About

I did a few overnight cycle tours during my college years, but my real introduction to loaded self-supported cycle touring came in 2015 when I realized a long-time dream of mine and rode the 4,300 mile ACA Transamerica route.   That was a solo tour, though I did meet other cyclists and enjoyed their company during parts of the tour.  That trip hooked me on cycle touring, and in 2017 I rode the ACA Western Express route from San Francisco, CA to Pueblo, CO (1,600 miles).  I rode the Northern Tier route (4,300 miles) in 2021.  In the fall of 2022, I rode the Great Rivers South route (1,500 miles).  

I've ridden approximately 12,000 miles of self-supported loaded touring and my adventures have taken me across 31 U.S. states now.  I've also done a bit of lightly-loaded day touring in Germany along the Rhine River.  I'm just a beginner compared to many, but I've learned a few things along the way.   One very important lesson I have learned is that the cycling itself is only half of the battle; the adventure aspects make up the other half and are the most unpredictable.  

In "real life" I worked as an Engineer and Geologist and occasional forensic consultant.    I retired in early 2021 at the young age of 68, and I am eager to do a lot of cycle touring in my golden years!   It's becoming more challenging to tour now, because I have had to fight both aggressive (Group 5) prostate cancer and melanoma (Stage 4), along with the usual rigors associated with cycle touring.  The experts have said that one of the cancers will eventually win out, but with the help of state-of-the-art medical technology I'm currently winning the battle, and I plan on winning a few cycle-touring "battles" before my eventual demise.  Every tour completed is another battle won - so that's how I roll!  How many battles do I have left before I become too weak to tour?   I guess we'll see...

            Useful and/or Meaningless Statistics

• Number of U.S. States I Have Toured In; 31      I have no particular goal to tour through all the U.S. states, I just find this to be an interesting stat. In my working career I had business trips to Alaska and Hawaii, and I have also made pleasure trips to each; if I were trying to "collect" all the U.S. states I could have taken short tours in those states - but I have no such goal.  To count in this stat, I must have toured through at least a portion of the state - simply bicycling in the state doesn't count.  For example, I have ridden the 100 mile "Hotter Than Hell" ride in Texas, but since it wasn't part of a bicycle tour I don't yet count Texas in my stats.  States that I count follow;  Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois,  Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota,  Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York,  North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee,   Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.  Using the "Routes I Have Ridden" map above, you can determine which journal(s) apply to the states - perhaps this will be helpful for your own tour planning. 
• Continental Divide Crossings; 11     I crossed the divide 9 times on the Transamerica route, and 1 time each on the Western Express and Northern Tier routes.   Sometimes it's a hard climb taking many hours to reach the summit of the pass, and sometimes it's surprisingly easy; but every crossing of the Continental Divide using my own power on a bicycle has been meaningful to me.  I've crossed the divide in Montana at Chief Joseph Pass and Logan Pass (Glacier Nat'l Park), in Wyoming at Craig Pass and 2 unnamed passes (all in Yellowstone Nat'l Park),  Togwotee Pass (near Dubois), an unnamed pass near Lamont and an unnamed pass 16 miles north of Rawlins, and in Colorado at Willow Creek Pass , Hoosier Pass (near Breckenridge), and Monarch Pass (near Salida).  So that makes 2 crossings in Montana, 6 crossings in Wyoming, and 3 crossings in Colorado.  Hoosier Pass at 11,539 feet above sea level is my highest crossing, although Monarch Pass at 11,312 feet is a close second. 
• Mississippi River Crossings; 7    I have crossed at Chester, IL, Muscatine, IA, Lansing, IA, Bowlus, MN, Cape Girardeau, MO, Hannibal, MO, and Burlington, IA.  All of the crossings have been east to west except for the crossings at Lansing, IA and Hannibal, MO.   All of these crossings were on Adventure Cycling (ACA) routes, and most felt safe as there was adequate shoulder room.  There were 2 exceptions to the "adequate shoulder room" description. One was the crossing at Chester, IL, and I waited for a traffic break and hurried on across the 2-lane shoulder-less road.  This is probably the least comfortable crossing I have experienced - it doesn't feel like you are risking your life, it just feels like you need to hurry across ASAP due to the traffic that will pile up behind you.  An unusual exception to the "adequate room" description was the crossing at Lansing, IA; the bridge is a metal grate surface, 2-lane road with no shoulder.  Again, I just waited for a traffic break and scooted on over; there was no traffic and the crossing was easy, but the metal grate surface would have been extremely slippery if it was wet. 
• Large Cities I Have Cycled Through; 21    This is definitely a useless stat. To count in this stat, the city generally must have a population of at least 100,000 people.  But there are exceptions (as I said, this is perhaps the most useless stat I have invented) and I have included some smaller cities that just "felt" big to me as I cycled through.  Interestingly, sometimes the large cities are easy to pass through, even easier than smaller or medium-size cities.  Regardless, here we go, arranged by state - Arkansas;  Little Rock - California;  San Francisco, Sacramento - Colorado; Pueblo - Illinois; Carbondale - Louisiana; New Orleans, Baton Rouge - Missouri; Cape Girardeau - Montana; Missoula, Great Falls - North Dakota; Fargo, Bismarck -      Nevada; Carson City - New York; Rochester (skirted around the edge), Buffalo - Ohio; Cleveland - Oklahoma; Tulsa -Virginia; Charlottesville - Wisconsin; La Crosse.   I don't have much out-of-country cycling experience, but I cycled a lot in Wiesbaden and Mainz, Germany in 2019 so I'm counting those 2 cities (each has a population over 200,000).   There are cities I rode through many decades ago that now exceed 100,000 population but did not at the time I cycled through; I am not counting those.