Tag: Bike Touring

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Katy Trip: Getting Ready

This summer, Mandy switched around her visit to Tulsa so that she could go to her Audubon camp.  That shifted the time we could set aside for a family vacation from super-hot early August to hopefully-nicer early June.

As a teenager, I rode parts of the Katy Trail in Missouri.  It’s about 250 miles of mostly-flat packed limestone gravel, running from St. Charles (just west of St. Louis) all the way across the state to Clinton, Missouri.  We’ve been wanting to ride the whole length of the trail as a family.  An early-June vacation seemed like a good time to give it a try.

Here’s a link to a map of the trail.

We bought a guidebook to the trail way back last year, and had been daydreaming over it ever since.  The Katy is the longest rail-trail in the US!  A landmark state park system!  With friendly little towns and ice cream shops and cyclist-centered campgrounds all along the way!  And historical thingamajigs!  All just one state north of us.

To make the trip a little more challenging (and fun), we decided to leave the car in Little Rock and do the whole eight-day vacation using alternative transportation.  We pieced together a route using mostly Amtrak, but also the public transit buses and light rail in St. Louis.  And, of course, the touring bikes.  It’ll be the longest trip any of us have ever taken by bike, and we’ll be doing it together.  With stops for ice cream.

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Lake Sylvia by Bike

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We met Gordon and Lois and the girls for a two-day trip from the Lake Sylvia area out to Forked Mountain to spend the night.  It was a great ride – about 35 miles almost entirely on gravel, with some swimming and camping in the middle.  It was peaceful and quiet and traffic just didn’t exist.  Some of the hills were steep, but I figure that’s what I have feet for.  The bombing downhills were scary fun, but so hard that I twisted the headset on the Voyageur once as I fishtailed through loose gravel.  We got sunburns and dirt in our eyes.  Three of our group bailed halfway through, but the rest of us had a fine time.

There’s more gravel-road touring in our future; I’m sure of it.

PS – The photo of Bryan’s bike up top doesn’t actually have anything to do with this trip.  But we didn’t have any decent photos from this weekend, so we’re pretending that it  belongs here.

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Bike Tour to Leola

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Mandy and I met up with our friend Kathy this weekend for a quick bike trip to Leola. Forty-five miles or so one-way, camping next to a lake, a trip to a catfish restaurant for dinner… should be a good weekend.

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Our route was nice, mostly rural highways with a usable shoulder.  The roads weren’t flat but the hills were mostly doable.  Of course, even though the three of us rode up nearly every hill we came to, I have to post the one photo I have of Mandy and Kathy walking up a hill. Continue reading “Bike Tour to Leola”

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The Training BRAA

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I’ve been having terrible headaches, and my doctor told me to cut out alcohol and caffeine. But did that stop me from carrying a whole box of wine for other people on our weekend bike tour around Lake Degray? No. No, it did not.

The Arkansas Bicycle Club does a twice-a-year multi-day “Bike Ride Around Arkansas” which they call the “BRAA.” So of course, the shorter, easier, weekend versions of this are called “Training BRAAs.” Jenny Rainwater did a great job of planning this autumn’s three-day tour with fairly low mileages and only a few completely horrible hills. A group of about fifteen of us left from the lodge at DeGray State Park on Saturday morning. The weather was beautiful. Continue reading “The Training BRAA”

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Last Days of the Spring Tour

The Arkansas Bicycle Club had its “Spring Tour” and even though I couldn’t ride with them all week, I did manage to join them for their final two days. Susan picked me up on the way to Glenwood where we met the road warriors for dinner at a very nice Italian place. After dinner we set up camp at the canoe outfitters, hung out for a bit around a camp fire and headed off to bed at a respectable time.

The next morning we rode several miles and had breakfast at a cafe on the square in Amity (that’s Janice coming into Amity in the photo below) and bought supplies for lunch at the grocery store next door.

We pedaled about 40 miles that Saturday and made camp at Lake Degray State Park. The photo below shows most of our bikes parked in a single parking spot (two bikes were parked elsewhere) outside of the Visitors Center.

Camp was set up, showers were taken and then dinner was had at the state parks restaurant. The next morning, breakfast was again at the on site restaurant and we headed to Sheridan where five members of the group had started out seven days before.

On the way home though, Brad had a shifter cable break! Don’t worry though, Brad had the spare part with him and we stopped on the porch of an abandoned storefront in Donaldson so he could make the repair.

Here’s a shot of my LHT waiting patiently in Donaldson. The bike has functioned extremely well… it’s comfortable, stable and easy going, I’m not sure what else could be asked for in a touring bike. Today we rode about 58 miles which is a new record for me.

The Brooks saddle was comfortable straight out of the box and I’m getting used to the drop bars and gearing on this bike. I wound up using Aly’s front panniers and really liked the way the white bags looked but I’ll be ordering myself a pair of yellows to match our existing rear panniers.

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A little touring

Bike touring is essentially backpacking, on roads, with wheels. Touring bikes have a different frame geometry than road bikes do, they’re geared differently, and there are more attachments for racks and extra bottle cages. Everybody has a different setup for touring: John refuses to buy a touring bike at all, so he doesn’t have any way to carry bags; he just has a really nice light trailer with a big drybag on top. Brad rides a Bike Friday with yellow Ortliebs. Some people carry tons of stuff. I carry a lot less. Everybody’s a little bit different.


The venerable Voyageur began its life as a touring bike. At some point in its history I’ve swapped the touring gears for a more road-bike-like setup, so that needs to be switched back at some point. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks upgrading brakes and adding doodads and getting it ready for a trip.


For this weekend, the local bike club planned a “beginners tour” of three days and two nights. Scheduling issues meant our family was only going to do half of the ride, but that was okay. Then, Friday around lunchtime, Mandy suddenly came down with some bug and I had to pick her up from school; her fever meant that she couldn’t go on the ride at all. Bryan suggested that he could stay with her so that I could join the group. I hung around home until her fever broke and she was resting comfortably, so I didn’t arrive at the Toad Suck Campground until well after dark. Saturday morning, I packed up my bike with fourteen other riders and we left the campground.


Our route took us through Bigelow, over Wye Mountain (with its acres of daffodils), through Little Italy and Roland, and past Pinnacle Mountain.


We pulled into Maumelle Park at about five, still ahead of the rain. Under towering pine trees, the group worked together to set up their little tents. Since I wasn’t spending the night, I took some pictures and helped Diane set up her camp.

Bryan and Mandy arrived just in time to say hello to all the riders before it began to rain. The first drops splashed on the Voyageur as I loaded it into the truck. The bike performed flawlessly on its first packing trip. The new racks and panniers and lights worked well, and the company was good, and I think we both enjoyed the day.

(Thanks to Jenny Blue Sky for the group photo and the picture of Diane and her tent.)