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.