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Brilliant, this is golden! I did originally sketch a route all the way through from Vancouver Island -- Seattle -- Portland -- Pacific Coast to San Fran but time constraints mean that it's likely we'll just start with city breaks in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland by train before setting off on bikes to the coast. And the book + ACA maps are definitely on my shopping list, so thanks for confirming. Good shout on the charging; I'm not sure yet just how techy I want to be but I'll have a phone and probably Garmin as minimum.
One thing that would be useful would be to see if my rough itinerary is feasible, needs serious rethinking, or if there are any tweaks you'd advise. Did you have a particular stopping point in mind each day? Or a rough daily mileage target? Does daily mileage vary greatly, based on terrain/how you're feeling/unexpected diversions? Are the camp sites frequent enough to just set off for the day and stop when you see one at the right time? I prepared the following - extremely hypothetical - plan purely based on Google Maps and stopping points where there are place names on the map. (I'm sure these details will change, since the camp sites we're likely to stay at aren't shown on Google.)
Saturday – flight to Vancouver
Sunday – VancouverMonday – train to Seattle
Tuesday – train to Portland
Wednesday – Portland
Thursday – Portland – Rose Lodge (79 miles)
Friday – Lincoln City – Carl G Washburne State Park (70 miles)
Saturday – CGW – Coos Bay (62 miles)
Sunday – Coos Bay (rest)Monday – Coos Bay – Honey Bear Campground (68 miles)
Tuesday – Honey Bear – Jedediah Smith Redwood Park, CA (62 miles)
Wednesday – JS – Patrick’s Point State Park (64 miles)
Thursday – PP – Humboldt Redwoods NP (70 miles)
Friday – Humboldt Redwoods (rest)
Saturday – HR – Westport Union Landing State Beach (73 miles)
Sunday – WU – Anchor Bay Campgrounds (74 miles)Monday – ABC – Tomales Bay (71 miles)
Tuesday – Tomales Bay – San Francisco (52 miles)
Wednesday – SF
Thursday – drive SF – Portland (2 drivers!)
Friday – train, Portland – Vancouver
Saturday/Sunday – fly homeHow's my daily mileage/rest days looking??
That's another thing... I've been mulling over whether to fly back from SF or Vancouver. Since my brother is in Vancouver, I thought it would be easier to fly with proper bike boxes, leave stuff with him and make our way back from SF over a couple of days. Journey back to Vancouver split between hire car and train, because (AFAIK) we can't drop-off a car over the border, and train from SF looks like a faff. OR we do round trip, take everything with us to SF and fly home from there, giving us an extra couple of days to play with. But then, not sure about bike transit/packaging.
I'll definitely have more, but any thoughts welcome! :)
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PhilPub
rj
@PhilPub
So I thought I'd write a bit about my trip last summer, less a story, more some facts and tips.
I started in Calgary, went across to Vancouver, then south to Seattle, across the water, around the peninsula and then down the coast to LA.
Firstly, riding on the wrong side of the road was terrifying at first, I arrived in Calgary when there was a huge rodeo on so 99% of vehicles were huge pickup trucks and the roads were enormous. I got used to it pretty quickly though, so don't worry about that.
In a campsite in Canada I was lucky enough to meet an enthusiastic audaxer who lived in Vancouver. We got chatting over some beers and he offered to meet for more beers in Vancouver when I got there. We did so, and he ended up riding with me to the border, and giving me full audax style directions to get down to Seattle! I don't have the directions, but I can show you the route I followed on Strava if you like? I spent my time in Canada on basically a single highway so getting to Vancouver and being shown around dirt tracks and small roads was unusual but refreshing, it was a nice route. Crossing the border was easy, don't wait in the huge line of cars (you need to go inside to the office for your check), and don't wait in the huge line of people in the office either (bikes don't have to I don't think...). South of the border is a nice ride to Seattle. It took me three days. There are a couple of fantastic cycle paths heading south, the Centennial Trail is one. Its an old disused railway, full tarmac, just left for recreational use for cyclists/dogwalkers/whatever. This got me to a place called Floating Lake for the night on day 2. The ride from there to Seattle wasn't much fun, just mostly through suburbs, but you do eventually come onto a ridiculously busy cycle path (I actually asked a guy if there was an organised ride on) which takes you into the city.
It sounds like you're skipping the peninsula, so I'll go on from North Oregon (Astoria). This is where I really started having social fun on my trip. If I could recommend one thing, it's to buy Bicycling the Pacific Coast and possibly even the Adventure Cycling Maps for the Pacific Coast too.
The audaxer from Vancouver gave me his copy of the book, and while I wasn't intending on following it (wanted the trip to be my own, not planned by someone else etc) I ended up using it daily and it was invaluable. The most important thing was that it's practically the bible of touring the west coast and as such everyone who's doing the route uses it, which means everyone stays at the same campsites and you meet some potentially fantastic people. One of the guys I met had the adventure cycling maps and they were really good, with useful information and nicely thought out routes. They're more modern than the book too. A combination of the two would be ideal.
Don't be scared when you pull up to a State Park Campground and the sign says its full, go ahead to the office and they will let you in because you're on a bike. The parks cost $5 usually. I'd planned on wild camping for the excitement and to be in the wilderness etc but for the price of a UK pint, it wasn't worth it, campsites have other people and showers.
The roads are generally good, often with a shoulder easily wide enough to ride on. There are some without shoulders, and American riders get really unnerved by them, but if you're happy in UK country lanes you'll have no problems, I found drivers to be generally considerate.
Weather was great all around, in the US I didn't get any rain at all, but the nights can be cold, especially when near the sea.
Spend as much time in the redwoods as possible, seriously, they're fucking magical. There's an option to do an offroad section at the start of the forests, its right by the ocean. I did this on 35mm paselas, and drop-bars with two others on unsuitable bikes and another on a mtb. We all had to walk up one ridiculously steep but short bit, but the rest was manageable just fine. The reason I recommend doing this is for the road when you get out of the off-road bit, truly fantastic.
If you're feeling strong, get stuck into the lost coast in California, you won't regret it, two of my favourite days of the entire trip. I did this with one other guy, the one with the adventure cycling maps, after a strong recommendation from a german earlier in the trip.
Unless you don't use any technology, take some form of charger, either solar or dynamo, the constant hunt for a socket can be annoying.
I can't think of anything else right now, but this post is long enough either way. I just kinda wrote what came into my head.
Again, any questions, feel free to ask! I should be writing this up in full over time at http://www.strakerwrites.com so check in there if you like too.