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Two cyclists riding with church in background

Click on the tour name in the table below to see a trip report.

Alan's Bicycle Tours
Self-contained tours  Supported tours     
Start dateEnd dateDaysTour (sponsor)CampingHotelingCampingHoteling
1912-??-??1912-??-??My grandfather's tour
1994-08-22  1994-08-276Oregon (SRCC)250
1995-07-151995-07-217Sierra (SRCC)410
1995-11-241995-11-252Two-day shakedown tour157
1996-05-181996-07-1660Cross-country3954
1996-12-221996-12-287Hawaii (Backroads)279
1997-05-241997-05-263Tour to Mt. Tamalpais137
1997-06-211997-06-288Central California (SRCC)459
1997-12-271998-01-016Phoenix (T@CO)315
1998-07-051998-07-128Coast tour (T@CO)462
1998-09-131998-09-197Three Parks (SRCC)390
1999-01-151999-01-173Kauai (Note 1)162
1999-06-051999-06-128Gold Country (SRCC)497
1999-06-181999-06-225Cape Cod (Note 1)178
1999-08-021999-08-021Edinburgh (Note 1)53
2000-07-232000-07-297Bigfoot (SRCC)452
2000-09-052000-09-107Panay Island, Philippines360
2002-06-302002-07-067Bend OR area (Gourmet)387
2002-12-282002-12-314Phoenix/Tucson231
2003-06-292003-07-057Oregon coast (Gourmet)361
2003-09-012003-09-066One-week loop344
2003-10-292003-11-058Illinois tour621
2004-06-132004-06-2614CT-MI tour941
2005-05-282005-08-2691Northern Tier (Adv. Cycling) 4468
2005-11-172005-11-2711New Zealand467
2006-03-082006-03-2619Chile910
2006-07-232006-08-1013Oaxaca, Mexico521
2007-06-152007-06-151Gettysburg, PA (Note 1)70
2007-06-242007-06-296 Northern California (Gourmet)259
2008-06-222008-06-276 Bend OR area (Gourmet)279
2009-06-212009-06-277SLO(w) tour (Gourmet)308
2010-06-202010-06-267Oregon coast tour (Gourmet)308
2011-08-292011-09-014 South Dakota (Road Scholar)109
2012-03-252012-03-306Palm Springs (Note 1)155
2015-12-072015-12-1711Puerto Rico (Adv. Cycling)385
2017-08-192017-08-266Two Parks (SRCC)201
2017-11-042017-11-116Southern Calif. Coast (SRCC)280
2018-03-032018-03-107Tucson (BAC) (Note 1)247
2018-05-132018-08-1595Reunion tour3970
2018-12-142019-01-107France (Note 1)67
2022-05-302022-05-312Snow Canyon29
Total days:496Total Miles per Category:14,77741804561915
Total Miles: 24,433
Note 1:  The seven "tours" with this note were actually just a series of day rides from one location.
Sponsors: SRCC Santa Rosa Cycling Club
Backroads Commercial tour company
T@COFriends who met on the Touring@Cycling.Org email list
GourmetLocal group of friends
Adv. Cycling Adventure Cycling Association
Road Scholar Educational vacations for seniors (Elderhostel)
BAC Bicycle Adventure Club

Other useful bicycle touring links
List of gear that I take on tour.
My canonical bicycle touring packing list
Jamie Noble's Bicycle Touring 101 website
Ken Kifer's touring bike pages
Touring info searchable by location and topic
Touring tips
Bicycle touring article on Wikipedia
Post and read online bicycle tour journals
Warm Showers (folks offering a free place to stay)
Airline baggage regulations for bicycles
CDC's health guidelines for travelers
All kinds of GPS information
California bicycle laws excerpted from vehicle code

A Brief for the Defense

by Jack GIlbert

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafes and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.

[From Refusing Heaven (Knopf, 2005)]

Last update May 31, 2022