Planning: The Route.

While most of the posts until the East Coast Ride start will be about training, there are hours that are spent planning the route. Not just the route for riding's sake, but where to stay, where to bag it for a day if necessary, where to plan a rest day. Gathering maps to compare with the online East Coast Greenway map and Adventure Cycling's Atlantic Coast maps.

 

The East Coast Greenway online map allows for downloading GPX or printing cue sheets.

Just prior to the ride, we'll download recent updates to the Adventure Cycling maps and compare and mark anything that differs.


I have started compiling an itinerary with start and stop points, daily estimated mileage, and three choices of bedding spots in the planned stop points.

Certain areas allow for longer mileage, but if I am actually able to ride the Downeast Sunrise Trail portion of the ride in Maine, I am planning on shorter distances. The trail is (from what I understand) gravel almost all the way. Even with a front shock, I anticipate shorter days will be a good idea. But studying the maps will allow me to have an idea where to jump onto paved roads if need be.

I have been told the start to any long bicycle tour should accommodate shorter distances to allow "breaking in" of the new experience, and perhaps the anticipatory sleeplessness one may experience.

Training.

I have enjoyed becoming familiar with my new bike. I have taken a few short mileage rides, from six to 12 miles. This has allowed me to make seat and handlebar adjustments, get used to the new-to-me gearing (no more triple), and new-to-me shifters. It has been fun to explore new trails and simply get in some seat time. I am also using a stationary trainer to keep up my aerobics and seat time. Where we live, cycling is not a real option for me. It is much too mountainous. Folks ride. But I do not enjoy a 40+mph downhill, and frankly, I am not a fan of hill riding. Face it, there are not hills up here; there are mountains.

 

Here are three of the places I've ridden. Both the Military Cutoff Trail (Wilmington, NC) and the Big Creek Greenway (Cumming, GA) are new routes for me. I have ridden Wrightsville Beach (NC) a time or two, but it has been years. They have created a bike-friendly community, and I felt safe riding the entire time. ...well except when I was dodging piles of debris from Hurricane Florence. An aside: Wilmington and the Beach showed much clean-up and rebuilding. Trees still remained through roofs in some places. I would estimate about a third of the houses I saw had tarps on at least some portion. Even my mom's building was being re-roofed while I was visiting.

Pre-Planning the Ride. Recon.

I have read some mixed reviews of the Maine routes from Calais to Ellsworth. A vacation in Bar Harbor allowed me to do some recon.

Recon Discovery One: My route, while mostly coastal, is NOT going to be as flat as I would like. Good to know. Anyone who cycles a good bit likely looks at hills while driving as if s/he is on a bike.  Some hills coming into or out of towns along the path will be quite steep, even if short.

Recon Discovery Two: The Downeast Sunrise Trail may provide some relief from the highway miles. The DST is part of the East Coast Greenway that stretches from near Calais to Ellsworth. It is a multi-use trail, and evidently (from previous Greenway riders) can be quite unpleasant with gravel and ATV traffic. It is nice that ATVs are able to have a path. I hope that not riding this route on the weekend will minimize the exposure to ATVs. I have nothing against an ATV, but they do tend to kick up some dust (as do bikes sometimes!).

The picture above is an access point from the Ellsworth LLBean Outlet's lot. This access point is close to the Ellsworth Scenic Railroad start (or end!) for the DST.

The photo on the left below is looking down the trail from the LLBean access. Just beyond the shadows, the trail goes back to hard-packed gravel. The sign to the right depicts expected DST uses. Note the DST logo marking at the base of the information sign.

Having checked this part of the trail makes me think the trail might provide a decent respite from auto traffic. I also think if it is indeed less traveled in some of the more rural spots, it might provide some fun wildlife views.

We now have our Adventure Cycling Atlantic Coastal Route maps and have viewed some of our Maine ride.

Let the PLANNING begin!

Pre-Planning* the Ride. The Bike.

I need a bike that can handle the 60-80 miles off road and gravel, and one that can handle hundreds of miles of shoulder ("bike lane") riding that provide close encounters with gravel, broken glass, building materials, and more. I have a mountain bike. I like it, and it has the perfect tires for off and on. It is, however, not a road bike, and the tire size is not ideal for a 2,000 to 3,000 mile trip. I have a road bike. A nice road bike actually, and almost 20 years old. The tires are much too thin to handle a gravel trail. Versatile gearing, nice shifting, but unsuitable for this type of trip.

Don't get me wrong. I am not expecting to do the self-supported thing here. I want a SAG. (For my non-cyclist friends, that is "support and gear". A guardian angel that carries your gear... and maybe even your mobile and temporary residence--RV, tent, whatever.) DL has agreed that this is a trip we can do together, with her role being SAG. Aside: Rough plan is for her to drive the residence to the stop for a given day, and then she will ride back towards where I started. We'll meet in the middle, and then ride to the stop together. Or she might not ride at all when she doesn't want to. Or she might ride ten miles.

Having a SAG means not having to purchase a bicycle that carries the 40 extra pounds of gear one might need. Hybrid bikes can typically handle the road conditions that will be encountered. Therefore, one of my first "pre-planning" check list boxes was "new bike". Done. Check.

I rode all women-specific, extra-small and small framed hybrids available in stores. My new bike is a 2017 Cannondale Althea X. Deep discount since it's an older model. (They don't make an "X" anymore.) My road and mountain bikes are Cannondales, so I know what to expect, and the components were better than some of the others (which may or may not make a big difference). The ride was an instant "fit"--this is it--experience. Now for some seat time!

The bike that could have been.  Based on my original research, I wanted a Liv (Giant's women-specific line) Rove 1. One reason is that Giant seems to be putting some oomph into making bikes for women. They also have an "ambassadors" program. The ambassadors lead workshops or rides. Their faces and short bios are featured on the Liv website. The ambassadors are mostly young (all for sure younger than I am!) and attractive. I don't know if that is a pre-requisite, but I thought it would be a good idea for there to be at least one ambassador who is over 60 and can represent that market. BTW, the bike was a nice ride, but I was going to have to order one to get exactly what I wanted. It was nice to find something almost equally desirable, in-stock (albeit elsewhere), and deeply discounted. 

*Pre-planning seems like one of those terms that is somewhat redundant. In this case, there is a lot of planning. But there are also things that have to be done before I can plan. OK. That's planning, eh? I say it's pre-planning. We can agree to disagree. 

The Decision.

The decision to do an East Coast ride has been forming for many years. From the first time I rode the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG), I have considered an East Coast ride to be an interesting possibility. Because I do not enjoy riding in mountains, I didn't think I would enjoy a cross-country ride. (I did once say I would do a cross-country cycling trip for my 65th birthday.) The east coast, though. That I would definitely consider!

Sometime in the mid-1990s, we were Adventure Cycling members for a time. I remember looking at the Atlantic Coast map information. Then while living in Maine, I became very familiar with the East Coast Greenway. These two things pushed an East Coast ride even more prominently into my awareness, and therefore into possibility.

Recovering from a grave illness* in 2014 took me on an internal walkabout. If you have spoken with me since that illness, you have heard me say, "Life is short." There is nothing like having had, or living with someone who has had, a brush with death to let you know that life really is short, and it is very precious. Consequently I pursued some professional and personal goals.

I enjoy celebrating "zero" and "five" birthdays with great festivities. Oh, and I have had some fun birthdays. What to do for 65?! That is a huge milestone for us all. I have already retired, so I couldn't say, "I am going to retire for my 65th." After thinking about what I wanted to do, I decided that East Coast ride might just be the thing. After only a couple of family discussions, the East Coast ride prevailed. Now it has become real. I am telling people. I am telling YOU.

The blog will likely progress slowly up to the ride start, planned for September 2019. There is a good deal of planning and preparation. You'll read about that here. Then, like many other riders who journal, I will catalog the trip here, in as close to real time as can be done on the road. Those of you who follow will hopefully see the trip ending close to my actual 65th birthday in November 2019.

A special thanks goes to Adventure Cycling and the East Coast Greenway for resources that have made this trip a real possibility. Another shout-out to Rails to Trails Conservancy for working towards safe cycling networks throughout the country.

[*For those who do not know about the grave illness, but are curious, read this paragraph. For the rest of you, skip it! I was diagnosed with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), and spent 23 days in a hospital. I used around 400 units of blood products, mostly plasma. While TTP is a diagnosis received by only 3 or 4 in a million, I now am acquainted with hundreds of people who have had TTP through social media. There is nothing like having support from someone you know has felt exactly like you did. We all have PTSD of sorts, it seems. I totally understand why. Many have been impacted much more severely than I. I was lucky to be in a place where the diagnosis and treatment were swift. Too many people have been sent home from providers without an accurate diagnosis. Too many have died or lost vital functions. Even while I was hospitalized and being treated, I suffered a stroke. And I am still one of the lucky ones! I am in remission and have had no relapses. To learn more or read patient stories, please visit this TTP site out of Canada--Answering TTP. Also consider a donation. It is not tax deductible here in the USA, but their work helps those of us who survived. They also work to fund research, and THAT is a big deal! Our numbers are so small, it doesn't "justify" the research costs. That's my TTP awareness plug for now.]