What Are You Doing This Winter?
September 14, 2008 by Darren Alff
For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the bicycle touring season is quickly coming to an end. With winter just around the corner, I’ve been wondering what my readers are planning to do this winter.
In the past few weeks I’ve received emails from a few people in Australia and South America asking me about how to go about planning bike tours… and I’ve even received a couple messages from people in the United States and Canada who plan to travel south to warmer climates this winter. But I want to know what the rest of you have planned.
If you’ve been following my ramblings recently, you will have learned that I am currently planning a five-month bicycle expedition though Europe this winter. I’ve already rented out my condo in Utah for six months and booked a flight back to California where I will spend the holidays with my parents before jumping on a plane and flying to Europe. I’ll spend approximately five months there, hopping from place to place as I see the sights, meet the people, and practice my German (and probably some other languages as well).
I’ll be sharing more about my tour with you in the upcoming months, but in the meantime I’d like to know what you have planned for this upcoming winter months (or summer months if you are in the southern hemisphere).
Are you going to stay home and work? Do you plan to go skiing with your family? Will you be preparing for a 2009 summer bike tour? What are you going to do for the next 6 months?
Use the comments box below to let me know what you have planned.
In 2007 I traveled with my bike to Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. I flew into Frankfurt, Germany, cycled up the Rhine River, and then...
Each year, as summer approaches, I receive a flood of emails from people asking me how they should go about planning for a long distance...
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5 Responses to “What Are You Doing This Winter?”
Questions? Comments? Leave your thoughts in the form below...
Hey Darren. I am planning a bicycle tour for springtime next year, but I have to work so I have the money to go. But I’ll be planning too, so that should keep me motivated.
I checked out the Florida Keys last winter and I would suggest it as one of the best places to go to stay in shape for summer touring. The Overseas Highway is very flat except for relatively low bridges but there can be some wind. The scenery is just spectacular. There is a bike path in many sections as well as the opportunity to use the very quiet old highway in some areas, like Islamorada. There are paved shoulders even on the bridges.
I’m planning a spring 2009 New Jersey to Oregon cycling trip; 30 – 45 days? Planning to use a tuna can or converted soda can w/denatured alcohol as stove.
Cell phone? IPOD? I don’t need them, but it might not be a bad idea. I can always mail stuff home. I hiked three months on the Appalachian Trail without a phone or any musical device in 1998.
I’ll be working, cycling, mountain biking, trail running and if I have money, some skiing as well as going to the gym to build the muscle in my leg that I lost by being hit by a van that was delivering gasoline for a gasoline company. Yes, I was wearing a helmet, riding on the right side of the road and obeying the laws. He even said he didn’t see me.
I might use a Bob trailer but I can see myself mailing stuff home that I don’t need, so I don’t want to bring too much. I was thinking of going minimalist style, but I don’t have money to stay in motels every night, maybe once every two weeks.
I will be conditioning and training while making money at my 3 jobs over the winter so I can make my Spring 2009 tour from Nebraska to Portland, OR happen. I will be leaving in early March so it will be essential for me to actually get out there and camp in the cold weather throughout the winter. I will be in Portland for about a week giving a paper presentation about Healing, Cycling, and Psychedelics. Once I am in Portland I will be meeting up with some old friends who left the midwest to make a new life on the west coast and then will be meeting up with another group of people, mostly from my home town of Lincoln, to travel from Portland, OR to Portland, ME.
The entire thing is frightening to me as I have never been on any bike tour, let alone plunging head first into riding across the country twice in the span of maybe 4 or 5 months. Your website has been an immense help as far as information and tips while on the road, and the strength to do this will inevitably have to come from within myself.
Oh, and I’m going to cut back on my alcohol consumption over the winter as well. There is no need for an alcoholic to get the shakes 3 days into a tour because he doesn’t have a bottle of hooch.
Zach,
That sounds like a great way to spend the winter. I’m glad I’ve been able to help you with your bike tour plans. But as you said, the strength and determination needed to make the tour actually happen is going to have to come from you. You can do it!