It’s time for our annual bike tour adventure!
We are starting in Spokane, Washington on Tuesday July 15. Bob and I are flying up there with our bikes and Brent already drove there. It will take us ~2 days to ride to the border crossing in the tiny crossing (no town) called Nelway.
What special gear are we bringing?: I’ll have my usual Garmin InReach mini 2 GPS tracker with SOS emergency button like usual. But, Brent and I are trying out the free T-Mobile Starlink beta which will allow us to send and receive texts better and easier than the included iPhone satellite method.
In addition, independent from the T-Mobile system, we are carrying a Starlink Mini antenna that should allow us a full internet connection so I can upload these blog posts and photos etc even when we don’t have cell phone connection. We will only use this when stopped at camp or a picnic table. This will add about 3 pounds to my gear but I expect it will be worth it. Don’t worry, we will be “disconnecting” plenty as we stop for spontaneous swims and beer sampling and meeting the locals.
I’ll be riding the same bike that I’ve used on my last 3 tours. We plan to ride 30-50 miles per day and camping whenever possible. As you can see from our route, we are riding ~40% on dirt roads. Our furthest point north is the ski town of Revelstoke where we will head southwest to the end the ride in Vancouver. We will then take a shuttle to Seattle. Bob and I were supposed to take the train back home but Amtrak cancelled those trains a few days ago! I’m not sure why?? So, now we made plans to fly back August 7th.
Here’s the link to track us on the map: https://share.garmin.com/readyriders
Here’s the link to our approximate route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/51696218
Wish us luck and we hope you enjoy reading daily stories of our adventure.
You might be better off flying than riding Amtrak, or at least the Coast Starlight. See this thread on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amtrak/comments/1lqpz13/amtrak_just_cancelled_my_trip/
Good luck!