Category Archives: Biking

Overnight bike adventure out of DC – Day 1

The summer bike tour with my brother is just around the corner, so I was keen to head out and do a shake-down tour to test my kit. Lexi was a willing companion so earlier this afternoon we packed the panniers and headed out for a quick overnight adventure along the C&O canal.

Despite the late start, it was a beautiful afternoon and evening and with the long hours of daylight we were able to make good progress out of DC. Two punctures slowed us down somewhat but we were still smiling when we reached camp, from where I’m now writing this blog post. Here’s a selection of photos from today:

No Rest Out West: a 3,500-mile summer bike tour around West U.S.

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This summer I’m setting off to cycle around the mountainous West of the U.S. with my brother. We have two months and our rough plan is to cycle a big horseshoe route, heading north out of San Francisco late June, up the Pacific Coast of California, then riding up the Sierra Cascades through Oregon and into Washington. From there, we’ll turn right and ride east across Idaho and into Montana until we intersect the Great Divide Mountain Bike route. There, we’ll turn south, pedalling across Montana and Wyoming until we reach the vicinity of Denver, Colorado, where we’ll catch flights home.

Less than two weeks to go and I’m more than a little excited. I’m looking forward to a new adventure with my brother and a chance to hang out together (we live on opposite sides of the world, you see). The scenery promises to be spectacular on every level, from the remote Northern coastline of California, to the volcanoes of Oregon and Washington states, through to the drama and majesty of the Rockies. I’ve never visited the West coast or the West mountains of the U.S., so every day, every mile, will be a new experience. I’m looking forward to sleeping out in a tent again, living the simple life out on the road. I’m looking forward to it all.

Route:

I’ve used the maps of the excellent Adventure Cycling Association to create our route, combining their separate routes to create our own Frankenstein version, which consists of five distinct stages:

Stage	Start	End	Adventure Cycling Route	Terrain	Distance (miles)
1	San Fransisco	Crescent City	Pacific Coast Route	Road	420
2	Crescent City	Medford	Highways US 199 & US 99	Road	130
3	Medford	Twisp	Sierra Cascades	Road	900
4	Twisp	Eureka	Northern Tier	Road	550
5	Eureka	Denver	Great Divide Mountain Bike Route	Off-road	1,500

This gives a route that looks something like this:

Approximate route of our tour

The plan is to spend our first month on the road section up to Eureka in Montana. That leaves our second month to spend on the Great Divide route, to cover approximately 1,500 miles. This should be achievable and leave us some time for side trips or hopefully some summit hikes. We’ll see!

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential. – Winston Churchill

How did this route evolve? For years my brother and I have dreamt of riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike route together. Separately, I’d been dreaming of seeing the Sierra Cascade mountains and the Pacific Northwest, so we put the two together to come up with this hybrid route. Another factor in our planning is the unbearable heat of the desert in New Mexico mid-August, so it wasn’t a difficult decision to omit this part of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route and save it for another trip.

The riders:

Well, there’s me. And my brother.

Some kit notes:

I may do a geeky blog post further down the line detailing all the kit and decisions that went into it, but for now, this little snippet will have to do.

Suffice to say we’re going lightweight on this tour, inspired in no small part by the adventures of the Crane cousins and their ride across the Himalayas to the Centre of the Earth. (Any bike tourers out there – I fully recommend reading their book: it’s a fantastic account of a wild bike adventure, written in that self-deprecating style, favoured by the eccentric, slightly crazy English explorers through the ages.)

As for us, we’re both riding cyclocross bikes with rear panniers only, which should be a good compromise for riding on and off-road. The bikes and gear should be pretty light for this tour, which should translate into more fun on the road.

Cannondale cyclocross bike in touring mode

Regarding photography, this will be the first long trip that I don’t carry an SLR camera. I ummm’d and ahhh’d for ages on this, going round and round in circles weighing the pros and cons of taking or leaving the big camera kit. However, I couldn’t get past the weight of it all, the camera, then lenses, filters etc., it all added up to one big, heavy pile. So, it’s being left at home. I’m taking a compact camera (Canon G16) and my iPhone, both very capable cameras in their own rights, and best of all, light and easily carried so as to be accessible. I’ll be posting photos throughout the trip on my instagram account.

Whoop, whoop! See you on the road.

To Sugarloaf Mountain – a Sunday adventure by bike

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“We need the tonic of wildness…” – Henry David Thoreau

Biking along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park

A great day out on the bike – 92 miles and approx 3,600ft of climbing. I followed the C & O Canal National Historic Park out of Georgetown (Washington, DC) with a couple of energy bars and hard boiled eggs in my cycling jersey. I had no fixed destination, only a vague notion of riding for about 40 miles along the canal towpath before heading home via whatever gravel roads I could find.

By the Potomac river

The region suffered a huge rainstorm at the end of last week – a solid 24 hours of torrential rain – so the Potomac was running higher than I’ve ever seen it. Both banks were flooded where there is normally woodland. Great trunks and all manner of other debris were barreling down the river. The river was a chocolate brown colour, displaying an angry, menacing power.

The flooded Potomac River

Contrast with the view from the same spot last year, when the river was at its “normal” level – amazing!

Potomac Chain Bridge view

The riding was fantastic. The trail was flooded in a couple of places, including one section almost up to my bottom bracket that was around 200 metres long, but the water was only stationary so not in the slightest dangerous. I was forewarned of the flooding by a group of four young cycle tourers at one of the campsites. They were headed in the opposite direction and wondering if the trail was passable into Georgetown. In places the river was actually flowing through the woodland on my left side. Had it been like that across the trail then I would have thought twice about continuing.

Downed tree across the trail – too big to bunnyhop!

Feeling good at mile 42 when I turned off the canal trail, I decided to make an ascent of Sugarloaf Mountain, on account of being so close. This was the third time I’ve ridden up this mountain and back to DC in a day, and it’s still a draw, a prominent objective that’s far enough to make for a challenging ride. It’s a fun climb, about 400 – 500ft climbing over a mile and a half.

Sugarloaf mountain

View from Sugarloaf Mountain

From Sugarloaf I turned for home and was able to ride mostly gravel roads for another 15 miles or so. By then, tired legs were starting to make themselves known, but the scarcity of traffic and picturesque scenery meant I was enjoying myself too much to care. The past few months have been pretty hectic and at times stressful, so this day was a much needed reminder that adventure is always there, just outside the front door.

Two cereal bars and two boiled eggs do not fill the stomach of a cyclist with 75 miles in the legs, so in a moment of weakness I succumbed to the wafting smells of greasy food and this was the result:

Mid-ride refuelling stop at Domino’s Pizza – it didn’t last long

The final 17 miles of the ride were on familiar stomping grounds so I used up whatever reserves of energy I had left and raced for home. All in all a superb day in the saddle, with all the right ingredients – time immersed in nature, a mountain climb, quiet country roads, fine scenery and a decent physical challenge.

Here is the Strava screen grab of my route – sadly it doesn’t appear to be possible to embed the actual Strava widget in a wordpress.com website, so this will have to suffice unless I can find a workaround.

Strava route details

2014 Goals

4th July Bike Tour

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Day 1: Washington DC to Calico Rocks camp area, Maryland – 43 miles

Finding myself having a few days free in a row, I decided to make the most of the opportunity and head out for a little adventure. I strapped the tent to the back of my bike and pedalled out of Washington DC into the evening sunshine.

Heading W into the evening sun, beautiful but hot

I didn’t end up departing until 4pm – work to do, then it took a while to get ready, hey it’s been a long time since I’ve been bike camping! – which left me about four and a half hours to reach camp. The light was gorgeous, the roads were relatively empty as people were getting in place for the fireworks, but damn, it was hot as hell out there. I had planned to do the climb up and down Sugarloaf Mountain en route, but didn’t have the time on this occasion.

Sugarloaf Mountain

This area is rich in history

Long evening shadows

The C & O Canal is 185 mile National Park stretching from Washington DC to Cumberland, West Virginia, running along the Potomac River. There are camp areas every 8 – 10 miles so I aimed for Calico Rocks camping area, near to Point of Rocks, for my overnight stop.

Riding along the C & O canal. Feeling the heat but happy to have arrived at camp

All I could think about in those final few miles was the prospect of cold, fresh water. With bottles almost depleted, it would have been a thirsty night if the well was dry. It took many pumps to draw up the first water, as the old-fashioned hand pump creaked, groaned and gurgled into life. There’s nothing quite like a drink of cool, fresh water when you’re baking hot and dehydrated.

Water pump at Calico Rocks camp area, C & O canal

The sultry temps in the high 80s (around 30 degrees C) persisted well into the evening. The mosquitoes had a plentiful 4th July feast. Sleep was not easy until it cooled off, even after I left the flysheet off in a bid to increase the airflow.

Home, sweet home

Day 2: Return to Washington DC via Purcellville, Virginia and the W&OD trail – 75 miles

My original plan was to stay out for another night and head down to Shenandoah National Park, but with another hot, hot day in prospect I decided against a second oppressive night in the tent. Plan B was to ride south for 30 miles through the Virginian countryside, pick up the W & OD trail and then follow it 45 miles to home.

Early morning day 2 – pondering my strategy to cope with the onslaught of mosquitos once I exit the tent

Leaving camp I crossed from Maryland over the Potomac river into Virginia by the Point of Rocks bridge. Immediately afterwards I turned off onto quiet side roads, through rolling farmland along the base of big hills. This was the most enjoyable and scenic stretch of the tour.

Mountain Road, Virginia, about 30 miles North of Shenandoah National Park

Old corn dryer, Mountain Road, Virginia and yup, starting to get damn hot

There were plenty of other cyclists about at the start (or end) of the W & OD trail at Purcellville. I stopped to top up my water bottles and take a break from the sun.

The Town of Purcellville and the start of the W&OD trail back to Washington DC

On the W&OD trail

I was really struggling with the heat by the early afternoon; the hottest part of the day and no shade to hide. I rode at a leisurely pace, within myself, to ensure I’d make it home. Big grin on my face of course, I was thoroughly enjoying being out bike touring again.

Keep on pedalling

One of the old rail cars that would have served this route

A family of deer on the trail (blurry photo taken whilst on the move)

Half the fun of these sorts of trips is the return and being able to feast on whatever you’ve spent the past few hours dreaming about. A cold beer and pizza on this occasion!

Reward for all the effort

Ben Collins Outdoors

Tales and photos from biking, hiking, mountaineering, and paddling trips. Currently based in the Appalachian Mountains.