Accidental Bicycle Tourist

Like most kids, brother Paul and I were keen on riding bikes. They increased our mobility of course, but in retrospect we never went far. Mostly we just messed around. One time we rode three miles to a bridge over the Little Arkansas River. I think that six-mile round trip was our record. It made us feel quite intrepid. Bicycling wasn’t an experience that I was eager to expand at the time though.

Many years later I learned that Bob Kurth, an engineer who worked for me, went to California’s Central Valley almost every weekend to ride his bicycle. I thought it was incredible that anyone would want to ride a bicycle 100 to 150 miles in a day. Especially some old guy like him (55). Little did I know. 😀

Meanwhile, I took up running. I wanted to stay in shape for backpacking and ocean sailing. I continued to run after we moved to Veradale, and worked up to 5 mile and 10 kilometer “fun runs”. One day I read a book that described what running does to your body. I went out and bought a bicycle the next day.

I selected a 12-speed Bianchi “racing bicycle”. I soon found that it was a poor choice. I could not ride it back up our hill to get home. I had to walk. I’d never ridden up hills in Kansas, so I didn’t even think about that dimension. Oh well.

I soon learned about mountain bikes, and the fact that they were 18-speed. Maybe that would do the trick. I could ride that mountain bike right up our hill after working at it hard for two or three months.

A mountain bike is not well suited to the road though. Then I learned about a big bike sale. I went to see what the alternatives were. I found a Bridgestone bike that was ideal. It was light weight, had 21-speeds, and was a bargain. Later on I learned that Bridgestones were legendary touring bicycles.

It wasn’t long until I learned about the Spokane Bicycle Club, and the rides they had each weekend. They put on “easy rides” that were 20 to 30 miles in length and long rides that were 60 to 80 miles. Some of the rides were “Centuries” (100 miles).

I decided to try some of the shorter rides, but first I needed to work up to the point were I could easily ride 10 to 15 miles. I had no trouble keeping up on several of their easy rides, so I tried some longer rides. They were challenging at first, but I gradually developed the conditioning I needed to keep up.

I was reading Bicycling Magazine by then, and I learned about the bicycle tours that Cycle America ran. You could sign up for a week, two weeks, or more. I decided on one week. The tour was about 400 miles long. (Their tours are quite a bit more expensive now.)

This first tour started in Westport, WA. We went to Libbey, MT, and then up to Fernie, BC, and over Crowsnest Pass to the east side of the Rockies. On the way back we went down to Glacier National Park, and over “Going-to-the-Sun” road to the west side of the Rockies.

There were about 150 riders on the tour. Cycle America took care of everything for us. We slept in our own tents. They trucked our tents, sleeping bags, clothes, and personal items to the next campground. We had lunch at a nice spot along the way, and had catered dinners and breakfasts near our campground. I was hooked on bicycle touring.