “We know that Adventure Cycling members love to ride epic routes and that one of the biggest obstacles is the logistics of getting their bike and gear there,” said BikeFlights. com owner William Alcorn. “That’s why we offer 10 percent off cases and boxes of all types for all members. At BikeFlights, we aim to make it easier for riders to take their own bike with them on every trip.” Member discounts are available to all Individual, Senior, Family, Patron, Supporting, and Benefactor members. Access your Adventure Cycling member discounts by simply logging in to your My Adventure Cycling portal at adventurecycling.org/ myadventurecycling.

RIDING THE NATI Welome to Part III of my series of cycling in our national parks (Parts I and II ran in the August/September 2013 and 2015 issues). This segment concentrates mostly on southern parks that are best ridden in the winter and spring months before the heat of summer arrives. These parks offer unique riding and are good spots to get some early-season miles in. 15-percent grades) to 5,475-foot Dante’s Death Valley The names in Death Valley — Dante’s View, the Funeral Mountains, Badwater — are ominous. Yet there’s striking beauty in the 3.4 million acres and over 300 miles of paved roads in the largest national park in the contiguous U.S. Death Valley is a place to spin circles when the winter temperatures are low enough to allow for a pleasant experience (it can be hot enough to bake a cake on the road surface during summer months). While the snow is flying in colder climates, Death Valley can be explored warm, dry, and low on two wheels. In winter, daytime temperatures hover comfortably in the 60 to 80 degree range. Even then, though, hydration is the key to any Death Valley cycling trip as the humidity rarely rises above one percent. When the air is that dry, you may not notice you’re sweating, and you could lose as much as half a gallon of fluid an hour. Begin any tour of Death Valley from one of the two areas in which there are services and lodging: Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells. From sea level at Furnace Creek, you can grind 23 miles (with a few

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View, gaze down on the white, salty tongue of Badwater Basin, and then cross the valley toward 11,000-foot Telescope Peak, the highest point in the park. In contrast, ride south from Furnace Creek, hug the valley floor, and at Badwater you’ll dip to the lowest point in the U.S. at 282 feet below sea level. From there backtrack and take the side road to the colorful Artist’s Palette. First, ascend on the one-way road and then whiz down the chiseled, narrow, twisty pavement back to the valley floor. This ride ranks high on the fun-o-meter! If you want to explore farther and you have plenty of water (or car support), it’s 50 miles to Jubilee Pass where, after an ample rainfall, fields of desert gold and sand verbena wildflowers brighten the stark landscape from late February into March (from the old Ashford Mill site to the pass). Stovepipe Wells offers services and lodging and is right next to the amazing Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. I suggest taking off those cycling shoes for a bit to explore the unbroken sand surrounded by dramatic mountain ranges. From Stovepipe Wells, the cycling options

IONAL PARKS PART III >

Story & Photos by Chuck Haney ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG

are impressive as well. You can ride to Furnace Creek, a distance of 28 miles, where services and the impressive Furnace Creek Inn are located. For more remote options, pedal 34 miles over beautiful Daylight Pass and cross into Nevada to visit the small town of Beatty. An interesting side trip will take you to the ghost town of Rhyolite. There won’t be much automobile traffic and this route is one the prettiest stretches in the entire park. A longer option is to ride along the lonely Grapevine Mountains for 45 miles to Scotty’s Castle, where in the early 1900s local prospector Walter Scott (Death Valley Scotty) convinced wealthy Chicago businessman Albert Johnson to grubstake his goldmining expeditions. The gold never materialized, but Johnson fell in love with Death Valley and took a liking to the colorful Scotty. Johnson and his wife, Bessie, built a two-milliondollar Spanish provincial-style home with luxurious appointments in the 1920s. The park service purchased the building in 1970 and now provides a visitor center and guided tours. The outing is a worthwhile visit while in the park, but as with all the cycling options in Death Valley, be prepared. Traveling to Scotty’s Castle from Stovepipe Wells and back is a 90-mile venture with only the visitor center offering any kind of limited services and supplies. In between service stops, there is a lot of solitude and little automobile traffic. Several companies offer cycling trips in the park, including Adventure Cycling Tours, because supported rides are a good way to access remote settings.

Joshua Tree

If you decide to check out the road riding in Death Valley National Park, you should also swing a bit farther south and spend a day or two exploring Joshua Tree National Park, another great place for winter and spring riding. Officially designated in 1994, Joshua Tree is one of the more recent additions to the national park system. The park contains two distinct deserts: the Mojave Desert in higher elevations and the Colorado-Sonoran Desert in

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Riding the smooth roads of Death Valley National Park in California.

lower elevations. This desert jewel is named for the distinguishable trees found at about 4,000 feet in the higher, western portion of the park. Each tree seemingly has its own singular shape, with especially pronounced silhouettes against the dusk or dawn sky. Immense granite boulders can also be found in the park and are quite popular with rock climbers. As with most of the parks mentioned in this series, the best time to ride the pavement in the park is on weekday mornings when automobile traffic is at its lowest. It is a steady climb through a forest of the eponymous trees from the quaint desert town of Joshua Tree ascending nearly 2,400 feet in 21 miles to Keys View, a notch in the Little San Bernardino Mountains where you can see all the way to Mexico on a really clear day. Most days you will have to settle for a view of the Coachella Valley some 5,000 feet below. If you are there in late February and into March, you may be lucky enough to find the trees in bloom, their brilliant white flowers bringing a pleasant creamy color to the desert landscape. Another paved option in the park includes a 50-mile loop ride that gains over 2,700 feet in elevation. Start from the visitor center at the park’s western entrance, climb through a forest of Joshua trees in Hidden Valley, and pass Jumbo Rocks, an eerily fascinating series of oddly shaped granite domes highlighted by Skull Rock (which

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really does resemble a human skull). At its intersection with Pinto Basin Road, you can turn north and ride back to civilization and the town of Twentynine Palms and then head back to your starting point in the town of Joshua Tree along Highway 62. If you want to explore farther south in the park, pedal on Pinto Basin Road heading south. In the lower elevations of the Colorado Desert, Joshua trees are replaced by ocotillo and cholla cactus gardens. It is about a 30-mile ride to the Cottonwood Visitor Center from the intersection of the park’s main loop road. There are no services between destinations so carry plenty of water and supplies. The early spring wildflowers can be beautiful near the park’s southern entrance. If your legs are ready for a change of pace, hike out on the Lost Palms Oasis trail, an eight-mile round trip that will reward you with a splendid grove of over 100 California fan palm trees tucked into a narrow ravine. The hidden location is a lush paradise in comparison to the arid heat of the surrounding landscape. There are dirt roads that are suitable for mountain biking in the park. If you’re interested, ask for a map at one of the visitor center locations. Also, just outside of the park boundary is a singletrack trail system called Section 6. Inquire with the folks at Joshua Tree Bicycle Shop (joshuatreebicycleshop. com) for a map and more information.

Everglades

This national park features an endangered ecosystem and offers intriguing cycling experiences. This literal “river of grass” is a unique setting for winter cycling with pleasant temperatures and far fewer mosquitos than in the warmer, moister months. The 15-mile paved loop trail to Shark Valley in the park’s northern section is a “must ride” to get a real feel for being in the vast sawgrass environment. Try to ride early or late in the day and avoid weekends when human visitors can fill the narrow elevated pathway. You are guaranteed to see many alligators, often with babies. Try doing this ride on a night with a full moon. There are ranger-led tours on these evenings, but they fill up fast. You can also do your own ride — just park your car along the Tamiami Trail outside of the park, bring a good headlight, and, of course, watch for the shining eyes of gators on the roadway! The park’s main road, which runs from the eastern entrance near Homestead for 38 miles to Flamingo, is possibly the flattest ride in any national park. If you go in the dry season from February to April, there are great birding opportunities along the way as the migrating and wintering birds of the region are forced into more concentrated areas. And, if you time it just right, little Mrazek Pond, seven miles north of Flamingo and located right along the road, often brims with roseate spoonbills, wood storks, white ibis, egrets, and herons, all in a feeding frenzy. I’ve had fantastic encounters with wood storks and barred owls at Pahayokee Overlook and Mahogany Hammock, and the Anhinga Trail near the park’s eastern visitor center is always full of its namesake birds and many other species. As with most national parks, there are no services between stops. Fair warning — there is no shoulder along the roadway, and there are a lot of cars pulling large boats at high speed. Be cautious.

Saguaro

The giant saguaro cactus of the Sonoran desert is an icon of the American West. These majestic plants,

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found only in a small portion of the U.S., are protected in Saguaro National Park. Fortunately for cyclists, the park is located on the outskirts of Tucson, considered one of the most cyclingfriendly cities in North America. This is yet another national park where winter and spring are the best times to beat the oppressive summer heat. There isn’t much in the way of paved roads in this park, with only the nine-mile Cactus Forest Loop located in the eastern district, but the loop is well worth the effort. The one-way road is full of dips and rises, making for a roller coaster of a ride, and the small amount of vehicle traffic is limited to 15- to 25-mph speed limits. Go early or late in the day to avoid both the heat and auto traffic. Be cautious of motorists who stop in the middle of the road, especially on blind corners! To arrive at the park loop from the sprawl of Tucson, try the Rillito River path and then the Old Spanish Trail, which will take you to the park’s entrance. There are over 500 miles of dedicated bike lanes in Tucson and a paved bike trail called The Loop that contains over 100 miles of riding pleasure. There are really good maps available to download at tucsonbikerentals.org/ tucson-bike-maps. There are plenty of outstanding road rides outside of the park. Just northeast of Tucson is the Mount Lemmon Highway, one of the great ascents in the cycling world, complete with smooth pavement and a bike lane most of the way. Racing teams routinely train here. You start off in the desert at 2,557 feet surrounded

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The Starr Pass Trails in Tucson, Arizona, are just outside Saguaro National Park.

by saguaro cactus and mesquite trees and climb as high as 8,198 feet to pine trees and cool air. It is 27 miles to the very top; if you attempt this climb, be prepared for a long ride, be in shape, and carry a lot of water and food. Temperatures can vary by 30 to 40 degrees from the top to the bottom of this majestic mountain so pack clothing accordingly and bundle up for the long descent. West of town, try the Gates PassMcCain Loop Road, a 30-mile ride with 1,800 feet of climbing. Spin with a great view on roller hills past Old Tucson and the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum and the western section of Saguaro National Park. Bring your mountain bike as Saguaro National Park is one of the only national parks to allow mountain biking on singletrack. There is a short

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2.8-mile section of the Hope Camp Trail that is open to mountain bikers. The trail originates at the Loma Alta Trailhead and travels east through the southwestern portion of the Park’s Rincon Mountain District to the Arizona State Trust Lands boundary beyond Hope Camp. There are over 300 miles of singletrack in the Tucson area. A lot of the mountain biking trail system is not signed well, so for a list of the possibilities and maps, go to the Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists website, sdmb.org/trails. Just west of town is the Tucson Mountain Park, which has a web of great singletrack. The Starr Pass section is particularly tempting as you ride intermediate to advanced rocky trails in a forest of saguaro cactus. For easier technical riding, try the western side of the

park from Kinney Road, located near the fabulous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Trails such as Ironwood, Kerr Jarr, Mariposa, Triple C, and Gates Pass would make for a great “easy” loop. One of my favorite area rides is about 45 miles south of Tucson near the small artist town of Patagonia. The Kentucky Camp Trail includes sections of the 800-mile Arizona Trail and is super-fun singletrack. This section of trail is listed in the IMBA Epic Hall of Fame (imba.com/epics/kentuckycamp-trail). Bring a good map, ride with friends, and try the 13 miles from Gardner Canyon Road to Oak Tree Canyon on the Arizona Trail (aztrail. org/passages/pass_05.html).

Badlands

Finally, a northern park! One of my favorite national parks is conveniently located smack dab in the middle of the country in the vast prairie grasslands of South Dakota off Interstate 90. The unending sea of prairie grasses takes a break to reveal a terrain that contains pinnacles, buttes, and spires sculpted from an ancient shallow seabed that erodes more deeply with each passing storm. I have always thought of the Badlands as “mountains in reverse.” After the sea retreated, ancient mammals such as the rhino, horse, and saber-toothed cat roamed here. The striking geologic deposits in the park contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds. The park’s 244,000 acres protect

South Dakota’s Badlands National Park offers a landscape unlike any other.

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an expanse of mixed-grass prairie where such species as bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets thrive today. There are only 24 miles of pavement on the park’s main loop road, but what the road lacks in length, it makes up in scenic beauty as the colorful mounds really come alive in the early morning or late evening light. Summer temperatures can reach triple digits out here, and severe afternoon thunderstorms rumble through often, so keep an eye on the weather report. There are several options from the nearby town of Wall, where the famous Wall Drug presides. If you have traveled on Interstate 90, you have likely seen the many quirky billboards promoting five-cent coffee, free water, and other Wall Drug peculiarities. Ride into the park on the Loop Road, then ride to the park’s visitor center and back, a distance of a little over 60 miles. If you really want to ride a loop, you will have to be somewhat creative as pavement seems to be a valuable commodity in these parts. Option two would be to continue to the northeast entrance of the park where you cross Interstate 90 and head north on County Road 8, which is a good gravel road of about 10 miles, until you come to the mostly abandoned town of Cottonwood — with a population ranging from nine to 15, depending on whom you ask — and then take paved Highway 14 the remaining 17 miles back into Wall for a total of 65 miles. For option three, you can ride from Wall to Philip along remote Highway 14, a 62-mile out-and-back that will

give you a real sense of being in the High Plains. Pray for a calm day! If you have a mountain bike in tow, Badlands offers several scenic dirt roads on which you can be adventurous without the worry of some scenerygawking RV driver running you off the roadway. The Sage Creek and Conata Basin roads in the park’s northern unit are scenic and have abundant wildlife and little traffic. If you are seeking solitude, head to the park’s remote southern unit, which is co-managed with the local Oglala Sioux Tribe. While the northern unit of the park sees a million visitors a year, the south sees only about 10,000. Ride on the Sheep Mountain Table Road — to get there from the tiny ghost town of Scenic, drive south for four miles on Highway 27. After about 2.5 miles, the road crosses into the national park and there is an unpaved road on the right (west) that leads to Sheep Mountain Table. The road travels for about seven miles, making a 14-mile out-and-back ride. The area was used for artillery training in World War II, and signs indicate that there may still be unexploded ordnance — stick to the road and you’ll be fine. A few years back, my friend Joe and I rode our mountain bikes along the even more remote Indian Creek. To find the trailhead for this route, head 5.5 miles west of Scenic on road C-580. There is an overlook known affectionately as “Cardiac Hill” (for the ascent on the return journey) where you can park. We rode down the overlook into the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and followed a faint two-track trail called Road 7129 that crosses the creek several times before entering the national park. We turned around after 19 miles near Cottonwood Pass and returned to our car following a herd of cattle that seemed amused at our presence. This ground is considered sacred to the local Native Americans so treat the area with respect and do not remove any artifacts or unexploded ordnance! Carry a detailed map and plenty of food and water because this route is only for the adventurous. Chuck Haney is an avid cyclist and photographer who lives in Whitefish, Montana. You can learn more about him at chuckhaney.com.

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the Muir Ramble Route

Story by Cindy Ross 18 ADVENTURE CYCLIST

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Photos by Bryce Gladfelter

the Bay Trail

My husband, Todd, son, Bryce, and I were following in Muir’s footsteps, using the Muir Ramble Route (MRR) guidebook written by Peter and Donna Thomas. They spent several years researching Muir’s route using original source documents from the archives at the Muir Center at the University of the Pacific located in Stockton, near our Ramble Route. Much, but not all, of Muir’s original route has been paved over into major roads; some miles completely coincide with the route Muir took. Other stretches of the MRR seek out wild places that Muir would probably pass through if he were making his journey today. He had come in April when the wildflowers were rioting, spring rains painted the hills Ireland green, and the Yosemite waterfalls were explosions of whitewater. We rode in his spirit, seeing today’s California through Muir’s eyes. Our first seven miles of trail passed effortlessly as we disembarked in Oakland and pedaled through Jack London Square and onto the Bay Trail. This multipurpose trail will someday encircle the entire San Francisco Bay for a total of 500 miles. Today 340 miles have been constructed. It is a yellow brick road to stunning beauty and wild places in the midst of one of the biggest port cities in America. For the next two days, we retreated to its peace, inhaling the salty air and watching shorebirds

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dip and dive and the salt grasses wave in the wind. Had we turned back, we would have seen San Francisco receding farther and found it difficult to believe it was merely miles away. We circled around marinas and rode long stretches around wildlife preserves and through coastal parks until the meandering Left: Morning fog displays the layers of forest in Henry Coe State Park, a former private ranch. Below: At 89,000 acres, Henry Coe State Park is known for having some of the best mountain biking in northern California.

MAP: JAMIE ROBERTSON

The San Francisco skyline receded in the background as the ferry cut a foamy wake in the deep blue waters of the bay. Our loaded touring bicycles glinted in the California sunshine. We gnawed on chunks of crusty sourdough bread purchased at the bakery at the ferry dock, John Muir heavy on our minds. Muir was America’s most famous naturalist and conservationist. In 1868, he began an epic journey to Yosemite, traveling 300 miles to see the breathtaking valley that he had heard so much about — the new tourist attraction in the California wilderness. In Yosemite Muir realized his destiny — to protect and preserve America’s most exquisite natural landscapes and to dedicate his life to writing about them. He walked there in 30 days; we would cycle the same distance in nine. It is the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and we were here to celebrate.

trail vanished. It spat us out onto urban streets and then lured us back on the trail. The handy Bay Trail route cards we obtained from the San Francisco Bay Trail Association helped us navigate this evolving trail section. After heading south for 24 miles, we arrived in Coyote Hills Regional Park, the only group of hills on the Bay Trail. The park boasts 14 miles of trails in this wild playground, and we camped here amid the deafening spring peepers and a sea of waving grasses. The trail then followed the west shore of the bay for two days. We watched sailboats and kites catch the wind until we arrived in San Jose at the edge of Silicon Valley. An extreme juxtaposition of lifestyles was present here as the homeless set up shop under bridges along the Coyote Creek and Guadalupe River trails while mansions, manicured lawns, and gated communities

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held the wealthy indoors. The MRR guidebook suggested seeking out a “reasonable” hotel for the night in San Jose, but we opted for signing up with Warmshowers. org, a worldwide organization offering alternative overnight stays for longdistance cyclists. Our host for the night, Bart, was recently retired on disability with Parkinson’s disease. An avid cyclist his whole life, biking helps this former financial wizard stay limber and mobile. He opened up his heart and his restored Victorian home to us. I thought of Muir settling in for the

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night on his journey over 100 years ago. He often rolled himself up in a blanket and slept wherever night overtook him, but at times he slept indoors in taverns and lodges and with folks along the way, much as we did in San Jose.

the Diablo Mountains

As we cycled south, the ever-present Diablo Mountains converged with the Coastal Range at Morgan Hill. We finally turned east, pushing our bikes up much of the eight miles of the serpentine, dead-end East Dunne Avenue. Olympic racers train here, and they flew past us at lightning speed as if sporting hollow bird bones. At the road’s zenith, where the pavement gave way to dirt, sits the 87,000-acre Henry Coe State Park. The Coe family, who operated the Pine Ridge cattle ranch here until 1913, gifted this rugged and remote park to the California people. We snaked down fun singletrack to China Hole,

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Over dinner, Tom recited famous Muir quotes as we watched the full moon rise and listened to coyotes call. On this very pass, Muir first laid eyes on the Sierra Nevada in the far distance and exclaimed that it should be called the “Range of Light” instead of the Snowy Range.

the Central Valley

You might think that crossing the pancake-flat San Joaquin Central Valley on the far side of the Diablo Range would prove to be boring cycling — it was anything but. Indeed, we found every section of the MRR to be unique and beautiful in its own way. Across the Central Valley, we followed the smooth-as-glass California Aqueduct Bike Trail. This asphalt pathway parallels a man-made river with concrete sides, carrying water from the Sierra to San Francisco. The velvety green hills jumped up from the waterway’s far side, and on the other side Black Angus cows munched grass in the sunlight. We watched red-tailed

IF YOU GO

ducking through twisted manzanita forests whose burgundy-colored branches looked like capillaries in muscle tissue. These dirt tracks were built before anyone invented a switchback. We rose and dropped over steep hillsides shaped like egg cartons — the land seemed right out of a Dr. Seuss illustration. Gnarly live oaks extended their arms, bands of wild turkey crossed our tracks, and tangerine-colored poppies littered the fields. Although the ride across Henry Coe was our most challenging, it would become our favorite day of the entire Muir Ramble. Our friend, Tom Banks, has been a national park ranger for most of his life and occasionally portrays John Muir in monologues with a Scottish accent. Besides deeply relating to the philosophy of America’s most famous conservationist, Tom shares a birthday with Muir. It happens to fall on April 21, the day we crossed Henry Coe State Park and ended at historic Pacheco Pass where Tom came to celebrate with us.

Before we began our trip, we visited the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez (nps. gov/jomu), the home where Muir lived, raised a family, and wrote most of his books and articles. Visitors can see Muir’s “Scribble Den,” read his original letters, and view the typewriter on which Muir’s daughter transcribed all of his longhand manuscripts. Public transportation is easy from San Francisco. After our cycling trip, we visited Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park, the last environmental fight Muir would wage before his death. Muir’s great-great grandson, Robert Hanna, is continuing Muir’s work by restoring Hetch Hetchy and bringing down the dam (hetchhetchy.org). Like his ancestor, Hanna also works in California legislation on bills written to preserve our natural resources and open spaces.

hawks dive for scurrying mice while vultures feasted on a dead cow. The big sky was wide open, displaying a dramatic cloud theater. A swift tailwind pushed us along. We marked our rapid progress along

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the aqueduct by counting off the 132, officially designated as the The Muir Ramble Route guidebook by Peter and Donna Thomas (muirrambleroute.com) is necessary to find half-mile signs painted on the John Muir Route, with signs your way. Order the maps they suggest and commusloping walls. designating its importance. It nicate with them on alternate routes for cyclists. The After nearly 20 miles on the was the original wagon road and guidebook, although an excellent resource, is 10 years aqueduct, we hung a right to later automobile route into the old. Updates and changes can be found on their webNewman (which was called Hills park and one Muir often utilized site. New construction, particularly on the Bay Trail, Ferry when Muir came through) in his later journeys. When he has occurred, and the organization’s map (baytrail. where we found some of the best descended into Coulterville, Muir org/baytrailmap.html) cards are extremely helpful. authentic Mexican food. The bought himself a horse for the Shipping our three bikes as oversized luggage on obscure restaurant was attached remainder of his journey and a the plane would have cost $1,200 round trip so we to a bar with no sign out front. A gun because he was warned of found an alternative and purchased used bikes at the friendly local patron pointed it out the bear population in the valley. San Francisco Pedal Revolution (pedalrevolution. org), a bike shop connected to the nonprofit New Door to us. Coulterville still remains one of Ventures, which helps at-risk youth prepare for adult We turned onto the dirt America’s most authentic western life. After the ride, cyclists who purchased used bikes maintenance road paralleling Gold Rush towns with wooden can donate the bikes back to Pedal Revolution. the Main Canal, which carries sidewalks and the oldest saloon in irrigation water to this agricultural California. Theodore Roosevelt mecca. Black irrigation hoses also stayed in Coulterville during snaked like anacondas throughout the some of his visits to Yosemite. the land beginning to rise ever so gently. orchards and shot mists of water up We rested up in Coulterville at the We rode this second-most-favorite onto the sweet-smelling almond trees. John Muir Geotourism Center, hosted stretch of our route, across the grassy Parallel rows of grapevines, owned by by the organization’s director, Monty ranchlands with cattle running alongside large wine-maker Gallo, were planted Thornburg. The nonprofit operates a us like “The Running of the Cows.” They in a precise grid, and tiny yipping dogs gallery where elaborate, floor-to-ceiling, crashed through creeks like wildebeest raced along fences surrounding modest handmade tapestries tell the history of in the Serengeti. Beyond the foothills homes. A dead raccoon was draped loomed the snow-covered Sierra, and the the Yosemite Valley, from prehistoric over an orchard’s no trespassing sign. times to Muir’s first visit to the creation sight stirred me. Muir felt eerily present. Orchard workers in high rubber boots He herded sheep in these very same hills of the National Park Service. zipped about on four-wheelers. We On quiet, meandering Dogtown Road, the year following his walk to Yosemite, passed by cheese factories, dairy farms, we exited Coulterville and climbed so drawn was he to this beautiful place. and orchards, places where folks work higher into the Sierra. We made a stop hard to grow and package much of at Bower Cave, a gated natural wonder that Muir also visited on his journey. America’s food. Strawberries were in Before dropping into the historic mining town of Coulterville, we climbed Local historian Kris Corey accompanied season, and we stuffed our faces with the us, sharing how an elevated wooden up Penon Blanco Road for a startlingly sweet crimson fruit — one of the gifts of platform was once suspended at the beautiful view of Horseshoe Bend on cycling the Central Valley. cave’s opening, providing space for the Merced River. Muir sketched along Throughout the valley, we camped at the live band as they played for their his journey, and my favorite drawing the state recreation areas, which were dancing guests at the base of the cave. was done from this ridgetop, a place he a little tired looking and neglected but We stayed at Dawn’s Cottage (via referred to as the “First Bench” in the still provided a good place to pitch our Airbnb) in Greeley Hill, owned by Sierra foothills. tents. When we reached Fields Road on two colorful artists — Jim, who paints Occasionally we followed State Route the east side of the valley, we noticed

the Sierra Foothills

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 48

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landscapes, and Dawn, who works in collage. They delivered freshly ground coffee in the morning, lively conversation, and a much-needed rest after near-constant pushing since we left San Francisco. Across the road from their place was a lovely view of the Bean Creek Preserve. The tract was donated to the Sierra Foothills Conservancy by the founders of the John Muir Geotourism Center. We seemed to have ascended into another world at what Muir called the Second Bench. The air smelled crisp and spicy, filled with the aroma of pine. The cozy rural roads were blanketed with soft, peach-colored needles, and the trees grew in astonishing girths, clueing us in to what lay ahead in Yosemite Valley. In the Kowana Valley, we rode past an historic, weatheredlooking building in a resident’s backyard that was once Black’s Stage Stop. This stone and wood building was Muir’s probable overnight stay when he passed through. Our climb up to Crane Flat was remarkably painless, for on this ninth and final day of our ride, we had finally acquired our cycling legs. When we stopped for a cold drink at the gas station, the clerk warned us of the dangerous 18-mile descent. It was with some anxiety that we sped down the John Muir Highway into Yosemite Valley, pumping our brakes so they wouldn’t overheat and riding fairly close together so vehicles and motor homes could pass all three of us at one time. We stopped at pullovers to rest our aching hands and absorb the spectacular views. When Half Dome and the other granite guards of the valley burst into view, my eyes welled with tears at the overwhelming beauty of Yosemite. In 1903, out of the blue, President Roosevelt wrote a letter to John Muir, whom he had never met, asking Muir to lead him on a visit to Yosemite. Roosevelt had been reading Muir’s books and wanted to see Yosemite with the famous author. Roosevelt and Muir talked “Forest Good” among the towering giant sequoias and thundering waterfalls.

The U.S. Bicycle Route System now has 11,243 miles of officially recognized and numbered bicycle routes. When complete, the USBRS will incorporate more than 50,000 miles of safe and scenic routes connecting people, communities, and the nation.

Ninety percent of Kyrgyzstanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s terrain is over 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above sea level, with some of the tallest mountain peaks in the world located here.

Inset: Pedaling toward the Pamirs, the rough paved road that leads to Tajikistan eventually turns entirely to dirt at the border.

GRAN

BIKEPACKING IN

CENTRAL ASIA

ell people you’re traveling to “the ‘Stans” in central Asia and you’re guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows. The region — which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan — is in some cases a stone’s throw from known areas of unrest. Its portrayal in the media, or lack thereof, shrouds the recently independent republics in mystery. Indeed, not much is known about the area connecting the Caspian Sea and China. Case in point: a January 2015 correction in the New York Times admitted the newspaper mistakenly made up a nation called Kyrzbekistan when it meant Kyrgyzstan. That this is a possible, and even desired, corner of the world to visit flummoxes all but the most adventurous travelers. But the truth is that, while a considerable part of the Middle East is a sea of turmoil, the central Asian post-Soviet states remain relatively stable — and it just so happens to have striking scenery, a preserved ancient culture, and some of the friendliest humans on earth. I recently spent three months bikepacking in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and found it to be an ideal place to explore as a bike tourist. Genuine & Generous As the sun beat down on the dusty Wakhan Valley floor, I slowly turned the pedals past a man working hard to repair his broken-down semi-truck. Hearing the sound of the earth crunch beneath my tires, he moved out from underneath the cab to glance in my direction. Upon seeing my unfamiliar face, he placed his hand on his heart and called out, “Salam alaikum,”

Story & Photos by Beth Puliti

Left: It’s a common occurrence when cycling in the ‘Stans to be invited inside almost everyone’s home for tea and snacks. Below left: Hotels are hard to come by in rural parts of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, but wild camping options are endless. Right: Dirt roads are not always labeled on common maps and apps. Try to source locally printed maps when exploring off the beaten path.

an Arabic greeting that means “peace be unto you.” Half under the truck, tools in hand, red-faced, and sweat streaming from his brow, he gestured if I’d like to share a pot of tea. Nearly every encounter with a local in this part of the world left me in awe. Every day, people went out of their way to welcome me to their country, ask whether I liked it, and invite me — a bikepacker with more possessions on my bike than they had inside their home — to share tea, lunch, or to spend the night. They were, without a doubt, some of the most generous and kindhearted individuals I have ever met in my life. Yurts & Yaks Central Asia is home to some of the tallest peaks in the world. In Kyrgyzstan itself, mountains blanket more than 90 percent of the country. My husband and I followed a high-altitude route that took us over the Pamir Mountains, frequently referred to as “the

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Roof of the World,” and into Tajikistan’s Wakhan Valley, one of the most remote regions on earth. Here, colossal snow-capped mountains provide a spectacular backdrop that’s breathtaking in more ways than one. Not many travelers visit this part of the world, but don’t expect to be the only person exploring the picturesque Pamir Highway. For this reason, and with the exception of a few stretches, homestays far outnumber hotels on the secondhighest international highway in the world, alongside shepherds, yurts, and yaks. Off the route and outside of major cities, you’ll more frequently be sleeping in a nylon home with a view that far exceeds anything you’ve observed out of your bedroom window. Like to wild camp? You’re going to love it here. Climate & Conditions Due to the altitude of this and other roads in the region,

Kazakhstan

Author’s Route

Bishkek

Area Enlarged

Kochkor

Kazarman Uzbekistan

Dushanbe

Osh

Kevron

Afghanistan 0

100

China

Karakul’

Khorugh 0

S . T N

200 km 100 mi

Traveling Light

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Murghob

R MI

Pakistan

Most of the bike travelers we came across on the Pamir Highway were heavily loaded with four panniers and often an additional bag on the top of the rear rack. Traveling light is certainly challenging in this part of the world, but it’s not impossible. A lighter load starts long before you start turning the pedals — it starts with trip planning. This necessary step not only gets you psyched up for your adventure, but it also helps piece together the unknown so you aren’t hauling more stuff than needed. Even if your route incorporates some of the highest mountains in the world and the fiercest weather conditions, you can probably forgo that spare winter hat and second set

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MAP: JAMIE ROBERTSON

Ta j i k i s t a n

Naryn

Kyrgyzstan

of gloves. Rarely does extra stuff equate to anything more than extra weight. We traveled light in the ‘Stans but never found ourselves wanting more than we had. For one, we would have never been able to travel the rugged route we had chosen with a fully loaded traditional touring bike. Second, we only brought along a sufficient amount of clothing and gear to keep us comfortable — nothing extra or unnecessary. Our rain gear doubled as a warm layer, and we slept in our base layer so that we could carry a lighter (warmer-rated) sleeping bag. Everything we carried with us for three months fit into the following: my setup consisted of a Revelate Designs handlebar bag, seat bag, and an Osprey backpack. My

husband was similarly equipped but with the addition of a Revelate Designs frame bag and a pair of small Ortlieb panniers that held our computers and cold-weather items. Small cockpit bags held our water bottles and snacks. When you plan your route and bike setup accordingly, the opportunity for exploration beyond the pavement becomes endless. Note: In this part of the world, we found that Google Maps and Maps.me — our go-to route planning apps — didn’t show much off-road detail. Instead, we referred to local maps found in a dedicated map store and a picture snapped of a map that was hung on the wall in the Embassy of Tajikistan, both found in Bishkek.

Culture Shock

Once upon a time, a bikepacker hit the dirt in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for the very first time and experienced some unfamiliar customs, events, and food. Culture shock is real in central Asia. Be prepared to: • Learn a few key words and phrases in Russian, the lingua franca • Watch a game of Buzkashi, a local sport similar to polo that uses a headless goat • See donkeys and sheep bargained for at an animal market • Observe villagers wearing traditionally decorated white kalpaks (Kyrgyz hats) • Eat meals, consisting mostly of naan bread and goat meat, on the floor • Buy clothes, shoes, food, and other essentials at a bazaar • Drink kumis, an important local drink made from fermented mare’s milk • Drink homemade vodka with the locals • Drink tea with everyone • Receive countless gold-toothed smiles • Bargain for a fair price • Offer your first bribe • Share a taxi with people going in your general direction • Live without running water • Use an outhouse • Bathe in a banya • Make plans as you go In the Pamir Mountains, nomadic Kyrgyz live in yurts made by hand from wooden frames and felt.

timing is crucial. Too late in the year and you’ll run into snow and road closures. Too early can yield the same result. It’s best to visit in the summer when it’ll be hot, but it’s a dry heat. Honest. That doesn’t mean it won’t snow on you at high altitude, though. Keep in mind that earthquakes, erosion, landslides, avalanches, flooding, and more can heavily damage the roads, which are not always in good repair. A beefier-than-average touring bike is ideal to explore the rough roads of this part of the world. We traveled on my nearly 10-year-old Giant Anthem Advanced mountain bike and was happy to have bigger tires, suspension, and an all-around reliable bike that could handle the demands of the rugged topography found on my off-road route through the area. Borders & Bureaucracy In Tajikistan we traveled for a week to the border of Kyrgyzstan only to be told the day we got there that the crossing was closed to foreigners. This after we passed a handful of checkpoints along the way that recorded my information and where we were headed. Either nobody in command knew about the “locals-only” rule, or they thought it was unimportant to tell me. This type of scenario is unfortunately common in central

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Asia, where borders may be open only certain times of the day and can close for a week at a time. Checking with the authorities to ensure your entry or exit point is open (to everyone) on a certain day and time is a good idea, though it didn’t work for me. You’ll receive a tourist visa on arrival in Kyrgyzstan, but you’ll need to obtain a visa to enter Tajikistan and a GornoBadakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) permit to enter the Wakhan Valley. This can and likely will test your patience. Be prepared for a lot of rubber-stamping, paperwork, and an incredible amount of waiting. It borders the ridiculous at times, but rest assured you will get your passport back, along with your visa and your permit — all in good time. Traveling in the ‘Stans isn’t easy, as an elaborate tourism infrastructure doesn’t yet exist there. But the effort is what makes it so enticing. Exciting and educational, central Asia remains one of the most spectacular and satisfying bikepacking trips I’ve taken. Go, and soon, before warmhearted attitudes and ancient attributes inevitably evolve. Beth Puliti is a writer and photographer who has been traveling internationally by bicycle for the past 22 months. Visit bethpuliti.com and follow her travels @bethpuliti.

Road Test

SPECIFICATIONS RIVENDELL JOE APPALOOSA Price: $2,600 Sizes available: 46cm, 51cm, 55cm, 58cm, 62cm Size tested: 58cm Weight: 32.8 lb. with pedals, kickstand, rear rack TEST BIKE MEASUREMENTS

RIVENDELL JOE APPALOOSA

1. Seat tube: 580mm (center

to top) 2. Top tube: 597mm (effective) 3. Head tube angle: 72° 4. Seat tube angle: 71.5° 5. Chainstays: 530mm 6. Bottom bracket drop: 78mm 7. Crank spindle height

above ground: 287mm

8. Fork offset: 54mm 9. Wheelbase: 1149mm 10. Standover height: 860mm

BY PATRICK O’GRADY

11. Frame: Lugged Rivendell

Silver chromoly tubing. Three sets of bottle bosses; rack and fender mounts; cantilever brake bosses; cable stops on top tube, down tube and right chainstay; pump peg; kickstand plate. Colors: dark mustard or creamy blue with a cream-colored head tube. 12. Fork: Investment-cast, brazed

crown with tapered, curved Silver chromoly blades. Rack mounts, brake bosses, and fender and rack eyelets. 13. Rims: Alex DM18 700c, 36

spokes 14. Hubs: Silver 36H 15. Spokes: Butted stainless with

colored nipples 16. Tires: Kenda Kwick Bitumen,

700c x 45mm 17. Bottom bracket: Shimano

UN-55 sealed, 110mm 18. Crankset: Silver triple,

43/35/24T, 173mm

➺ WELCOME TO RIVENDELL. Please

set your watch back to … oh, heck, just throw that tiresome, old ticker away and let’s ride bikes! Time seems to stand still at Rivendell Bicycle Works. Want the latest and greatest? Carbon framesets, disc brakes, electronic shifting? You are cordially invited to shop elsewhere. But if you seek comfortable, durable steel with sensible, reliable components, why, you’ve come to the right shop. Grant Peterson and his woolly elves will see you now. A quick disclosure: I’ve done a little business with Rivendell over the years. Odd bits of this, that, and the other; hardto-find widgets, doodads, and dinguses to keep my aging fleet in fighting trim. But I’d never actual ridden a Rivendell bike. So I dropped Grant a note, proposing that Adventure Cyclist review a Sam Hillborne. The Sam is what Grant described as “our versatile road bike, plenty tour-able … fine for fire roads, and road loads, but we say no to loading it up for fire roads.” Grant came back with a counterproposal: by all means, have a squint at the Sam. And while you’re waiting for one, how about a peek at the Joe Appaloosa, Clem Smith Jr., and Clementine? Not so much a tour by bike as a tour of bikes. Well, shucks. Sure. Why not? Ours was a formal introduction. Most media/product managers simply ask,

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19. Cassette: Shimano 9-speed,

GEARING IN INCHES

12-36T 20. Brake levers: Tektro ML520RS

21. Shift levers: SunRace non-

12 56.1 81.9

100.4

14 47.9 70.1

86.1

16 42.1 61.4

75.4

18 37.3 54.4

67.0

21 32.0 46.8

57.5

24 28.0 40.9

50.2

28 24.1 35.0

43.2

32 21.0 30.6

37.6

36 18.8 27.2

33.4

indexed thumb shifters 22. Brakes: Tektro V-brakes 23. Front derailer: Shimano Claris 24. Rear derailer: Shimano Deore 25. Pedals: VP-539 flat 26. Seatpost: Kalloy SP248,

26.8mm 27. Stem: Ritchey WCS C220 28. H andlebar/Quill Stem:

Rivendell’s Nitto Choco-Moose, 54.5cm at the grips (center to center), effective extension 12cm 29. Grips: Widek

Contact: Rivendell Bicycle Works, 2040 N. Main St. #19, Walnut Creek, CA 94596, 800.345.3918 rivbike.com

30. Headset: FSA sealed and

threaded 31. Rear Rack: Nitto Campee

medium (a review courtesy; available for $218) 32. Saddle: Anonymous

Taiwanese model, adjustable to accommodate changes in tire size

Rivendell provided us with a photo that included their “bike stands” on either side of the image. We’re not sure what it says, but we’re confident it says something, so we left them in!

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“What size ya ride?” and send that size bike along, or the closest thing to it. But Grant asked for my height, weight, saddle height, and pubic-bone height, and he will ask you for these things too. Crunching the numbers spat out a 58cm Joe, two centimeters larger than my usual size. I feared the bike would be too tall — maybe it was that double top tube (not pictured, only included on 58cm and larger models) — and when I actually saw it at The Bike Coop in Albuquerque I was certain it was. But whaddaya know? It wasn’t. And while I wouldn’t care to perform an abrupt straddle-the-top-tube(s) dismount on a technical stretch of singletrack, let us remember: the Joe is not a mountain bike. What it is, is comfortable. Versatile. Resilient. Elegant. Attach a medium Nitto Campee rear rack to the hourglass-shaped mounts just up the seatstays from the dropouts and you can carry 44 pounds of must-haves on your ride while leaving the dropout eyelets free for the fenders of your choice, even while running tires as broad as 50mm. I stuck to loads of 25 pounds or less and did without the fenders, which can be a nuisance off road. The bolts atop the ornate fork crown will accept a Tubus rear rack and some Nitto racks. Rivendell recommends its Nitto Mark’s M1 rack, which lets you carry an additional 4.4 pounds up front. Also up front: Rivendell’s Choco-Moose, a swoopy stem-handlebar hybrid that’s sort of the love child of Rivendell’s Bullmoose and Albatross bars. The combination of two top tubes and these butched-up PeeWee Herman bars, which fairly beg for streamers, may have you wondering why Rivendell didn’t go full ballooner, maybe throw in a Schwinn Slimline tank and a deck of playing cards for the spokes. But as it turns out, the twin top tubes stiffen the lugged frame and the ChocoMoose straightens your spine, and before long you’re wondering why you ever accepted any other kind of bar into your life. Grip ’em at the grips or at the bends it’s all good. I spent a lot of time on the bends, especially at cruising speed. My go-to mountain bike is a Jones 29er with H-Bars, and so I felt right at home steering with the Choco-Moose, never more so than when an impulse took me off asphalt and onto Trail 365 at the Elena Gallegos Open Space.

The 700c x 45mm Kenda Kwick Bitumen tires weren’t quite up to our sandy singletrack — Rivendell’s Will Keating says he likes the Schwalbe Smart Sam for riding off road — but the rest of the Joe did just fine. The Tektro V-brakes smoothly slowed and stopped me without incident as conditions dictated, and despite the long wheelbase and broad bar I even cleaned a cramped S-shaped gate while exiting the trailhead. And I looked good doing it, too, because the Joe Appaloosa is very much a horse of a different color on the trails in these parts. “I like your bike,” said one mountain biker aboard a more typical off-road rig. “Looks like the perfect tool for the job,” said another. Frankly, I had been reluctant to take such a handsome bike off pavement — Rivendell pays at least as much attention to form as it does to function — but the handout that comes with the Joe advises owners to “think of each [paint] chip as your bike writing its own history. Your bike, like Levon, wears its war wounds like a crown!”

Other mental adjustments were required as well. The drivetrain is mostly familiar — Shimano Deore rear derailer, Shimano Claris front derailer, Shimano cassette, KMC chain— but as you move forward you’ll notice some interesting departures from the norm. First, there’s the 173mm Silver triple crankset, with 43/35/24 rings. Some of those numbers may throw you, but it was rock solid and a fine match with the ninespeed, 12-36T cassette; if you can’t climb in a 19-inch low gear, it’s time to pull on your walking shoes. Second, there are the SunRace thumb shifters. Rivendell likes thumb shifters, and so do I, but these non-indexed thumbies took a little getting used to. While they click, a click does not a gear change make. I botched a few shifts while settling in, and finding oneself clattering around between cogs is more noticeable when riding flat pedals in street shoes. Flat pedals? Street shoes? Yep. Did I mention that Joe is a Rivendell? No need to squeeze into your Special Suit for a ride (though of course I did, eventually, being a creature of habit).

But before I went all slick-Lycra-andhard-plastic on the poor thing, I spent some time riding the Joe in street clothes, sans helmet, gloves, or Sidis. It’s perfectly fine to do that, if you don’t mind a bit of hate mail, and it feels awfully natural on the Joe. Indeed, the fourth recommendation in Rivendell’s “Tips for Happy Riding” reads: “At least one ride in 10, go without your sunglasses and gloves. Sometime next month, put some double-sided cheapstyle pedals on a good bike and ride in non-cycling garb. It works shockingly well, and sends a good message to wouldbe bicycle riders.” Rivendell’s been sending good messages like that since 1994, and the Joe Appaloosa is just their latest friendly tug on your jersey sleeve. If the hand lingers a bit, no sweat, it’s just gauging the quality of your wool. You are wearing wool, aren’t you? Patrick O’Grady has written and cartooned about cycling since 1989 for VeloNews, Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, and a variety of other publications. To read more from Patrick, visit maddogmedia. wordpress.com.

Rivendell’s Clem Smith Jr.

Frame Set: $850 Complete: $1,500

•No frills and tough as nails. •The most comfortable bike in our line. •Fits big tires — for touring, trails . . . everything. Visit us at rivbike.com or call use at 1 (800) 345-3918 with any and all questions.

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SHAREtJOY for a chance to win

Spread the joy of cycling — you could win a bike! l For each cyclist you refer to Adventure Cycling, you’ll receive

one entry in our drawing for a limited edition Salsa Marrakesh. The grand prize winner will be drawn from all eligible members in January of 2017. l Throughout 2016, we’ll draw one winner each month to receive gifts from corporate members such as Arkel, Cygolite, Jones, Revelate Designs, and others. l The more cyclists you refer, the more chances you have to win! Visit adventurecycling.org/joy to enter.

adventurecycling.org/joy

ADVENTURE CYCLING CORPORATE MEMBERS Adventure Cycling’s business partners play a significant role in the success of our nonprofit organization. Our Corporate Membership Program is designed to spotlight these key supporters. Corporate Members are companies that believe in what we do and wish to provide additional assistance through a higher level of support. These corporate membership funds go toward special projects and the creation of new programs. To learn more about how your business can become a corporate supporter of Adventure Cycling, go to adventurecycling.org/corporate or call 800.755.2453.

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Rocky Mountain Print Solutions Club Ride FrontPack Inc. Fold n Visit Cycling Holidays and City Tours Anderson ZurMuehlen Road Holland Cycling Apparel & Co. PC Woman Tours IMBA Italiaoutdoors Food and Wine Easy Rider Tours Town Pump Hotels Velosurance.com Showers Pass Cycle Greater Yellowstone KHS

BIKES BUILT FOR WOMEN

Georgena Terry starts a revolution

By Dan D’Ambrosio

o to the website for

COURTESY GEORGENA TERRY

Specialized bicycles and you’ll find 19 models of bikes built specifically for women. Every bike, says Specialized, is “designed and engineered from the ground-up to meet the needs of women who love to ride. “That means that you’ll find purpose-built geometries, women’s-specific grips, saddles, and crankarm lengths, and a level of performance and comfort that stands without rival,” the website continues. Go to the Trek website and you’ll find a story titled, “My Mom Gets Rad,” about Gisele Pansze, a mother of three living in Durango, Colorado. Pansze enrolled in a Trek Dirt Series camp in 2014 when her son was 16 years old and now mountain bikes with him throughout Durango, one of the coolest towns in America. Mother and son often ride in Overend Mountain Park, “which is directly behind their neighborhood,” reports the Trek website. Trek prides itself as “the first major bicycle company to develop a full line of bikes designed specifically for women,” and today has no fewer than 50 women’s models for every conceivable purpose, including triathlons. Offering bikes designed specifically for women is not universal among bike companies. Fuji, for example, doesn’t have a women’s line. But the biggest players — Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, and Giant — all offer extensive women’s lines of bikes. Thank you, Georgena Terry. Terry, in case you don’t know, is the pioneer in designing and building bikes

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specifically for women. “I kind of like to say I should be getting a commission from Specialized, Trek, and Cannondale, who claim to have started the concept of women’s bikes,” Terry said. “Without me, they might still be in the dark ages.” Terry started building bikes in the early 1980s after getting into cycling in a big way in 1975 in Pittsburgh, where she got a degree in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Terry was always a pioneer, landing an engineering job at Xerox in Rochester, New York, where she still lives, at a time when women were rare in such jobs. She worked on the team that developed Xerox’s first laser printer, which was based on the company’s 3100 series copier. It was a remarkable achievement for a woman in the 1970s, but Terry soon decided it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. She began to resent having to get dressed up every day to sit in a room with 25 men “puffing on cigarettes.” “If I die of cancer, it’s Xerox’s fault,” she said. “I don’t take orders well from people, even when they’re asking in a nice way. There’s something in me that just bristles at that. I’ve never been able to get that under control.” Terry took a leave of absence from Xerox and began hanging out in her basement, playing around with building bike frames. She never went back. “I liked bicycling a lot, and with my mechanical engineering background the ultimate challenge was building a bike frame,” she said. Terry bought Richard Talbot’s Designing and Building Your Own Frameset: An Illustrated Guide for the Amateur Bicycle Builder, and The Proteus Frame Building Handbook, by Paul Proteus — both out of print today — and got to work experimenting. “A good friend who was comfortable

with an oxy-acetylene torch taught me not to blow myself up,” Terry said. The couple who had owned Terry’s house before her had built small airplanes in the basement, a fortuitous situation for the budding framebuilder. There were electrical outlets throughout the basement and excellent lighting. Terry’s first frame was an exact copy of a Schwinn Super Le Tour, touted at the time as a high-performance touring bike. As she got more into framebuilding, Terry began to believe that Schwinn had botched the design on smaller frames that women would ride. One example: instead of lowering the bottom bracket height on smaller frames, Schwinn simply shortened the seat tube. “While cornering, you would not feel like you were settled into the corner,” Terry said. Terry was an avid club rider in Rochester, and word got around that she was building frames. She started getting customers from the bike club. “A lot of them were small women who couldn’t find a bike they could straddle,” Terry said. “They were getting sore necks and shoulders trying to reach the handlebars.” Terry began going to bike rallies around New England, where she ran across a small bike built by Bill Boston that used a 24-inch front wheel with a standard 700c rear wheel. The small front wheel meant Boston “didn’t have to compromise the geometry or play a bunch of games” with his small bikes, Terry said. “It lets the top tube be shorter because you don’t have the problem of the front wheel hitting the pedals and

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allows you to lower the top tube,” Terry said. “You don’t have the problem of the head tube getting so short everything gets crammed up.” Terry wanted to use the small front wheel design for her bikes but felt like it belonged to Bill Boston. She asked how he would feel if she adopted the design for her bikes. “His comment was, ‘Please use it, this is the way it should be done,’” Terry remembered. And as it turned out, the idea of using a small front wheel dated back to the late 1800s, when it was used on track bikes. Boston had just adopted the idea to traditional road bikes. Nothing new under the sun. For women 5’3” and shorter, the small front wheel design made for a bike that handled “totally normally,” Terry said. At first, after leaving her well-paying job at Xerox, Terry wasn’t making much money building bike frames. But by 1985, just three years into her new life as a framebuilder, she started picking up steam. That year, Terry went to Interbike — the industry’s biggest trade show — and started getting orders from independent bike shops. She hired people, including a painter and two framebuilders from Ben Serotta who had moved to Rochester from Saratoga Springs, bringing valuable production skills with them. “Serotta was in production mode, I was in one-at-a-time mode,” Terry said. “These guys brought that knowledge with them.” In 1986, Terry moved her operation from her basement into an old warehouse in a nearby industrial park.

“We were getting a lot of publicity in the consumer publications,” she remembered. “At that point we started getting competition.” Fuji was the first to copy Terry’s small front wheel design, producing the 450SE. A West Coast company, Centurion, came out with another version. “At that point, we weren’t just building bikes in Rochester,” Terry said. “We had a manufacturer in Japan building a less expensive bike for us. We could only build so many in Rochester and we didn’t want to miss the market.” The Rochester-built bike was $1,000, while the Japanese version started at $500 to $600. Both bikes featured the same geometry, but the Japanese-built bike was slightly heavier, with lesser components. Terry’s company grew steadily through the early 1990s, but then she started to attract attention from major players like Cannondale and others who tout their women’s lines of bikes today. “They could do marketing we couldn’t afford to do,” Terry said. “It’s really hard to compete with that. People who had never heard of Terry before had heard of these companies.” At the same time that major companies were beginning to cut into her niche of building bikes for smaller women, Terry expanded into women’s cycling apparel and saddles. Clothes and saddles brought higher margins than bikes. Terry realized she could make a lot more money going in this new direction, and the bicycles “started to gather dust,” she said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 49

CYCLES Editor’s note: We didn’t plan to run Georgena and Natalie’s stories in the same issue, but between them it’s a fascinating look at the past, present, and future of women’s bikes.

hen Natalie Ramsland started Sweetpea in 2005 to build custom bikes for women, “there wasn’t a lot of awareness of women needing gender-specific bikes,” she said. The light bulb went on for Ramsland when she dropped out of grad school in architecture to return to work as a bike messenger. As passionate about how humans interact with physical objects as she is about biking, it dawned on her that she could combine both loves. “I saw other female messengers on touring and track racing bikes that ‘kindasorta’ fit. Some were on used bikes. None of the bikes seemed right for their bodies. It occurred to me that men don’t have that same experience of having to do so much on equipment not designed for them. And I knew that it didn’t have to be this way. I started thinking how I could design and build a bike that would resonate with how women’s bodies work,” she said. Ramsland registered for a framebuilding class at United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon, to learn how to weld a frame. After graduating, she apprenticed with Andy Newlands at Strawberry Cyclesport. Newlands is a bike fitter and frame builder in Portland, Oregon, and he taught Ramsland mills, lathes, and more. “With Andy I learned the things a manual would never cover, like if you make this mistake, this is how you work with it,” said Ramsland. “He taught me tolerances and the physiology and dynamics of a body on a bike.” Then Ramsland founded Sweetpea and started bike fitting and building in her own shop. “When I get to build a frame for a female cyclist, I am in an incredibly privileged position,” said Ramsland. “I

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work with one person at a time. I put her on a sizing cycle. I study where she is flexible and where she isn’t. I get to take into account her old rugby injury. I get to determine her best riding position and design around that. Six or eight weeks after she orders her bike, she comes back and I get to evaluate her on that bike and tweak the final product to make it perfect. From start to finish, Y theory and practice BROUD E N R E come together in a BY B seamless union of bike and rider.” Natalie Ramsland in front of her Portland headquarters. Ramsland is critical of mainstream bike brands, saying they woman who left their dealer’s shop on a don’t truly serve women. “It seems like size 48 continued to ride that bike. They the big brands are always on the brink don’t know if her back hurt or her hands of realizing women need a different bike were numb when she rode in the drops. than men,” she said, “but they never go They hear that small sizes don’t really sell. there. Most companies are branding Their logical conclusion is to make fewer their bikes for women but not building small bikes. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. them differently.” She said that while she Small-sized high-end bikes aren’t a applauds efforts to make bikes in a wider priority, so many women don’t have range of sizes, she is dismayed by a lack of options for a good bike that fits.” real progress. It’s a blessing and a curse for Arguably every body is different but, Ramsland, who has found her niche as Ramsland points out, many bikes fitting and building for those underserved aren’t offered in small enough sizes for women, many of whom are cycle tourists. a significant cross section of female “There is a way of doing bike fits customers. “Women on the smaller end that’s all about measuring watts and of the size range are totally left out of aerodynamics,” said Ramsland. “What mainstream bike-buying opportunities,” I am interested in, is in hour five of said Ramsland. “Big companies hear from your ride, where is your body going to their dealers what sizes and models sell collapse? How are you going to adjust each year. What they don’t know is if the to be comfortable? I make sure that

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HEIDI SWIF T

SWEETPEA

d n a l s m a Natalie R Builds in Dreams d Portlan

the drops are accessible, that the rider can move forward and back without compromising her knees. Humans are not static. Today is not like tomorrow or any other day. My mission is to help every single woman, whatever her budget, to feel more comfortable on her bike, whether it’s one she already owns or one I build for her.” Custom bikes can be price prohibitive — right now Ramsland only builds 35 to 40 Sweetpeas each year. But she does nearly 200 custom fits annually. “I want people to know that custom bikes aren’t just for hardcore riders,” she said. Most of the women I build for are average superheroes, not racers. Many women come to me and say they never thought they were athletic enough to deserve a custom frame. I ask them, ‘What‘s keeping you from taking yourself seriously? What can make biking even more accessible and joyful for you?’” Ramsland’s builds are based on five Sweetpea models. The Little Black Dress was her first design. “It’s the one really nice tailored bike you’re going to use in lots of different

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ways for a long time,” she said. Next came the A-Line. “This bike is like an A-line skirt. Its purpose and aesthetic is metro, evocative of directionality, of going someplace, and practicality. And you can ride it in a skirt.” Third was the Boom Boom. “It’s a cyclocross bike, and it’s a little bit irreverent. In cyclocross, you fall down, go boom — so the name resonates with the activity.” Fourth was the Farmers Market. “It captures the universality of a bike as a tool and a toy. Other porteur-style bikes revere and romanticize the notion of other dreamier places and times. I think the aesthetic of a modern American making something should be celebrated.” Ramsland’s latest design, her first carbon creation, is the Trouble Maker. “When you go to a custom-fit carbon machine, it’s going to be trouble for your riding partners. This bike makes me feel good about myself. On it I am fast — faster than I knew I could be. I haven’t ridden it with my husband — he needs to do more training first.” Ramsland’s husband is the cofounder

of Sweetpea and her business partner. He is “indispensible in matters of vision, branding, and long-term strategy,” said Ramsland. “But the day-to-day is all me.” Eventually Ramsland hopes to roll out Sweetpea bikes at a lower price point with the same fit advantages of her custom builds. She has only one dealer now. In the next five years, she hopes to have half a dozen dealers around the U.S., each with a Sweetpea-certified fitter. “The idea is that I design and produce the frame, and in some other part of the country, the female customer has a relationship with a shop that is going to get her fit precisely on that bike. I want a handful of dealers offering the same level of fit and build I do here.” About five years ago, Ramsland backed off building to start a family. Her son Arden is now two, and her daughter Inga is four and a half. “When Inga was learning to talk, she called every handle a handlebar,” laughed Ramsland. “She knows her way around a toolbox, she can help pump tires. She’s picked up all the CONTINUED ON PAGE 43

Cyclesense

Analog or training log?

DON’T FEAR TECHNOLOGY ➺ There are many of us who have a conflicted relationship with

technology. I have been accused of being born a generation too late thanks to my proclivity for steel bikes and wool clothing. But make no bones about it — I love technology and the benefits it can bring to life in general as well as to cycling. That’s not to say that I’m a blind servant to it, though. Simply installing the newest high-zoot cycling accessory on my bicycle will not guarantee a better ride. Rather, it is only through experience that we can begin to trust a new technology, and there is often an adjustment period. But the better the design and the more

intuitive the interface of a technology, the smaller the growing pains. Newer is not always better, but in many cases it can be. It is important to remember that every aspect of the bicycle in your garage was at some point a new technology. Derailers, clincher tires, clipless pedals, aluminum rims, even chromoly steel were all cutting edge at some point. While I don’t envy the first person to troubleshoot and test clincher tires, I’m glad they did and that I no longer need to bolt, glue, or wire tires onto my bike. More recently LED lights, improved dynamo hubs, abrasion-resistant fabrics, and composite materials are changing

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the look of the modern bicycle and rider. Integration and connectivity are the buzzwords of the middle of the decade we find ourselves in. For instance, Garmin’s Varia lights (see “Fine Tuned” in the February 2016 issue) work in unison with a Garmin GPS unit to automatically adjust light intensity based on speed. While riding yesterday, I received a text message on the Wahoo Elemnt GPS unit I had mounted on my handlebars (Garmin and others also have this feature thanks to Bluetooth technology and smart phones). This is also possible with “wearables” like Fitbit’s Surge (see “Fine Tuned” in the June 2015 issue) watch that tracks heart rate, daily walking distance, and more if one is inclined. All of these electronics can also automatically upload ride information to sites like Strava, Ride With GPS, or Training Peaks. Pretty whizbang! Thankfully, they all have off buttons too. I sometimes joke with my wife that I’m heading off for an analog ride, leaving everything with a battery at home. It’s interesting to see where cyclists dig in and ask for a halt in all new developments, drawing an arbitrary line in the sand. Recently, I’ve seen it most fervently with regards to electronic shifting and disc brakes. Something to the effect of “my bike stops just fine with my cantilever brakes.” Yes, it does. But it could be stopping better. The same goes for electronic shifting. One could argue that it will shift more reliably in bad conditions because a motor is moving the derailer the same amount for every shift. Shift wires don’t become contaminated like shift cables and housings can. But the trade-offs are expense and the need to charge your bike a couple times a year. It’s also helpful to remember that we implicitly ask the engineers of the world to develop new technologies to make us safer, happier, and, hopefully, healthier (I’m not touching this one — the food industry comes to mind). Remember too that these companies are for-profit enterprises. New products are necessary to create new purchase cycles. “Innovate or die,” as one cycling manufacturer correctly touts. As a parallel in the car world, imagine if consumers pushed back on anti-lock disc brakes, crumple zones, seat belts, and air bags. The romance of a 1960s sports car is hard to resist, but from a safety and reliability perspective I would never enlist a vintage Alfa Romeo as my daily driver. All this said, it is also true that in some cases the latest

ILLUSTR ATION: MIKE REISEL

BY NICK LEGAN

technology can offer improved performance that sometimes comes at the cost of increased maintenance. Tubeless tires are a good example of this. While I wouldn’t ride off pavement without setting my tires up tubeless, I’m also mechanically inclined and know that I’ll need to periodically check that the sealant hasn’t dried out. For many riders, this is a step too far. For them it’s easier to run tubes and not have to worry about whether their bike is ready to tackle the trail. This is especially true if you don’t experience frequent punctures. Ultimately we vote with our wallet. But until one has spent time with a new technology, it’s best to not dismiss it offhand. With experience comes confidence and perspective. There are no sure bets in life, but there’s no need to shy away from the latest cycling technology. Sifting through options and replacing worn out equipment with new and improved versions can lead to more fun aboard your bike. Nick Legan is the technical editor of Adventure Cyclist. He can be reached at nlegan@ adventurecycling.org.

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Mechanical Advantage

Loaded, at speed

Performance Touring Bikes BY JAN HEINE

How to combine the speed of a racing bike with the ability to carry camping gear

➺ Many avid cyclists dream of touring at a spirited pace.

How can we translate the speed and joy of a good racing bike into something that can carry a touring load? Decades ago, we took the blueprint of a racing bike, beefed up the frame, and added a rear rack. By keeping the narrow tires and the aerodynamic riding position, we tried to retain most of the racing bike’s performance. The famous explorer Ian Hibell toured the Andes and the Saharan desert on 28 mm tires, afraid that wider rubber would rob his bike of its spirited performance. My first dedicated touring bike also used narrow tires. Unfortunately, when I entered a triathlon on that machine, I was disappointed. Even with its racks removed, the touring bike’s performance did not match that of my racing bike. Something had been lost in the translation. Others had similar experiences. Then we tried touring on a racing bike with a trailer in tow. Physics told us that the extra weight shouldn’t slow us down all that much. But we soon found that the handling of our bikes deteriorated greatly with a trailer attached and, worst of all, the performance and feel were even less spirited than those of a dedicated touring bike. Today, we know why those approaches did not work. The “spirited” feel of a racing bike is not due to its narrow tires (no faster than wider ones), nor its light weight (only a few percent less once you factor in the rider). A racing bike is fast and fun because of the characteristics of its frame and the way it flexes in response to the rider’s pedal strokes. At Bicycle Quarterly, we call it “planing” — the feeling of getting in sync with the bike resembles a boat rising out of the water and going faster than a fully submerged hull. The mechanics remain poorly understood, but the recipe is clear — most good racing frames feature a slender top tube, a thicker down tube, and stiff chainstays. Steel frames used to have top tubes that were 12 percent smaller than the down tubes. Often, the top tube also had thinner walls, making it much more flexible than the down tube. Similarly, modern carbon frames often have thin, almost blade-like top tubes and much beefier down tubes. If a bike is fast, it’s likely to

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The Specialized Diverge is one of a new breed of bike that combines performance road and touring characteristics.

have a flexible top tube and a stiffer down tube. The final piece in the power transfer comes from the chainstays. For many decades, short chainstays have been prized for good climbing. We know now that the chainstays’ stiffness, not their length, makes the difference. Compare this to a modern touring bike. Usually, top and down tubes are of the same diameter, yet the top tube is shorter, making it stiffer. The chainstays are long and thus flexible. It’s the opposite of a racing bike. Why are touring bikes designed that way? The reason is simple — you need to stiffen the top tube to carry a rear load. Putting a rear rack on a racing frame will result in too much flex, causing the bike to handle unpredictably. You also need long chainstays to move the rack farther back so the panniers clear your heels. Combined, these two factors explain why touring bikes not only are slower than racing bikes but also require more mental effort to pedal: it’s much harder to get in sync with the frame. CONTINUED ON PAGE 48

Life Member Profile

Annmarie Eldering BY APRIL CYPHER

➺ It would not be totally inaccurate

“ADVENTURE CYCLING IS DOING WORK AT ALL LEVELS TO CHANGE THINGS ... IT’S A GREAT PLEASURE TO ME TO SUPPORT AN ORGANIZATION THAT IS DOING GOOD WORK.”

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to say that Annmarie Eldering spends her work hours with her head in the clouds. As part of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory team, Eldering’s focus is actually above the clouds with the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2, a satellite that measures carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, where it’s coming from, and where it’s going. When she’s not occupied with the goings-on of the atmosphere, Eldering explores terra firma with her partner, Anne. On any given weekend, they might be mountain biking the fire roads around Angeles National Park behind their Pasadena home or cycling California’s wine country. From dirt paths in Bhutan to cobblestone streets of Budapest, Eldering has traversed the globe by bike and foot in search of big adventure. “We both love to see the world and explore new places,” said Eldering. “Being on a bicycle is the perfect way to do it. I remember in France you just start talking to people on the side of the road or in the village. People are curious, and it makes it easier to start a conversation. “My bike has been my constant companion,” Eldering said. As a child, her bike was the “key to freedom” in rural upstate New York. “I wanted to play softball in the summer but the school was seven miles away. My mom said, ‘You want to play softball? That’s great, here’s your bike, go play.’ So I would bike to town and have fun with the other kids. If it weren’t for my bicycle, it wouldn’t have happened.” She and her siblings also made good use of the woods around their home. “We were as inventive as Gary

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Fisher. We made paths for our Schwinn banana seat bikes and rode around in the woods. We knew about mountain biking before the rest of the world did.” Eldering credits her parents — who met in the 1950s through a New York bike club — for her love of cycling and her introduction to Adventure Cycling. “Dad dragged us out for bike tours and youth hostel stays when we were teenagers,” she said. When she went to college in New York City, her bike came with her. Later she started touring with a group of friends who would pack a Rand McNally map for a “make it up as you go along” tour. “After taking one of my crazy bike tours with friends, my dad sent me a Xerox of Adventure Cycling’s Cyclists’ Yellow Pages, and I realized what an awesome resource Adventure Cycling is. “I love Adventure Cycling,” Eldering said. This spring, after 12 years as a member, she became a Life Member. “Adventure Cycling is doing work at all levels to change things, working with the government and other bike organizations, creating events where people can get involved. I’m at a point where I have more resources, and it’s a great pleasure to me to support an organization that is doing good work. The idea of becoming a Life Member got pushed over the edge when I met Jim Sayer. It gave me the confidence that this organization is focused on the right objectives. Plus it’s a super good deal for me, I’m only 50, I have lots of years of life membership ahead of me.” April Cypher is Adventure Cycling’s development coordinator.

COURTESY ANNMARIE ELDERING

Around the world looking for adventure

LIFE MEMBERSHIP

A lifetime of benefits and long-term support for bicycle travel.

Funds from the Life Membership program are put into a special account to provide long-term support for Adventure Cycling Association. In the past, these funds have helped us purchase and update our headquarters building, saving us thousands of dollars in interest payments. If bicycle travel is an important part of your life, please consider making a lifetime commitment by joining as an Adventure Cycling Life Member. To find out more, visit adventurecycling.org/membership or give Julie Huck a call at 800.755.2453 x214. Thanks to these new life members who joined recently with their support:

• Stephen C. Boughton, Tigard, OR

• Jeffrey Cohen, Conway, NH

• Mark Perschel, Jacksonville Beach, FL

• Richard Mead & Ruth Pollow, Greenville, SC

• Dan Heiser, Santa Cruz, CA

• Mark R. Sunderland, Boulder, CO

• Veronica Massey, Jamaica Plain, MA

• Martin S. Oldford, Panama City Beach, FL

• Albert P Bohemier, Hubley, NS, Canada

• Janet Rose & Richard Bedal, Santa Cruz, CA

• Maria & Pat Steele, Adel, IA

• Howard Mann, Plainview, NY

• Lori Brees, Wadsworth, OH

JOIN TODAY AND RECEIVE AMERICA'S BICYCLE ROUTE!

• Rodney & Janie Arndt, Fort Collins, CO • Donald and Ashmeeda Aridas, Woodside, NY • Annmarie Eldering, Pasadena, CA • Eugene A Gross, Tulsa, OK • Lucy Foxworth, Greenville, SC • Mark & Wendy Hoag, Santa Clara, CA • Robert Kissinger, Cincinnati, OH • Adam Davis, Bedford, MA • Dr. Margaret Atterbury & Bruce Bernard, Cincinnati, OH • Jenny Park & John Sweet, Chattanooga, TN • Paul H Pinson, Wilmington, DE • Mark & Juliet Rieb, Albuquerque, NM • Margaret E Summerside, De Pere, WI

Join Adventure Cycling Association as a life member during our 40th anniversary year and you’ll receive a complimentary copy of our limited-edition coffee table book America’s Bicycle Route: The Story of the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 37 NATALIE RAMSLAND

things you hope your children learn in this world.” Being a mom has made Ramsland sharpen her focus. “Before having kids, I had this magical notion that I could just do more — work harder and get more done. Now I only have so many hours to work, and I need to be effective. So I spend more time on fitting and design and less on fabrication — I have partners doing that piece for me.” Ramsland loves bikes, and she loves the women she gets to work with just as much. “I feel so damn lucky that I get to make an intimate personal artifact for an individual. There are lots of ways we can work in the world and impact other people. I impact individuals by making bikes that help each of my customers love biking even more. I remember when I got on the first bike to fit me. And I want everyone to have that feeling. That’s the kind of magic that never grows old.” Berne Broudy is a Vermont-based writer and photographer.

RAPTOR / RAVEN MOUNTAIN BIKING | HYDRATION

A versatile, lightweight pack featuring our new Osprey Hydraulics TM Reservoir by Hydrapak®. Everything you need to keep moving on the trail with nothing to slow you down.

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RATE: $115 for the first 30 words, $2 for each additional word. For more information, please contact Rick Bruner at phone/fax: 509.493.4930, email: advertising@adventurecycling.org.

Classified Ads

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HOLLAND — DISCOVER THE HIDDEN GEMS Scenic and safe biking in the cyclist’s paradise! Local expertise for routes and accommodation. Excellent equipment. Recreational, road and e-bike tours. Varied tour program and tailor-made options. www.hollandbiketours.com.

OK CYCLE & ADVENTURE TOURS Follow Your Dreams. Since 1995, fabulous cycling and vacations worldwide (including bike/barge and trekking too), guided and self-guided, for all levels of abilities. Exclusive and custom tours also available. Share the passion! www.okcycletours.com.

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TOPBICYCLE TOURS IN CENTRAL EUROPE 7- to 10-day self-guided and guided cycling vacations. We are a specialist for bike tours in Central Europe since 1996. We concentrate only on the countries where we live: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Poland. Visit and ride between the beautiful cities of Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Salzburg, Dresden, and Passau. Carefully planned selfguided tours. Small guided groups with local knowledgeable guides. We can customize our tours according to your wishes. Quality bike rental available. www.topbicycle.com info@ topbicycle.com.

PEDAL AND SEA ADVENTURES We’re a personable travel company offering creative cycling and multi-sport adventures in many of the world’s best places, including Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, P.E.I., Croatia, Italy, and Ireland. Guided and self-guided. Van-supported. Friendly guides. Charming inns. Custom groups anytime. Over 70% return clientele since 2005! Toll Free Phone: 877-777-5699. Please email us at info@ pedalandseaadventures.com or visit our website: www.pedalandseaadventures.com. 10 COUNTRIES, 7,500 MI. CYCLE AFRICA From the pyramids of Giza to the foggy views of Table Mountain in Cape Town. Along the way there is a vast continent to explore at a human speed. Are you up for it? Join us January in Cairo. tdaglobalcycling.com/tour-dafrique or (416) 364 8255. CLASSIC ADVENTURES Bicycling Vacations since 1979. Full route support, experienced guides, gourmet cuisine. Austria, France, Greece/ Crete, Germany, Lake Constance, Quebec, Vermont, Mississippi-Natchez Trace, Texas Hill Country, NY Finger Lakes, Historic Erie Canal, Coast to Coast. Free Catalog (800) 777-8090 www.classicadventures.com. CROATIA BY BIKE AND BOAT This is absolutely the only way to find the heart of this diverse and poetic country. We will tour through the towns of Split, Hvar, Stari Grad, and Korcula — towns that include two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, so named for their impeccable preservation, historic value, and stunning beauty. Each evening we make our way back to our private boat, which is outfitted with all the necessary comforts, and begin our journey to the next stunning vista, perhaps stopping enroute for a dip in the sparkling clear water. Contact our office for more details. Toll free phone: 877-777-5699. Email us at info@pedalandseaadventures.com, or visit our website: www.pedalandseaadventures.com.

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NORTH AMERICAN TOURS & EVENTS SOCKEYE CYCLE CO. Alaska Bicycle Tours, Rentals, Sales, Service. Established in 1988, we specialize in guided bicycle tours of Alaska’s Southeast panhandle and remote areas of Canada’s Northwest British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. Whether you take a day tour or one of our extended trips, our experienced guide staff will escort you on an unforgettable adventure through the northern wilderness. POB 829, 24 Portage St. Haines, AK 99827-0829, TF 877-292-4154, 907-766-2869, Fax 907-766-2851, 381 Fifth Ave. Skagway, AK (May - Sept) 907-983-2851. www.cyclealaska.com. COAST 2 COAST Hassle-free closely following Southern Tier averaging 63 miles per day. Fully supported including freshly-prepared great tasting meals, and a mechanic. You dip your rear wheel into the Pacific and your front wheel into the Atlantic, we will do everything in between. We even do your dirty laundry! March 4-April 25, 2016. Details from BubbasPamperedPedalers. com or BikerBubba@aol.com. AMERICA BY BICYCLE, INC. Your full service bicycle touring leader. Choose from 38 tours ranging from 5 to 52 days. Let us take you on your dream ride Coast to Coast! abbike.com. 888-7977057 FREE CATALOG. BIG DREAM BIKE TOURS Newport Beach, CA to Pleasure Bay Beach, Boston, MA. Custom cue sheets with map and elevation profile, GARMIN, hotels, meals, SAG provided. We are focused on your Big Dream to ride coast-to-coast. Let’s talk! www.bigdreambiketours.com 844-379-2453.

WOMEN ONLY BIKE TOURS For all ages and abilities. Fully supported, inn-to-inn, bike path & road tours. Cross-country, National Parks, Europe & more. Bicycle workshops, wine tasting, yoga. Call for free catalog. 800-247-1444, www. womantours.com. CYCLE NORTH CAROLINA 18th Annual “Mountains to Coast” (October 1 – October 8) — Cycle 450 plus miles while experiencing the North Carolina countryside on scenic back roads amidst beautiful fall colors. Explore quaint towns, visit famous State Parks, Historic Sites, wineries, and more. Fully supported with SAG Support and rest stops. Various registration options available. cyclenc@ncsports.org www.ncsports.org. BIKE GAPCO Great Allegheny Passage/ C & O Canal Pittsburgh to DC. July 4-July 10, 2016. Bicycle through American History on this totally traffic-free tour while staying in B&Bs and hotels. Breakfasts and dinners included as well as lodging. Daily mileage options on this fully supported which includes route sheets and SAG stops. This tour will start just outside Pittsburgh where you will be returned upon completion. It’s your vacation PAMPER yourself. Details from BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or BikerBubba@ aol.com. BEER & BIKE TOURS Small Group cycling tours with guaranteed departures in Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, and Japan this Autumn and Winter. Spend the day cycling and evenings sampling local Craft Beer. Cheers! www. beerandbiketours.com or 970-201-1085. CYCLE OF LIFE ADVENTURES New for 2016; “EPIC Colorado”- 4 weeks of the best rides in Colorado- Includes The Front Range, Aspen High Country, The Monument and Orchards and South West Colorado-6/12-7/ 9. Choose any or all segments. Space is limited. Trips available yet this SUMMER: Seattle to Glacier-7/24-8/5, Includes “Going to the Sun Road” and a train ride back to Seattle. Yellowstone NP- 8/6-14, The Beartooths-8/14-19, New Mexico- 9/2-10, FALL trips available: Natchez Trace- 9/18-25, Blue Ridge Pkwy- 9/26-10/3, Vermont-10/9-14, Outer Banks NC- 10/16-21 & 10/22-29 NEW FOR 2017; ITALY, CANADA, HAWAII, ALASKA. Visit our web site for details and quick, easy on-line registration. All inclusive, fully supported bicycling vacations. Scenery, History, Outstanding Hotels, Upscale Dining, Small groups. Rider references available! Ride with the owner every trip. CHECK US OUT: www. cycleoflifeadventures.com Phone: 303-9459886 email: info@cycleoflifeadventures.com. NOW BOOKING OUR FALL 2016 NATCHEZ TRACE BIKE TOUR Enjoy a van supported InnInn tour of the Natchez Trace. Ride South to North starting with the Great MS River Balloon Race in Natchez. 10/14-10/22. See more details and rates on our website. www.secyclingtours. com.

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CYCLE AMERICA Enjoy a Fully Supported Cycling Vacation this Summer. Ride Seattle to Boston on an epic Coast-to-Coast tour or explore America’s treasures on our series of National Park trips. First-Rate Support, Great Routes and Good Friends! Let Us Help You Plan Your Next Fun and Affordable Adventure. 800-245-3263. www. CycleAmerica.com. FLORIDA KEYS HOTEL TRIP Fully supported, outstanding hotel accommodations, DoubleTree by Hilton, Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn. 6-day trip December 5-10, 2016. Key Largo to Key West & back. Stunning beach scenery, great meals, 2 layover days in Key West. Only $1,025.00. www.floridakeysbikeride.com, 847-309-4740, kennethjgoldman@yahoo.com. 25TH ANNUAL OATBRAN One Awesome Tour Bike Ride Across Nevada. Silver Celebration of Crossing the Silver State. Sept. 25-Oct. 1, 2016. Fully Supported Motel style tour across US Hwy 50: “The Loneliest Road in America” For more info and to register: www.bikethewest.com. HELPING MAKE GOOD RIDERS BETTER SINCE 1981 Join Transcontinental Record Holders Lon Haldeman & Susan Notorangelo for your cycling adventures. Offering tours from 7-day training camps to coast to coast tours. Also guided tours of Route 66 and across Peru. Full support, motels, gear shuttle, and most meals. See our website for new tours and other regional adventures. PAC Tour www.pactour.com 262-736-2453. KATY TRAIL BICYCLE TOUR September 11-17, 2016 Following Lewis and Clark’s route, this flat and totally traffic-free tour is on America’s longest Rails to Trails. This fully supported tour, which includes daily route sheets and SAG stops, overnights in B&Bs and Historic Hotels. All breakfasts and dinners as well as lodging included. Tour starts just outside of St. Louis where you will be returned upon completion of the tour. You deserve to be PAMPERED! Details from BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or BikerBubba@aol.com. WISCONSIN BACKROADS HOTEL TOURS Fully supported affordable 5-7 day bicycling vacations. $625-$745 includes HOTELS w/indoor pools-whirlpools, buffet dinners, food stops, & emergency support. Quiet, scenic, all paved back roads. NORTHWOODS, DOOR COUNTY, Spring Green, New Glarus, & more. Celebrating our 32nd year. www.pedalacrosswisconsin. com, 847-707-6888, 847-309-4740, drjpedal@ sbcglobal.net. FLORIDA KEYS The ultimate Bicycle Vacation. Bike the entire key system, down and back. Fully-supported including breakfasts and most dinners. Beautiful sunsets. Swim with the dolphins. Snorkel. Dive. The Seven Mile Bridge just might be the most beautiful seven miles you will ever bike. November 5th-12th 2016. Details from BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or BikerBubba@aol.com.

TIMBERLINE ADVENTURES INC Timberline Adventures has been taking people to the highest peaks, the deepest canyons and the wildest coasts in North America and Canada for over 34 years. The plan for each season is a variety of 84 exciting cycling and hiking adventures, including favorites as well as brand new destinations. Length of tours range from 5 days to over 40 days. Choose from over 130 itineraries for custom tours available for a group of your own friends and family. We strive to incorporate invigorating exercise and breathtaking scenery with pleasurable dining and comfortable lodging. Two guides lead each tour and the group size can be four to twelve guests. NEW 2016 Cycling Odyssey; Historic Route 66- 9/4-10/13/16, NEW 2017 Cycling Odyssey; Great Lodges 7/29-9/10/17. Easy and quick online registration available at www.timbertours.com or call us we love to hear from you. 800-417-2453, email- timber@earthnet.net. SANTA FE TRAIL BICYCLE TRIP 2016 22nd Year. Sept. 11-30. Non-Profit, Camping, Fully Supported including meals www.SantaFeTrailBicycleTrek. com. LIFE AT BIKE SPEED — LIZARD HEAD CYCLING GUIDES Ride HAYDUKE’S TRAIL: Utah’s ultimate point-2-point MTB traverse at over 420-miles. Other tours include 4 to 14-day bike friendly routes, live music, massage therapy, seamless mileage options and soul crushing climbs :) Ride with us through the wildest, most spectacular and inaccessible areas of the American West. Join Tour de France Champ Jan Ullrich in September 2016 on an Aspen to Taos tour! 970.728.5891 www. LizardHeadCyclingGuides.com. CROSSROADS CYCLING ADVENTURES 20th Anniversary! Los Angeles to Boston or anyplace in between. Come ride with Tracy Leiner — owner, cyclist, and tour director. Tracy travels with every group, everyday! Small groups, personal attention, business-class hotels and meals. Luggage delivered to your hotel room and A/C turned on before you arrive! Extensive pre-trip support including training plan, weekly newsletters, rider/staff email introductions and telephone consultations. Rider references available (800) 971-2453 crossroadscycling.com. VACATION BICYCLING Treat yourself to a fun, beautiful and unforgettable 7-day bicycle tour! Mississippi River Trail & New Orleans $1599; The Florida Keys & Key West $1599; Charleston & Savannah $1599; Jackson Hole $1599; Outer Banks $1299; and Maui $1699. Come join us! Trips are fully supported including hotels, food & SAG. Celebrating our 10th year Anniversary. 706-363-0341 or 800-490-2173 or www. VacationBicycling.com.

Market Place

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RATE: Marketplace ads start at $195 per issue. For rate information, please contact Rick Bruner. Phone/fax: 509.493.4930, email: advertising@adventurecycling.org.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 40 MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE

A view just as good today as it was for John Muir in 1868, looking toward Yosemite Falls. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 MUIR RAMBLE ROUTE

This event convinced Roosevelt to save Yosemite, part a movement that contributed to the birth of the national park system. There is no finer place in America to finish a cycling adventure than Yosemite. The valley hummed with the booming voice of the waterfalls and burst with snowmelt from the high country. The white dogwood flowers decorated the trees like ornaments. It was indeed a place to celebrate the fact that John Muir first took his long walk from San Francisco to see this glorious place with his own eyes. Along our ramble, we gained a much deeper appreciation for the beauty of America, its preserved lands, and for Muir himself, the “Father of our National Parks.” Cindy Ross loves riding her bike almost as much as she loves writing about it. Read about her travels at cindyrosstraveler.com.

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Back to our quest for the ultimate performance touring bike. The answer now should be obvious: ditch the rear load and you can use the frame of a racing bike for touring. I am not suggesting to have a sag wagon follow you. Instead, carry the load on the front. Letting the front wheel carry your load has many advantages. You can use a racing frame with the same inherent flex characteristics, since the frame doesn’t actually carry anything. The front wheel isn’t dished (unless you use disc brakes), so it’s stronger than the rear, yet it carries much less weight. Have the front wheel carry its share, and reduce the burden of the overworked rear wheel! A front load handles better, too. Bikes are balanced by moving the front wheel from side to side to keep it underneath the bike’s center of gravity. To balance a front load, you simply move the front wheel. However, to balance a rear load, you first have to move the front wheel and wait until the rear wheel follows. This lag means that a rear-loaded bike weaves much more as it rolls down the road than does a front-loaded bike. Carry your load on the front, attached to low-rider racks, and your bike’s handling will be much more precise. Ideally, you’d adjust the front-end geometry for the load’s inertia on the bike’s steering, but at least with low-rider racks this is secondary. (It’s more important when you carry a handlebar bag.) Does it really work? The answer is an emphatic “Yes!” My own randonneur bike has an ultralight steel frame (with tubing walls that measure a mere 0.4 mm). It is completely unaffected by a 40-pound camping load. It’s easy to ride out of the saddle. It steers with precision. Rolling on supple, high-performance tires that are 42 mm wide, I enjoy gravel roads. Yet on smooth asphalt, the same bike feels like a good racing bike and flies along with the same speed. It’s a win-win situation. You don’t need to get a custom steel randonneur bike to experience the joys of “performance touring.” Many

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modern gravel bikes are equipped with fork eyelets that make it easy to add a low-rider rack. Gravel bikes are basically racing bikes with added tire clearance. For Bicycle Quarterly, we tested a Specialized Diverge by taking it camping on gravel roads near Mount Rainier. On the way back into town we engaged in an impromptu race with a pair of triathletes. On traditional touring bikes we wouldn’t have stood a chance, but on that day the only thing that held us back was the air resistance of the front panniers. And even that is less than you’d think, because the panniers shield the rider’s spinning legs. (We’ve tested that in the wind tunnel.) As a result, the triathlon guys had to swallow their pride as two bikes with front panniers pacelined off into the distance. Obviously, you’ll have to pack lightly to fit everything into two panniers, but it’s doable. Many of today’s “front” panniers are a bit small, and the larger “rear” models have a trapezoidal shape for added heel clearance that you don’t need on the front. As “front-load only” touring becomes more popular, more bag makers will offer larger front panniers. (In the photo on page 40, you see Gilles Berthoud panniers that are ideal for this application.) The traditional touring bike with front and rear racks still has its place for extended trips that require carrying lots of gear. Yet many of us have tighter schedules and just want to camp at the end of a mountain road before returning the following day. The new breed of gravel bikes offers the tantalizing prospect of combining the performance of a racing bike with the ability to go touring. And thanks to their wide tires, these machines are true “allroad” bikes that don’t shy away from gravel roads. They combine a road bike, a gravel bike, and a touring bike all in one. That makes them pretty much the only bike many of us need. Jan Heine is editor of Bicycle Quarterly, the magazine about the culture, technology, and history of cycling. More information is at bikequarterly.com.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35 GEORGENA TERRY

Terry scored a marketing coup when she introduced the Terry saddle, with a cutout in the center and gel padding. She later came out with a cutout saddle for men that also sold well. “The first company to copy the saddle was our own manufacturer in Taiwan, who flooded the Asian and European markets with our saddle,” Terry said. “That wasn’t too cool. We went to Italy to have Selle Italia build the saddle.” Selle Italia still builds Terry saddles, although company representatives once told her they would never buy a saddle with a hole in it. Now, Terry-style saddles are common on Italian bikes. “Don’t tell anybody, but I still ride Brooks,” Terry said. “They’re incredible.” In 2009, Georgena Terry sold her company to another groundbreaking woman entrepreneur, Elisabeth Robert, former CEO of Vermont Teddy Bear Company in Shelburne, Vermont. Robert moved the headquarters of Terry Precision Cycling from Rochester to Burlington, Vermont, evolving Terry into a clothing and saddle company rather than a bike company. Georgena Terry stayed with the company for three years until 2012, but she left when Robert made the decision to no longer sell bikes. “Liz asked if I wanted to continue doing handbuilt bicycles. I said, ‘Absolutely,’” Terry said. “She does have rights to the name. We have an arrangement that allows me to use my name on my bike.” Today the Terry website directs

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customers who click on “Bikes” to Georgena Terry, and her “Heart of Steel” bicycle website. Terry has always exclusively used steel for her bikes. She still offers custom bikes and also sells three “semi-custom” bikes made by Waterford Cycles in Wisconsin, the Gale Force, Coto Doñana Tour (reviewed in the April 2014 issue of Adventure Cyclist), and Coto Doñana Vagabond, the latter two models named after a nature reserve in Spain. Terry describes the Coto Doñana Tour as a “true touring bicycle for women, designed to take you and your equipment anywhere.” The Cota Doñana Vagabond is designed for lighter touring. Working with Richard Schwinn at Waterford Cycles to build the bikes has been a perfect match. “It is a legendary name,” Terry said. “Our bikes are built in the factory that used to make the Schwinn Paramount. There’s a real heritage there, an appreciation of steel.” Terry’s new company is “just me, social media, and word of mouth.” She sells about 35 bikes a year, just for women, staying true to her roots. That’s not many bikes, but Terry said the business is a “labor of love,” and she does make a tidy profit on each bike. Considering the long road she has traveled and the pride she can take in having launched a movement for bikes designed for women, Terry is frustrated by what she sees as the regression of the bike business where women are concerned. “First they mimicked us with the 24-inch, 700c design, then they decided that didn’t look right,” Terry said.

“Translation: inventory problem. Now you have to stock 24-inch tires.” For a while, Terry said, manufacturers made 650c bikes for smaller women, which worked very well, “but then they dropped that.” “I had the privilege of meeting with a person who was an insider with one of the really big companies into women’s bikes,” Terry said. “When I asked why they stopped making the 650c bike, the answer was, ‘700c can fit any rider.’ That’s total baloney. When I pushed further the response was, ‘We were getting pushback from dealers. They didn’t want to stock yet another tire.’” Terry calls what bike companies have done with women’s bikes “an absolute travesty.” She’s also disappointed Robert dropped bikes from the company she built. “I definitely wish Liz had stuck with bikes,” Terry said. “I feel like it’s the heritage of the company.” While she is disappointed in what has happened with women’s bikes, Terry is enjoying life, riding about 6,700 miles last year. “I think I have been incredibly lucky to have discovered the bicycle in terms of what it has brought me for health and fitness, good times, and lots of friends,” Terry said. “I didn’t even start riding until I was 13 or 14 years old. I was really late getting into it, but the minute I was able to make that bike go in a straight line and ride around the neighborhood, I felt like I had found total freedom.” Dan D’Ambrosio has been a contributing writer for Adventure Cyclist for the past 10 years.

Companions Wanted

TRANSAM — WEST TO EAST I’m planning my first cross-country bike trip in March of 2017. The plan is to fly to Astoria, Oregon, then ride to Richmond, Virginia. I hope to travel a minimum of 50 miles per day but would like to push it farther when possible. About me: I’m 29 years old, a musician, and new to bike touring. I currently live in San Diego, I’m a track bicycle racer, and lover of craft beer. I’m looking for people who want to have a rad adventure, lots of fun, laughs, and see the country. sykkelspruce@gmail.com NORTHERN TIER I’m a 50-year-old male and I’d love some company for a bucket list ride from west to east. 70-80 miles a day as a guide but this is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure so will be very flexible to stop to see the sites and meet interesting people. rreid1228@comcast.net

Providing partners for tours, domestic and abroad, since 1978

NEW TO BIKE TOURING A couple of months ago, I totaled my motorcycle and my wife and I agreed that my motorcycle days are behind me — for now. One of the things I loved about riding a motorcycle were the touring rides and the camaraderie of the adventure. So I decided to purchase a 2015 Salsa Vaya. I purchased the bike about two months ago and have been using it to commute 12 miles roundtrip to/from work in Denver. I have done some solo riding as well for fitness. Are any of you out there in the Denver area interested in doing some day rides around Denver as well as touring in Colorado? I’m 38 years old and am in good shape. rborgida@gmail.com

GREAT AMERICAN EPIC Starting in Redmond, Washington, explore the Olympic Peninsula before moving south through the Redwoods, down the coast, eventually the desert and canyons. Then to the east, heading north around the Deep South to follow the Appalachians. Multimonth trip, fully loaded. Some days ride forever, some days sit back and take in all that is around us. Mostly national-park camping and relying on ourselves and new friends, hotel once a week or so. Already geared up, early spring departure 2017. 40-111 miles per day, under $30 per day. 24, male. Come as you are. zac@elementcycles.net

NORTH LAKES LOOP I’m a 59-year-old retired male planning to bike the North Lakes Loop, departing late August 2016. I’ll ride 50 to 60 miles per day, camping and cooking most nights. I will start the trip from my hometown (Cincinnati, Ohio), and connect with the North Loop Route at Denver, Indiana. I will follow the North Lakes Route going counter-clockwise (Mackinaw City-Escanaba-Conover-Manitowoc-Ferry to Ludington-retrace route to Cincinnati), and will take about five weeks to complete the 1,750mile journey. I have some touring experience (two-week-long trips), but this will be my first multi-week trip. Let me know if you would like to join me on part or all of the route. rdkissinger@ cinci.rr.com

LATIN AMERICA I’m currently in Guatemala cycling south to South America. Would like cycling companions for part or all. I cycle at a moderate rate depending on terrain and availability of campgrounds or hostels. I’m selfsupported and cook about half the time. The other half dedicated to sampling the local fare. obinjatoo@gmail.com

NORTHERN TIER I’m completing the Northern Tier from Seaside, Oregon, to the Mississippi River (I already rode from the Mississippi River to Maine). I’m looking for one or two people to join me. I plan on leaving sometime in August of this year. I’m 71 with other tours behind me. 50 miles a day is a good mileage for me. easytourgw@hotmail.com

ADVENTURE CYCLIST

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ABQ TO DENVER I’m Patrick, 31, from the Indianapolis area and I’m planning a road bike tour from Albuquerque to Denver, about 650 miles, starting in early September during a twoweek vacation from my job. I have ridden the TransAm and Pacific Coast (with four other guys I met through Companions Wanted) and have done a few shorter bike trips since. If you have an interest in joining for all or part, let me know! Also, check my blog for more: justridethebike. tumblr.com. patrick.caldwell@gmail.com NEW ENGLAND TO COLOMBIA I’m looking for a companion for the Latin American leg of a New England to Colombia trip, leaving September 1, 2016. I expect to be crossing the Texas border at McAllen sometime around November 1, and following the Gulf coast south. I plan on an average of 50 miles per day, but I’m flexible with both this and the route. eric.masterson@ myfairpoint.net RIDE ACROSS SOUTH DAKOTA Looking for companion(s), men and/or women to ride across South Dakota during the last week of August or first week of September. We could go west to east or east to west. We can be self-supported or take a SAG if possible. No fee; pay your own expenses. Call Dallas at 605-721-1427 or email. dkrausch@ rushmore.com

Adventure Cycling Association assumes, but cannot verify, that the persons above are truthfully representing themselves. Ads are free to Adventure Cycling members. You can see more ads and post them at adventurecycling.org/adventure-cyclist/ companions-wanted or send them to Adventure Cyclist, P.O. Box 8308, Missoula, MT 59807.

Open Road Gallery 4753

COURTESY ANDRÉ MARIER

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André Marier posing with a new bike in 1949.

It’s All Small Stuff PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG SIPLE

Bicycle Eclectic Adventure Cycling’s traveling exhibition of photos from the National Bicycle Touring Collection can be seen at Missoula Art Museum, 335 N. Pattee, Missoula, MT 59802 (across the street from Adventure Cycling headquarters) July 1 through August 27.

STORY BY GAGE POORE

➺ ANDRÉ MARIER, at age 78, visited Adventure Cycling in July 2015 during his 21st consecutive year of

bicycle tours. At the time, he believed himself to be about 10 days away from completing 100,000 kilometers (62,137 miles) since he started touring “at the tender age of 57.” Riding with his friend and co-author of his book Wind at My Back, Henk Wind, Marier was traveling the 4,471 miles between Victoria, British Columbia, to his home in Ottawa, Ontario, through the heart of America. Just before departing on this trip, the two cyclists spent 40 days and 1,045 miles exploring Iceland. About that trip, Marier wrote, “of the 21 years of adventure tours around the world, this was by far the most demanding with constant high winds changing directions on a whim several times a day. And that far north, there are no trees to hide behind. We didn’t see darkness for 40 days and we came within spitting distance of the Arctic Circle. “I first had a bike when I was 12 years old,” Marier wrote. “That lasted until approximately age 16. I had not ridden a bicycle since.” That was, until 1994 when he found himself single after 23 years of marriage. “I decided to buy a bicycle to pass the time and do a bit of exercise as I was totally out of shape. The day I picked up that bike, I felt like a kid again. I rode 4.5-kilometers and had a hard time walking for two days, but I was determined and persisted. I don’t give up easily.” Later that year, he met a touring cyclist while riding around Ottawa and he began his love affair with bicycle travel. By the end of 2015, Marier had toured in 30 countries, all of Canada’s 10 provinces, and 40 of the lower 48 states. In the beginning of September 2016, he has plans to meet up with Henk in Chicago, Illinois, where the two will begin a tour of Bicycle Route 66 with a possible side trip in the Grand Canyon National Park area. “It’s not about the destination — it’s about the journey!” As a word of advice to potential cycle tourists, Marier said, “Take time to smell the flowers! Have a plan, but be flexible. Don’t sweat the small stuff, it’s all small stuff.”

Bring the Bicycle Eclectic traveling portrait exhibition to your town. Contact Greg Siple for more information: gsiple@adventure cycling.org.

See more portraits at adventurecycling. org/gspg

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maps tours gear resources Questions? 800.755.2453 www.adventurecycling.org

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WHEN WAS YOUR LAST

ADVENTURE? We are announcing 107 exciting adventures for 2017, including:

Southern California Sun and Surf, Inn to Inn

Texas Hill Country, Self Contained

New England Villages and Streams, Inn to Inn

Southern Charm: Savannah to St. Augustine, Van

Puerto Rico II, Inn to Inn

Southern Charm: Savannah to Charleston, Van

Colorado Alpine Trails Relaxed

Route 66: The Mother Road Eastward, Van

Hawaii Big Island, Self Contained

Southern California Sierra, Van

Great Divide Colorado Alpine, Self Contained

Central California Sierra, Van

Northern Tier, Self Contained

Great American West, Van

Atlantic Coast, Self Contained

Chicago to New York, Van New Mexico Enchanted Lands, Van Great Smoky Mountains Adventure, Van

Details and registration at: adventurecycling.org/toursinfo, or call 800.755.2453