Book Description
More than a meticulously detailed route, this is an adventure highlighting what to see and explore along the way.
*Bike the coast in one trip or four separate adventures *Road directions, points of interest, and available restrooms and provisions all built into daily mileage logs *Elevation profiles and new Table of Essentials overview for each day's ride *More than 50,000 copies sold in previous editions
From Vancouver, B.C. to the Mexican border, Tom Kirkendall and Vicky Spring guide you turn by turn along the length of Pacific Coast Bicycle Route-all 1816.5 miles. These forty-two suggested daily itineraries (averaging 53 miles each) begin and end at campsites.
Everything you need to know about each day's ride is included: from tunnel- riding strategies to where to buy a new derailer, from one-of-a-kind museums along the way to side trips to lonely lighthouses and towering sand dunes. New to this edition is a quick-glance Table of Essentials for each daily itinerary, listing availability of bike shops, beach access, hiking trails, youth hostels, and activities.
Customer Reviews:
Good basic guide, mainly for the maps.......2007-04-24
We just completed a coastal ride from San Francisco to Mexico. I bought this book prior to the trip hoping it would shed some light on what to expect, tips, training, etc. I was initially disappointed.
But..as we started our trip we found the maps were very valuable (the rest of the book..so/so). The altitude scales were okay, but good enough to set some level of expectations. They didn't always reflect the map in the right scale, but it worked well enough. We initially thought we could ride route 1 the whole way, but found we couldn't in many of the bigger cities, which is where the book came in handy. The maps showed which side streets to take. You can also follow bike signs or bike lanes along the way, but they're not always around when needed. We usually ripped the page out of the book and only carried the small map vs a bunch of maps. You will be surprised how many different maps you would need to carry. Use the book and maps as a general guide, but don't be afraid to wing it. In a few areas like Santa Cruz, South LA, La Jolla and South San Diego (near the boarder) we couldn't find the streets on the map. We got lost, but usually found our way via other streets using general navigation.
Other tips the book doesn't give...wear bright colors, in SF and LA you will be on busy streets with cars zipping by. I hear going in April or Sept are best to avoid tourists and still have really good weather. We used Yahoo Yellow Pages to print out high level city maps with all the hotels listed with contact info and pre-plotted on the map. This was very handy when trying to find a motel in the evening. I also recommend buying the toughest tires you can find (i.e. Specialized Armadillos). Normal road tires are too soft and get too many holes. Between the two of us we had 6 flats and a tire slash in the first day leaving SF..very discouraging. We bought heavy duty tires at a bike shop in Santa Cruz and never got another one the whole trip! We avg. about 78 miles per day with an avg. speed of 15.5 miles per hour, allowing us to get from SF to Mexico in 8 days. Make sure you know how your bike fits you and your body reacts to long days, esp multiple days. I started to ice my knee and quads every night, which made me feel much better the next day. All in all...it was a lot of fun!
Excellent Trip Guide.......2007-02-16
I used this book for a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles and found it to be extremely useful for determining route, elevation changes, distances and overnight stops. Its up-to-date and informative, and you don't have to follow the described overnight stops for it to be useful. I brought regular maps for the trip, but ended up only using BTPC for reference throughout. The book is portable enough to bring along for the ride, or you can easily photocopy just the pages you need and stick them in your mapcase. I'll be taking another trip further up the coast this year and will be using this guidebook again.
Just OK.......2006-11-04
This book should really be titled, "Touring the Pacific Coast By Bicycle" because it really isn't about the cycling. Following the route in this book pretty much takes you on the most direct route down the coast and misses some great riding roads. Might be OK if you are pulling a trailer or carrying too much stuff but if you are travelling light and like riding, I'd suggest the Adventure Cycling and Krebs Maps as better routes. It does suggest some nice parks to stay at but I found it not worth the weight and ended up leaving it at a friends halfway through my trip.
Good book, but I mailed it home in favor of maps.......2006-06-23
I biked the entire Pacific coast in September 2005, and used this book to help plan my trip. Were I to do it again knowing what I know now, I wouldn't buy the book.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good book - I read it ahead of time and it helped me figure out relative distances and times, which helped in planning. In general it seemed very thorough and well put-together, and I met people on my trip that used it.
It's main drawback is that it's a BOOK. It's not convenient to refer to on the road, and the directions, while nicely detailed, are too verbose for real reference. In addition, because it's fundamentally a linear narrative of how to get from here to there, it's not very convenient if you need or want to get off of their path for any reason.
I mailed this book home after I discovered that my Adventure Cycling maps (adv-cycling dot org) fulfilled all of my needs - directions, detail in cities, where to shower, sleep & eat (including phone #s), elevation, and distances. Besides that, they are small, waterproof, and easy to refer to while riding or pull out at a stop-sign.
In general I'm a more visual/map guy than a directions/narative guy, so your mileage may vary. If you want a book to tell you how to bike the Pacific coast, this is the one. If any of what I said sounds like you it applies to you, feel free to skip the book.
The best of its kind.......2005-10-05
This route guide is one of the best I've seen out in the market place. It has all the details that a long distance biker on a budget would need including: road map, elevation map, descriptions of interesting sites, road conditions, traffic conditions, mileage, camping sites with levels of amenities (esp important shower), and where to get food and other supplies/services. I also liked the fact that it wasn't trying to be everything to everyone by not including detailed information on hotels, motels, restaurants, etc except for the fact that they exist or don't exist in a particular town or area.
So why did I not give them 5 stars?
1) Internal inconsistancy - there are a significant amount of these. Mostly it is where the mileage of the description doesn't match with the mileage of the elevation map. Here's an example. In the Oregon Border to Elk Prairie Campground the written route description indicates that the first summit of the Crescent City hills is at mile 34.6 but the elevation map shows that summit at 28 miles. Am I cutting hairs? You decide. But depending on your ride pace a 6-7 mile difference can be 1/2 hour, not so much of an issue in the middle of the day but it might be at the end of the day.
2) Updated content - I have a suspicion that the guide hasn't been updated even though the 4th edition came out just recently. For the most part, the guide was written in a timeless manner that prevents it from showing much age. For example, it doesn't recommend particular restaurants. But things do change. For example on the Elk Prarie Campground to Eureka KOA day the recommended route is on Hwy 101. It's very busy and a couple of nice smaller roads are recommended (Patrick's Point and Little River St Beach). But the Hammond Trail, that takes you from Clam Beach County Park, just north of McKinleyville, South for 13 miles mostly on car free paved path, isn't mentioned. I suspect the trail didn't exist when this guide was written. The authors generally go to lengths to help you avoid nasty highway riding so I suspect that this wasn't a conscious oversight.
3) Out of scale road maps with little detail - It would have been nice if they sprang for some real maps. For example in the Nehalem Bay State Park to Cape Lookout day, the written mileage shows that Cape Meares State Park to Netarts is 4.5 miles and that Netars to Cape Lookout is 6 miles. Which seems about right after biking this portion. But on the road map the distance from Netarts to Cape Lookout appears to be 5 to 6 times further.
Overall, if you are biking down the coast, absolutely get this book but suppliment it with other resources such as AAA roadmaps, Adventure Cycling's bike maps, or the Oregon Dept of Transportation "Oregon Coast Bike Route" (found at the Oregon Tourist offices).
I've ridden parts of the coast, Santa Cruz to the border and Aberdeen to Eureka and look forward to filling in the gaps. Some advice: 1) Go "off season", much of the ride is basically on heavily traveled highways. I didn't know so many RVs existed. 2) Go out of your way to meet your fellow bike tourists. I met people from all over Europe, Asia and even Americans. All with cool stories. 3) Get your bike in top notch shape, before your ride. Let's just say I toured most of the bike shops in Oregon over a four day period. Not fun. 4) Don't ride everyday and don't forget to relax.
Book Description
A guide to the premier cycling destination in New England, a region of outstanding scenery, with lightly traveled, good quality roads, attractive and historic towns and villages, friendly residents, and a range of lodging and dining options.
This book offers rides over the entire Lake Champlain region, from the southern tip of the lake at the birthplace of the U.S. Navy in Whitehall, New York, to its northernmost bay in Quebec, west to Lake Placid and extending east to the charming college town of Middlebury.
Charles Hansen, who has been riding and organizing bicycle tours in the area for two decades, has researched and ridden these routes to create a book that will serve all cyclists—from the hardcore roadie who wants the challenge of an 82-mile ride through the eastern Adirondacks, to the casual rider or family looking for a scenic and largely flat afternoon outing. Several multiple day-tours are described, including the Lake Placid Weekender that starts from Burlington and provides a highly scenic and satisfying two-day ride for touring cyclists. Route notes are provided for The Grand Tour, a nine-day circumnavigation of the entire lake with a rest day in Montreal, as well as shorter variations on this tour.
From 25 Bicycle Tours in the Lake Champlain Region you'll learn much about the rich history of the region as well as find out about tourism organizations, lodging, museums, and attractions along the way. 30 black & white photos, 25 maps.
Customer Reviews:
Great book on biking in the Lake Champlain Region.......2007-10-12
If you are looking for a book with a wide variety of interconnected tours in the Lake Champlain Region, you cannot do much better than this one! From easy juants to planning 10 days around the Lake, it is a great resource. Really looking forward to doing some bike exploring in the region.
Highly Recommended.......2005-09-26
I used this book to take a six-day bike tour from Burlington, VT to Montreal, Quebec, and I had a great trip. The author's directions are so accurate that I was able to ride all the way to Montreal without consulting a map! The author recommended hotels that are conveniently located for cyclists and chose roads and bike paths that were scenic and generally had light traffic. This book is a valuable resource for any bicycle tourist!
An enthusiastically recommended regional guide.......2004-12-09
Part of the outstanding "Backcountry Guide" series from The Countryman Press, 25 Bicycle Tours In The Lake Champlain Region: Scenic Tours In Vermont, New York, And Quebec offers wonderfully satisfying bike hikes through New York's Adirondacks, Vermont's Green Mountains, and the scenery and charms of Quebec's historic towns and villages. Including a wide range of lodging and dining options, cyclists can explore the southern tip of the lake in Whitehall, New York, to the quaint college town of Middlebury, Vermont. The various tours range from scenic and flat 10 mile loops to adventurous 82-mile rides through the easter Adirondacks. Whether for an afternoon's pleasant exercise or a weekend of high cycling adventure, 25 Bicycle Tours In The Lake Champlain Region is an enthusiastically recommended regional guide.
Customer Reviews:
Read `n ride!.......2006-12-18
PARTNERS IN GRIME
252 pages
Escaping the Rat Race
Cycling Across Canada
by Neil Anderson
$18.95 US/ $28.95 Canada
www.cyclelogicpress.com
If Bob Hope had ever done a "Road" movie about bicycling, Partners in Grime would have been it. Sharon and Neil Anderson are the adventurous duo who toss 21st Century amenities to tour across Canada. Like layers of skin, The Andersons shed belongings, their home, jobs and cars--but thank goodness, not their bicycles. And in doing so they come to the heart and soul of whom they are.
And just who are they? Two young married kids who go questing for an exciting and different lifestyle. But they discover (rather quickly) that riding a bike exposed to the elements is not as glamorous as they envisioned. Searching for safe places to sleep, decent food, fending off traffic and animals are all part of the outdoor experience.
Like many cyclists, the Andersons revel in the kindness of strangers who are inspired by modern day explorers. People put them up in farm houses, their own homes, in back yards, but there are plenty of times when sleeping on the ground is evident and described. For example, Sharon wakes up one morning and asks the eternal question of every cross-country cyclist, "Is it possible to wake up more tired than when I went to bed?" Yes.
Neil Anderson's writing is fresh and honest. He doesn't paint a pretty picture, though the book is sprinkled with gorgeous photography. It is one of the first books on cross-country touring that doesn't distort reality. Two of his quotes are right on--"The next bike I get is going to have air-conditioning." And politically astute: "Canadians have a small Canada flag on their backpack. Americans have a large Canadian flag on their backpack."
This is a truthful book about what it takes to cycle long distance. It doesn't promise a hot shower every day, a warm bed and forget about fine dining. But what you will gain is something money cannot buy, which is the exhilarating bicycle ride of a lifetime. The Andersons are no doubt deeply bonded through their cross-Canada trip, and others that followed. By the end of the book they have landed in France!
Travel with the Andersons through every village, climb the hills and coast the descents... feel every bump in the road. Their adventure will knock you off your seat and back on the saddle. To ride the open road takes determination, stamina--and it helps to be Partners in Grime.
Gianna Bellofatto Reid, writer, "Life is a Bike."
Must read this humourous account.......2006-01-07
This is such a great read, interesting and well written. Hard to put down and NOT a journal type account. If you are interested or thinking of adventure touring you have to read this excellent Canadian journey.
Customer Reviews:
21 Tours Geared for Discovery!.......2004-05-02
Invaluable information, even if you're not going to use the exact roads mentioned.
Use this one as the best planning source available and well worth the small investment.
Not so good.......2002-03-31
My brother and I bought this book and used it to plan our biking trip in the Maritimes in 2001, but we weren't too happy with the route selection. Too many of the suggested routes were on main roads that were too busy with traffic. Bike touring is best when you get off the main roads, but this book doesn't help you find them. If you go to PEI, I do recommend that you bike on the clay roads that the book recommends. Don't follow the coastal roads--too much traffic. I like the Maritimes, in spite of this book!
Average customer rating:
- Still useful after all these years!
- Don't buy this book
- Broad in Scope; Detailed but Terse; Somewhat Dated
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Alaska Bicycle Touring Guide: Including Parts of the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories
Pete Praetorius , and
Alys Culhane
Manufacturer: Denali Pr
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The Milepost 2007 (Milepost)
ASIN: 0938737279 |
Customer Reviews:
Still useful after all these years!.......2006-06-24
We just used the book as a guide to ride down the Dempster Highway (along with the Mileposts pages) and it was our best information. Even after 25 years, the information about where to find water, good camping, etc. was quite useful. And bike tourists always like to have some elevation profiles, even though you have to go over the hill whether you have a profile or not. Thanks for the book!
Don't buy this book.......2001-08-21
I think this book would have been useful several years ago but this edition is almost 10 years old and the information contained is out of date. The elevation profiles provided for the roads in Alaska are also misleading and not detailed enough to be reliable.
I wouldn't recommend that you buy this book if you intend to tour Alaska. Buy a general guide book (Lonely Planet or Rough Guide) and get some decent maps instead.
Broad in Scope; Detailed but Terse; Somewhat Dated.......2000-02-22
The second edition is a useful book covering all the major roads in Alaska and the Alaska Highway as far as Whitehorse, YT. Information is organized by region and then by roads within those regions. An introductory section describes the background of the area and provides land management and emergency information. Any communities the cyclist will pass through are described and services relevant to cycle touring are listed. Roads are broken into approximately 80-mile segments with a small elevation profile provided for each. The terrain and road surface are described and the mile post locations of any junctions, water sources, camping, food, lodging, and roadside sights are tersely noted. No mile-by-mile description is provided. Unfortunately, the service information is dated as north-country businesses seem to pop up and shut down with alarming frequency. Coupled with the Milepost, this is a helpful book. Those used to hand-holding touring guides with detailed ride notes may be disappointed.
Book Description
Complete Guide to Bicycling in Canada, is a comprehensive bicycle touring guide of Canada. Routes cover distance, time required, degree of difficulty and much more.
Customer Reviews:
Good guide, but needs to be revised........2006-04-26
In 2000 I cycled from Ottawa through the Maritimes. As such, I made heavy use of the "Across Province" routes, with some minor alterations. For the most part, this is a very good guide. Some of the routes are quite beautiful (particularly the section between Hawkesbury and Montreal) and nearly always have very little car traffic on them.
I also cycled part of the Ottawa to Kingston section, and be prepared for the fact that the "new" highway 416 interrupts a couple of the roads in the route -- you should research the ways around the highway for any sections that used to cross what is marked as highway 16.
There were are also some "quirks" not mentioned -- like how the Marie Victorin outside of Montreal inexplicably changes to a 4 lane highway with "No Bicycles" signed at one point. Since there appeared to be no obvious way around, I had to cycle on it. This turned out to be not as bad as one would think, but still an unexpected surprise -- and definitely something that should have been mentioned.
Overall, I would recommend this book. It would also be very useful to motocyclists or even drivers who area interested in taking "the back ways" between points, rather than the well-travelled (and infinitely boring) main highways.
In fact, I was hoping to buy an updated copy. It's a shame that there is no newer version available!
Good, but use with caution and good maps.......2000-08-19
Since I haven't travelled all of the routes in this book, I can only rate it by the parts near me. I live (and cycle) near Ottawa. Mr. Katz's recommended route is just fine, but mis-described. He refers to Hope Side Road as regional road 49, which is Eagleson, March, and Almonte Roads, but not Hope Side Road. This description occurs twice in two different routes.
The other obvious point is that this edition was published in 1994; amalgamation of municipalities and downloading of provincial roads with lots of changes of numbers makes a current local map even more necessary. And an older map might be handy for understanding some of the routes.
Average customer rating:
- A fascinating look at cycling, back when a mile was a mile
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Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle
Karl Kron
Manufacturer: Emil Rosenblatt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0961006005 |
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating look at cycling, back when a mile was a mile.......2004-02-09
If you've ever wondered how it was to ride those high-wheeled "ordinaries", this book is for you.
I will confess to having yet read only to page 73 of this thick tome, but from that alone I can recommend the book. It is an absolutely fascinating look into not only early-day bicycling, but also early New York City and environs. Bicycling was a totally different thing back then, and the reader is at once horrified and regaled by accounts of the challenges presented the wheelman in those days. Cyclists were held in awe by some, jeered and thrown at by others. Spills on cobblestone streets were frequent, and from those high-wheelers, falls were quite dangerous. I have toured over 15,000 miles by bicycle, but hardly a one presented the challenge this author commonly faced.
Read it as history or as adventure--it doesn't matter. It's a great, one-of-a-kind look into the past by a writer who told his late-1800s story entertainingly, using those wonderfully-competent sentences of the old school, and who believed that "The pleasure of riding alone depends very much on whether or not a man takes good company with him." To read this book is to take his pleasure and make it yours.
Average customer rating:
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Cycling the Kettle Valley Railway
Dan , and
Sandra Langford
Manufacturer: Rocky Mountain Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0921102542 |
Book Description
The Kettle Valley Railway is an abandoned railbed located in southern British Columbia between Midway and Hope. Fast becoming the premier rail trail in Canada, it contains spectacular sections through impressive canyons that require tunnels and trestles to carry the railbed through rock ridges and across mountain streams. Since the first edition, growing public interest has resulted in many improvements in both access and safety.
This edition includes the popular Columbia and Western Railway that runs from Castlegar to Midway.
Included are detailed maps, safety tips, historical tidbits, a listing of accommmodations and a kilometre by kilometre guide to each of the KVR subdivisions.
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