I've been anticipating the Cross-Country Bike Tour. This solo ride is set to begin on May 1st.
I have been studying maps both physical as well as online. My preference during preliminary planning is to come up with my own route as opposed to more established corridors such as those laid out by organizations such as Adventure Bicycling.
My intent is to start from Boston Common. There is a Historical Family Connection to that spot which I'll return to at a later point in my commentaries. For now, my main concern is to get out of the high population density of the East Coast as quickly as possible. The first thing population density is that with it comes traffic volume. Also, in New England, there are often narrower roads on corridors that are 250+ years old. Houses and buildings often crowd toward the roadway and so in many cases there can be little space for generous road shoulders for cyclists.
Also, as a bike tourist, I prefer to set up a tent at the end of the 'work day' when ever possible and not worry about making it to a specific destination each evening. To me, having a daily destination and potential reservation at a motel, Airbnb or campground is a tedious detail I prefer to avoid. But so much of the countryside in the east coast is taken up with homes and business properties. I've found that people are not laid back about a tent suddenly appearing on the outskirts of their property. So that's another challenge. I might be forced to use motels. I hope not, but I'll have my credit card if need be. My hope is that once I'm out of Massachusetts and Eastern New York State, this will be less of a problem. So, traffic volume and camping are my two main pre-occupations for the first week of the journey.
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| A Generalized Corridor for My Ride |
Over the last two weeks I've been piling panniers and gear on the living room floor. Sorting, weighing and contemplating the heap, laying there on the floor.
I also have started a specific bike touring blog on Crazyguyonabike. I'll try to keep most of my bike ride info there. But some of it will probably leak over to this side of the ledger as well. The link for the Crazyguy blog is this: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/MyFirstCross-CountryTour2022
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