At one of the club meetings last year the question was asked, "What would you like to see more of from the BIKES Club?" The consensus answer seemed to be tours. Jill and I were busy with home projects last year so I didn't help with that much. Thanks to Dan, Rick, and Cindy for the tours they did plan. Assuming "more tours" is still a valid request, and the fact that I also like tours, here are some things I'm thinking about for 2025.

None of these are committed, and I may add some other options in the near future. I'm certainly not planning to do all of them. I'm posting this early to see if there is interest before investing additional time in planning further details. The potential tours cover a few different styles, lengths, and, perhaps the biggest one, costs. Please let me know if you are interested or have questions. Since I'm not yet committed, I'm not expecting anyone else to be at this point. I'm looking to gauge interest. Also, if you have interest in other tours, please feel free to suggest them.

Option 1: Bend

We will hopefully (go away forest fire smoke!) do a four ride tour in the Bend area in early October 2024 at a moderate pace. Several people requested doing this again in 2025 since they already had plans for October. The 2025 option would be a four ride steady pace hub and spoke tour in the Bend-ish region. Three of the rides would be the same as this year, but the fourth ride would be shorter than this year's ride.

Preferred times would be late May, early June, or late September.

Bend Area Route Maps

Option 2: Yakima

Several of you have ridden the Yakima Canyon road during the "Your Canyon For A Day" event where they close the road to cars for most of the day. For those of you that have not ridden the canyon, you're missing out. It's beautiful. The plan would be for a four ride steady pace hub and spoke tour centered in Yakima that includes the canyon ride, a ride to Zillah for tacos with a winery stop on the way back, a loop through Tieton and Naches, and on the way there or on the way home, a loop through the eastern portion of the Kittitas valley from Ellensburg.

This would be best in mid-May since that's usually when they hold the "Your Canyon For A Day" event. The event is a paid event - I believe $65 last year.

Yakima Area Routes

Option 3: England & (a little bit of) Scotland

LEJOG is a ride from Land's End in Cornwall to John o'Groats in Scotland. Many of you have seen Steve and Christine's posts from their ride. There are three common routes. Steve and Christine are taking the shorter, steeper route through Wales. This tour would be a longer, less hilly route across the center of England and up the eastern coast through Lincoln and Yorkshire. This is a published route that uses mostly quiet roads and also several national cycle paths. It's a one-way, pack your gear ride with scheduled accommodations each night and rest days to do things like laundry and sight seeing. No planned camping out, though you could choose to do so. I would not plan on going all the way to John o'Groats, but stopping in Edinburgh - or just far enough to realize I have trouble with a Scottish accent.  Call it LESCOT

This would be best in May, early June, late August, or September. After that it might be a pretty wet ride. Please let me know if you are interested in all or perhaps just part of the ride. If it's a spring ride then planning needs to start relatively soon since accommodations are someone sparse through Devon. I have attached some information on 2024 costs that should be a good guideline for next year.

Lots of LESCOT Maps - The ride through Cornwall and Devon is very hilly.

Option 4: Germany and Austria

The Danube river originates in the Black Forrest in Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany and flows to the Black Sea through Bavaria, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Vienna, and points beyond. Several things recommend the ride. It's scenic, the Danube doesn't flow up hill anywhere, the Germans have built a dedicated cycle path for most of the length, the food is fantastic, the train connections are good, etc. etc. etc.  Plus, if the ride is in September, then the finale may include a trip to the real-deal Munich Oktoberfest. Which is a ton of fun. Of course the next morning can be less fun if you're not careful.

As with the UK option, this would be a one-way, pack your gear ride with scheduled accommodations each night. No planned camping out, but apparently there are a lot of camping options. Again, this may be something where all or part of the ride may be of interest. If there is a lot of interest, we could reserve and Oktoberfest table, which really is a kick, but that would need to be done before December 2024. I have attached some information on 2024 costs that should be a good guideline for next year.

Danube Ride Maps

For insurance reasons the tours outside of the US would not be official BIKES club events.

Replies by responses here or email to paulh.wa@comcast.net

Paul I would be interested in the Bend and Yakima trips.  I might be interested in the  Danube trip if there was a sag wagon to carry stuff.  Members of the group could take turns driving the vehicle.  Thanks for taking the time to put all these trip options together. 

Adrienne, I would be open to a luggage support wagon if there were a group of five or more..  It would need to be a van the size of something like an Opel Combo or a Ford S-Max.  They aren't too big to navigate and park and should hold a bike and luggage if people pack reasonably lightly.  The cost with insurance and a few drivers would be about $80 a day at the present rates.  Less than $15 per day per person seems reasonable to avoid carrying luggage.   If it takes a larger van the cost is closer to $25 per day, which is still not too bad, but a Ford Transit is pretty tough to get through a lot of German city centers.

I’m comfortable driving around Germany by myself.  I’ve done it on many, many business and personal trips.  I’m not sure if other people would be comfortable or would like to have a navigator/second set of eyes.

I'm interested in Bend and Yakima for sure, and the timing would probably work for me.  I already have. Fall '25 Europe trip, so I'm likely unable to do any of those.  What about Selkirks, Penticton region, or Eugene/Corvallis?

Paul, you're probably right about Penticton. I rode up there once, it was a gravel rail-grade route. I believe there is a longer route - I will research in early October when I return from my current Europe trip. I have biked Eugene/Corvallis a fair amount and could provide ideas.  Thanks for for the prompt for 2025!