Following Cyclists from Afar

Each spring I start to gather a handful of potential blogs to follow for the northern hemisphere touring season. It's a method I use to keep myself excited about bicycle travel when I'm not getting out on tour  much myself. I also end up finding out things about our route network that I'd find out from no other source.

Here are some of my favorite recent tidbits:

Scott Wallace from Scotland came through our office mid-summer and his demeanor inspired me to pick up and follow his blog, Bicycle Across America, the rest of the way on his combo route on the TransAmerica and Lewis & Clark Bicycle Trails.

Missoulian Don Dolese set out on the Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route and kept his fans apprised of his whereabouts via an understated yet chock full of information video blog called theRideSouth. I haven't had the opportunity yet to watch them all but intend to over the winter.

Since I also keep track of the Routes & Mapping Twitter feed, @acaroutes, I often come across interesting entries over my morning coffee. One of these was from Tom Mrotek who styles himself as The Wild Dork. He had me at the name and then I was further enchanted by his entry called Tom's Guide to Camping in Town Parks. I followed his irregular posts until he decided he was done. I understand next year he's got ambitions to ride the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. I can't wait to follow those adventures.

Last year I followed Graham and Pauline on their version of the Northern Tier, North Lakes, Lake Erie Connector Bicycle Routes combo via their webpage, Sleepless Til Seattle, which included some video blog entries. I was intrigued to follow them based on email correspondence I'd been having with Graham as they prepared for the trip. This set of interactions ended up being instrumental in our recent reroute of the Northern Tier Route across North Dakota. This year, I continued to read Graham's blog as he put together a film documenting their trip which is now finished and film festival ready!

In March of this year, I met with Derek Peterson to talk about his work with youth and how he wanted to bring it on the road with a bicycle journey on the Trail of Tears. I was in awe of his ambition. As I write this, the trip is just beginning so there's not much on the blog from the road yet. I look forward to reading how it all unfolds, pedal stroke by pedal stroke.

I highly recommend any of the above as resources to keep your inspiration going over the coming winter months.

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GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer 'Jenn' Milyko, an Adventure Cycling cartographer, and appears weekly, highlighting curious facts, figures, and persons from Adventure Cycling's Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure. She also wants to remind you that map corrections and comments are always welcome via the online Map Correction Form.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/09/following-cyclists-from-afar.html

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