WAYPOINTS 8 OPEN ROAD GALLERY 33 MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE 34

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UNDISCOVERED VIETNAM: Shangri-La Found PLUS:

35 YEARS LATER: A SPECIAL LOOK BACK AT B76

CIVIL WAR CYCLING CONTINUED - VICKSBURG

SHARE THE JOY GET A CHANCE TO WIN 12/1:2011/12 contents Spread the joy of cycling and get a chance to win cool prizes December/January 2011/12 · Volume 38 Number 9 · www.adventurecycling.org

n For every cyclist you sign up through a gift membership or who joins ADVENTURE through your referral, you score one entry to win a Novara Verita (rei.com/ product/807242) valued at over $1,100. The winner will be drawn from CYCLIST all eligible members in January of 2012. is published nine times each year by the Adventure Cycling Association, n Recruit the most new members in 2011, and you’ll win a $500 a nonprofit service organization for Adventure Cycling shopping spree. recreational bicyclists. Individual membership costs $40 yearly to U.S. n Each month we’ll draw a mini-prize winner who will receive gifts from addresses and includes a subscrip- companies like Old Man Mountain, Cascade Designs, Showers Pass, tion to Adventure Cyclist and dis- counts on Adventure Cycling maps. and others. The entire contents of Adventure Cyclist are copyrighted by Adventure n The more new members you sign up, the more chances you have to win! Cyclist and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from Adventure Cyclist. All rights reserved. Adventure Cycling Association adventurecycling.org/joy OUR COVER Harold Teasdale and Ron Goryeb pedal through a populated corner of Nothern Vietnam’s Ha Giang Province. Photo by Aaron Teasdale. Adventure Cycling Corporate Members (left) Bikecentennial groups approach the finish of their cross-country Adventure Cycling’s business partners play a significant level of support. These corporate membership funds go toward journeys. role in the success of our nonprofit organization. Our Corporate special projects and the creation of new programs. To learn more Membership Program is designed to spotlight these key support- about how your business can become a corporate supporter of MISSION The mission of Adventure Cycling ers. Corporate Members are companies that believe in what we Adventure Cycling, go to www.adventurecycling.org/corporate or Association is to inspire people of all do and wish to provide additional assistance through a higher call (800) 755-2453. ages to travel by bicycle. We help DAN BURDEN cyclists explore the landscapes and history of America for fitness, fun, and self-discovery. TITANIUM GOLD 10 PEDALING THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN by Dennis Coello At the end of its sesquicentennial, we continue our cycling tribute to the American Civil War. CAMPAIGNS Our strategic plan includes three CYCLING SHANGRI-LA by Aaron Teasdale major campaigns: 18 Creating Bike Routes for America A son returns to Vietnam with his father, this time, to rediscover the country by bicycle. Getting Americans Bicycling Supporting Bicycling Communities MYRNA KOEFFLER AND THE SPROCKET ROCKETS by June Siple 26 How to Reach Us We often remember Bikecentennial fondly. But it wasn't always just a joy ride. To join, change your address, or ask questions about membership, visit us online at www.adventurecycling.org or call (800) 755-2453 or (406) 721-1776

DEPARTMENTS LETTERS email: [email protected] COMPANIONS WANTED LETTER from the EDITOR Subscription Address: 05 04 Adventure Cycling Association P.O. Box 8308 SILVER BRONZE 08 WAYPOINTS 06 LETTER from the DIRECTOR Missoula, MT 59807 Headquarters: Lorain County Visitors Bureau 33 OPEN ROAD GALLERY COLUMNS Adventure Cycling Association 150 E. Pine St. First Interstate Bank 36 CLASSIFIEDS/MARKETPLACE 34 MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE / Jan Heine Missoula, MT 59802 Colorado Backcountry Biker A review of today's bicycle lighting options Circolo Degli Esplortori The Explorers Club

2 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 3 ADVENTURE Letter from the Editor Companions Wanted CYCLIST RANDOM OBSERVATIONS Providing partners for tours, domestic and abroad, since 1978 December/January 2011/12 volume 38 number 9 Misunderstandings from the saddle and car seat WWW.ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG

Biking New Zealand’s South Island EDITOR I’m an hotels. Average daily distance is approximately up with anywhere in between. I would like to michael deme experienced bike-touring male, 63, leaving 80 kilometers. Starting in Quito on February 13, cover 50 to 100 miles a day. I've done one long mdeme@ adventurecycling.org February 13, 2012 for New Zealand. I plan to we will ride to Cayambe, San Lorenzo, Muisne, tour before and a few overnighters. I'm flexible to ART DIRECTOR These days, there certainly seems to be no lack ride the South Island for about a month, dur- Puerto Lopez, Guayaquil, Machala, Cuenca, what the route will be but currently thinking of greg siple gsiple@ adventurecycling.org ing their late summer and early fall. The ride Riobamba, Latacunga, and then back to Quito doing the Great Parks South to the TransAmerica, TECHNICAL EDITOR of cycling topics to write about. Stories about will encounter diverse landscapes and climate, on March 12. If you would like more informa- then the Pacific Coast. Or maybe just the Western john schub ert cycling are appearing in widely-read publications including rainforests, mountains, and coastline. tion, including a detailed itinerary, please email Express. Let me know if you have any ideas or are schubley@ aol.com 60 to 80 miles a day with overnights in hostels Jose at [email protected]. interested in joining at [email protected]. FIELD EDITOR michael mccoy across the U.S. and the world. There are countless blogs and motels, and a few rest days along the way. If mmccoy@ adventurecycling.org about cycling (and Adventure Cycling Association interested email [email protected]. Early Spring Tour — East to West Traveling Across South America I am looking for a partner CONTRIBUTING WRITERS from Connecticut to Lousiana, leaving March to join me on a bicycle adventure across South dan d'ambrosi o nancy clark Southern Arizona or Baja February 2012. I’m a 2012. First, I'll be going south to western South America. I am a 23-year-old guy who likes to have willie weir jan heine aggregates many of these traffic signs on shared 52-year-old woman looking for a partner (male Carolina to see my Dad. My departure date is fun but travel cheap. I have been on a couple of patrick o'grady at bicycletravelbloggers. roadways, so I ask them, COPY EDITOR or female) to ride in Arizona or Baja California. March 21. The first week of April I should be long rides in the U.S. Those were such wonder- phyllis pic klesimer org) and the buzz about “Why are you stopping I only have the week of February 18 through going west from South Carolina. Anyone riding ful times that I want to explore more places by ADVERTISING DIRECTOR it seems to be every- when you have the right 26 to get a winter ride in. I did extensive tour- any part of this is welcome. I am a 52-year-old bicycle. I plan to travel in March, April, and May rick bruner 509.493.4930 where I look. of way.” ing in my 20s and am falling back in love with male and I will be pushing a bit — 70 to 90 of 2012, but I have some flexibility in my sched- advertising@ adventurecycling.org Unfortunately, not I can see why this the sport. I enjoy road and off-road riding, and miles a day. If interested email Mike at ule. The world is full of extraordinary people; I all of these mentions frustrates some drivers have a bike that can do both quite comfortably. [email protected]. hope to meet some new ones starting with you. If STAFF I want to camp most of the trip but will also interested email [email protected]. are positive, but that’s because there’s guess EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR want to take a night or two in a B&B or motel. If Texas to Canada and Back March, 2012. A jim say er to be expected. There work involved, espe- jsayer@ adventurecycling.org interested email [email protected]. friend and I are riding from Amarillo, Texas, to Crossing Asia I'm looking for companion(s) CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER are people who are anti cially for those behind Banff and Jasper national parks in Canada then for a cycling trip from Dubai, United Arab sheila snyder, cpa cycling and there always the driver who stops, Florida Keys I take a quarterly self-supported heading west and south along the coast until we Emirates, to Bali, Indonesia starting in March MEMBERSHIP & DEVELOPMENT ride in the Florida Keys. My ride travels from get to San Francisco. We'll then head back east 2012. I have an unlimited schedule, but my julie huck amanda lipsey will be. Let’s take Magda and it frustrates me too amy c orbin joshua tack Szubanski, for instance. She’s a mildly when I’m the cyclist in this scenario. I Key Largo to Key West and returns to Key Largo. to Texas. We'd love companions on any part of prediction is three months. I prefer an on road thomas bassett alex campbell Total mileage is 200 plus miles and the trip usu- the route. We plan to have an easygoing pace route, guest houses, and camping. Riding to MEDIA famous celebrity in Australia and she know they wouldn’t stop for another car ally takes three to four days. It is not a race but and to complete the trip in six months. Several enjoy the trip, scenery, and beauty through winona bateman michael mccoy apparently hates cyclists. (A recent rant driver who is sitting at a stop sign and a casual ride to enjoy the Florida Keys. I stay in of the Adventure Cycling routes will be used, photography. I'm 28 years old and male. If PUBLICATIONS can be seen online at youtube.com/ let them go. Even worse, when I’m on a michael deme greg siple inexpensive but clean motels. Men or women are and we will camp most of the time. This is our interested email [email protected]. derek gallagher rachel stevens invited to join me — but no children. If inter- first cross-country trip. Email puffskein@juno. watch?v=LyEeGFg9F0k.) Okay, some shared road waiting at a stop sign and Adventure Cycling Association assumes, but can- IT DEPARTMENT anger is understandable. I’ve mentioned a driver randomly stops to let me go I, ested email [email protected]. com for more details. john sieber richard darne not verify, that the persons above are truthfully before that I also get quite angry at the quite frankly, get a bit annoyed, especial- representing themselves. Ads are free to Adventure TOURS Ecuador Cycling Tour February 12 to March New Mexico to California 18-year-old planning a arlen hall mo misl i v e t s Cycling members. You can see more ads and post foolish and dangerous behavior of some ly when other drivers behind that person 12, 2012. We are a group of experienced cyclists trip for the early spring, starting in New Mexico. paul hansbarger madeline mckiddy new ones at www.adventurecycling.org/mag/comp ROUTES AND MAPPING cyclists and car drivers, but I don’t advo- nearly slam into them. On top of that, the looking for friendly, easy-going companions. Splicing together a few trails, most likely ending anions.cfm or send your ad to Adventure Cyclist, carla majernik jennifer milyko cate violence against them as Magda drivers in the opposite lane don’t stop … The tour is self-supported but we will stay in in San Francisco. I'm looking for someone to link virginia sullivan kevin mcmanigal P.O. Box 8308, Missoula, MT 59807. casey greene nathan taylor does in her television tirade. Maybe she because they shouldn’t, so I usually try to SALES AND MARKETING should try riding a bike. After a quick keep traffic moving by waving the driver teri maloughney CYCLOSOURCE ride, she might realize why many of us through — and have been flipped off ted bowman sarah raz enjoy it so much — and it might help when doing so. Go figure. OFFICE MANAGER relieve her stress a bit. Maybe she’d be Maybe the signs at these bike-path Give the Gift of Cycling beth petersen less inclined to act like magma. intersections should be regular sized BOARD OF DIRECTORS Because they know I’m a cycling instead of miniature, as they are in You can give an Adventure Cycling holiday PRESIDENT magazine editor, many people share Missoula. Maybe we need to better gift membership for half price! Just renew carol york VICE PRESIDENT their frustrations about cyclists with me. educate all road users so that everyone’s your membership and you can give gift mem- jennifer garst One complaint I hear quite often per- actions can be better anticipated, which berships for $20. SECRETARY andy baur tains to what happens when bike paths would go a long way towards safer road Get inspired each month with our first-ever bicycle travel TREASURER and streets in Missoula intersect. “Why use for everyone. Maybe I’m just asking photo calendar. We’ll send you one of these calendars for andy huppe rt they FREE if you renew at the Patron, Supporting, Benefactor BOARD MEMBERS should stop?” they ask. I usually too much of a distracted road user popu- jason boucher todd copley point out that at every one of these inter- lation. or Life member level. george mendes jeff miller donna o'neal wally werner sections, there is a mini traffic sign for Go to: www.adventurecycling.org/holidaygift or call the cyclists, either a stop sign or a yield Michael Deme 1 (800) 755-2453. We’ll send a card announcing your gift. sign, and in my experience, cyclists obey Editor, Adventure Cyclist Act quickly. This offer expires January 15, 2012. these signs at a higher rate than they do [email protected]

4 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 5 Letter from the Director Fast Facts Fame,” lots of cool and historic structures, solar tubes, super bikes, downtown location energy-efficient HVAC systems, • Date(s) built: 1903, 1936, 1962, recycled material use 2011-12 • New spaces: cartography studio A NEW BIKE TRAVEL MECCA and combined publications/media • Name of basement: The Pacement • Annual ride-in visitors: 1,100 (in space, “adventure overlook” (bal- — named after our first life member More space and new systems to provide the best services and programs for you 2010 and ’11) cony over East Pine Street), larger Charlie Pace, who donated funds courtyard with more bike parking, to make this a more useful space • Some favored features: Cyclists’ better bathrooms Lounge, art-deco entry (and handle- Financing: Primarily from Life hen cyclists walk into the is modern yet complements the art deco- As Winston Churchill wrote, “We • bars on doors), National Bicycle Green features: High-efficiency, Member Fund, but also additional main entrance of Adventure inspired east wing. There will be many shape our buildings; thereafter they • Touring Portrait Gallery, “Wall of cost-effective insulation and wall donations being sought Cycling’s headquarters for benefits, including: shape us.” We are excited that this re- theW first time, they often say (or mouth) Space: Enough new room for 12 to shaping will help Adventure Cycling “Wow!” I think it’s because it’s such a 14 people — removing the impediments continue to surge ahead as North distinctive building — for a one-of-a-kind to bringing on new cartographers and America’s largest and most vibrant bicy- organization. program staff for the future. We’ll have cling organization. Thank you for your We really love this old church build- a larger courtyard with space for events, support! ing, with its bright, airy sanctuary, now bike parking, and a bike repair station. a shrine to bicycling, which has become a You can also see the new “adventure Jim Sayer pilgrimage destination for bicycle tourists overlook” — a balcony from which we Executive Director the world over. It’s a funky mix of three will hail arriving and departing cyclists. [email protected] different structures built in 1903, 1932, Systems: We’ll be installing a new and 1962 — and it features a wide assort- phone system (our current one is oversub- ment of spaces, including the cyclists’ scribed), which will help reduce the busy signals. Our heating/cooling arrangement in two wings will be overhauled with super high-efficiency HVAC systems. We’ll supplement the high-efficiency lighting with solar tubes for better ambi- ent lighting. The new “west wing” will be re-insulated and the upper level will be built with ultra-tight structural insulated panels. All of this will more than pay for

GREG SIPLE itself in the long run. Our Staff Building Team: Carla Bike Visibility: Over time, we plan Majernik, Jim Sayer, and Sheila Snyder. to add artwork on the west wall and courtyard wall so that when you pull lounge, the cartography crescent, the load- up to our building, you’ll know right ing dock, and the “wall of fame” (with away that this is truly a bicycle-travel snapshots of visiting cyclists). mecca. But as great as it is, our beloved build- The good news is that much of this ing is stuffed — with people and equip- will be paid for through our dedicated ment — and we have done as much shoe- Life Member Fund (thank you, Life horning as possible, fitting people into Members!) but we are raising former hallways and closets. It's gotten to additional funds to complete the point where space limitations are hin- the project without financ- dering our ability to provide our members ing. There are even naming with the best maps, publications, tours, opportunities for some of the and other resources for bicycle travel. special spaces and features — please let So for the past year, we have marshaled me or our development director, Amanda our resources, hired an outstanding archi- Lipsey (alipsey@adventure tect and contractor, and worked with staff cycling.org) know if you’d like to help on the design you see in this spread. On support this project — and we’ll have the west wing (colored in light blue), we more information available soon on dif- Adventure Cycling’s expanding west will gut the lower floor to provide a bet- ferent ways you can “make your mark” wing, courtyard, and services are made ter space configuration and add a new on this unique destination for bicycle possible by our Life Members and our second floor. As you can see, the aesthetic travelers. members' donations. ILLUSTRATION BY ED JENNE

6 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG News you can use from the world of bicycle travel by Michael McCoy AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF? CANAL OF Not the hostel known as the Three Little Pigs! DREAMS When the Hennepin Canal in Shing Mon Chung, online mar- northern Illinois was conceived keting executive for a budget in the 1840s, a man-made accommodation specialty com- water shortcut between the pany called HostelBookers. Illinois and Mississippi riv- com, wrote Waypoints a ers seemed like a no-brainer couple of weeks ago to tell — after all, it would shorten us about a special On Your the distance to haul people Bike! campaign his outfit has and goods between Chicago WayPoints launched aimed at promoting and Rock Island by nearly bicycle travel. At their website, 420 miles. But by the time they’ve outlined detailed routes Congress got around to fund- for three-day rides in such ing the idea in the 1890s, BYWAYS AND places as Spain, Wales, and railroads had replaced rivers as the main avenues for com- BIKEWAYS BARRY ERB Tuscany, with recommended You’ve no doubt heard of sce- overnights along the way at mercial shipping, and the nic byways but have you heard HOSTLEBOOKERS.COM specific hostels and/or inex- Hennepin was more or less The atmospheric shared space at the Three Little Pigs hostel in Berlin. of scenic bikeways? Maybe not, pensive hotels. redundant before it was com- pleted. Still, it remained in ser- since Oregon is apparently the HostelBookers.com also Miami, and San Francisco. has received high marks from vice from 1907 through 1951. only state to have designated has a special section devoted Shing was particularly excited past customers for its atmo- The State of Illinois eventually such routes. to “cycle-friendly hostels” about a new hostel in Berlin sphere, location, cleanliness, purchased it, christening it As reported by Jonathan in several cities, including called the Three Little Pigs, and friendly staff. For more the Hennepin Canal Parkway Maus of BikePortland.org, the Amsterdam, Copenhagen, which occupies a former 19th- information, visit hostelbook State Park in 1970. Oregon Parks and Recreation Paris, Barcelona, Beijing, century convent. The hostel ers.com. Department Commission At 104 miles in length, the recently “voted unanimously park stretches across five to designate three new State counties. The adjacent tow- Scenic Bikeways bringing the OUSLEY DOES OREGON path is a multi-use recreational total to four, and the new routes Bikepacking in the Willamette National Forest trail which visits a rich array of join the existing Willamette ecosystems, from farmland to Valley Scenic Bikeway.” wetlands to restored prairie. Last March, we ran a story in combination of travel variety be, however, as he found three In 1998, the nonprofit Friends The trio of new routes are Waypoints titled “Off Road, and options, with lots of water abandoned beers on his route the 108-mile Blue Mountain of the Hennepin Canal orga- On Road,” about a 12-day sources en route. At around that just begged to be pho- nized to raise awareness of Century, the 106-mile Three hybrid tour in the Southwest 160 miles in length, I could tographed and written about. Sisters Bikeway, and the the park and emphasize the undertaken by Adventure ride 40 miles a day, spend Along the way, he also dealt importance of preserving the 179-mile Old West Bikeway, Cycling member Mike Ousley. three nights out, and have it with long patches of snow, Above: 2011 TAWK613 reunion. Right: The 1976 Yorktown finish. canal proper. In 2010, the which shares itself with the This past summer, Mike head- done. The weather forecast tough singletrack trail, dirt and TransAmerica Bicycle Trail in Friends launched “Renaissance ed in a different direction, driv- looked fine. Go!” gravel roads, and millions of Hennepin Canal” with the goal the John Day area. REUNION REDUX ing to the Pacific Northwest to Acknowledging that his mosquitoes. And he still had “Each route comes with a of restoring three locks and Celebrating, 35 years later set out on a journey he calls previous cycling and climbing fun! creating a 50-mile-long navi- marketing plan and the full “Three Nights, Two Rivers, stories always seem to have a To read more of Mike’s support from city officials,” gable waterway. In the August/September August 5–7 in the Chicago “I was impressed when we One Creek.” “beer” theme, Mike thought he entertaining ride reports and “Our models are the highly reported Maus. “Routes are 2011 Waypoints, we told you suburb of Buffalo Grove. Most gathered on Friday evening “I had heard ravings about would forego the topic of suds view some terrific photos, visit nominated by local communi- successful canal systems in about a pair of Bikecentennial came from the continental U.S., at how quickly we all meshed the Willamette Valley in this time around. It was not to cot.ag/n7xwyq. England and Europe,” said ties and are then put through ’76 groups that were plan- but Johan Tigges, one of our again. We had dinner at a Oregon, long enough,” Mike a rigorous application process Friends president Gary Wagle. ning August reunions in three Dutchmen (two have nice restaurant, followed by wrote, “and I ran out of excus- “The Hennepin is old and … Approved and adopted the Chicago area and also passed away), now lives and a lengthy slide show on our es to avoid driving up from routes use existing roads and fragile. If it breaks, it’ll be gone promised to follow up and works in Brazil, and he and his cross-country trip. Marilyn Erb Southern California for some forever. We want to make the paths and, while they don’t let you know how they went. wife flew in from there. (née Richmond), our group his- bikepacking. Since I’m still come with bike-specific infra- COURTESY OF YVONNE PEREZ-COLLINS canal a community asset and Swimmingly, according to this “In 1976, our group mem- torian, and her husband drove refining trail-riding systems, I a major cultural attraction for structure improvements, they abbreviated version of a report bers ranged in age from 15 to to the event from eastern was looking for something that receive turn-by-turn signs.” future generations. from member Ivan Ford. 61. The two oldest are now Pennsylvania, bringing several didn’t require too much com- “To paraphrase the voice in According to Terry Richard “Our bike-inn group’s 35th deceased; our eldest survi- tablesful of memorabilia with mitment (read: remote or long). of The Oregonian, “Tourism Field of Dreams, we believe anniversary reunion, and our vor is 69 while the youngest them — as well as the actual I zeroed in on a section of the that if we build it, they will promoters expect it to draw get-together with the camp- just turned 51. This was our bike she used to ride cross- Three Rivers ride documented cyclists from around the world come.” Our vision is for an ing group [TAWK613, which first reunion — while it was, I country! on bikepacking.net. A lollipop entire tourist industry to blos- as word spreads and the pro- shared the same riding itinerary] believe, the fourth such event “There was some talk about south out of Oakridge seemed gram grows.” som along this corridor.” is now history. 12 of the surviv- for TAWK613, with whose a future reunion as the week- an appealing chunk with lots of To learn more about the cre- Visit oregonscenicbikeways. ing 13 members of TAWB613 members we enjoyed a brunch end wound down, but time will waterways and renowned river- org to learn more. ative partnership efforts, visit attended the reunion, held cookout on Sunday morning. tell,” Ford said. MIKE OUSLEY side trails. It looked like a great friends-hennepin-canal.org.

8 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 9 PEDALING THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN Story and Photos by Dennis Coello “The war can never be Grant took his ultimately successful but That was in late May 1863. Upon hear- remarkably roundabout path. ing the news that Vicksburg was under brought to a close until that Thousands of men were put to work siege, Confederate President Davis met with key is in our pocket.” digging a canal through ground on the General Robert E. Lee, asking if he could Louisiana side of the Mississippi. If the spare some troops to aid Pemberton. Lee -President Lincoln, pointing to banks held against the rising river, Admiral replied that he couldn’t, that he was plan- Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the map Porter’s boats could pass out of range of ning an offensive north into Pennsylvania. Vicksburg’s guns. But the river rose so He argued that his movement, and his t had been an Easter Egg day in fast it nearly put Sherman’s troops into successes, would relieve the pressure of the saddle, with near constant April the trees. Another channel was attempted any additional Union armies being sent to tailwinds blowing me south across that would link swamps, bayous, a lake, Grant. ground that was river-flat and newly and two rivers before flowing back into Thousands would die on both sides dur- green.I For the first time since I’d pedaled the Mississippi 150 miles below Vicksburg. ing the 47-day siege of the fortress on the out of St. Louis a week earlier, I’d stayed This too failed, as did the blowing up of Mississippi. The surrender took place on on the Mississippi River Trail (the MRT) a levee 200 miles north of Vicksburg and July 4, the same day Lee began his retreat consistently, enjoying a series of small two- riding the flood in gunboats down con- from Gettysburg. lane blacktopped backwater roads tucked necting rivers to a point behind the town’s As you might imagine from what you’ve between the river and the far-too-busy and guns. The “Northern-born but Southern- read thus far, pedaling all of Grant’s cam- sometimes no-shouldered “Blues Highway,” married” Confederate General Pemberton, paign route is impossible. Even riding US 61, to the east. commanded by Jefferson Davis to hold much of it is tough. His army required Subtract two hours of showers and this Vicksburg at all costs, blocked the Union both boats and horses; you’re going to Sunday ride would rate as perfect, made flotilla by sinking a steamer in its path and need two bikes — or one equipped with sweeter still by frequent stops to enjoy the erecting a fort behind it. tires that can handle both pavement and river views and gnaw on the chocolate rab- Back to the drawing board went Grant. dirt/gravel roads — and you’re also going bit in my handlebar bag. I was touring solo More attempts were made, more failed. to have to bum a ride across the Interstate but keeping mental company with the De Finally, giving up on the idea of attacking 20 bridge from Vicksburg to the Louisiana Soto expedition that came this way almost from above Vicksburg, Grant decided to side or drive. From a sweet lady behind the five centuries earlier. Or rather with the cut himself off from his base of supplies at counter at the Mississippi state Welcome half of the original 600 that remained alive Memphis (almost 300 winding river miles Center (very near the bridge), and from a after their murderous, gold-seeking four- north) and march his army south through huge highway patrolman who must have year trek north and west from Tampa Bay. Louisiana over squishy roads barely able thought that if he smiled he’d crack his They’d spent a winter making boats and in to support men and horses. He hoped that granite-chiseled chin, the message was the July of 1543 were paddling down this very enough of Admiral Porter’s gunboats and same: No exceptions to the rule of no stretch of the Mississippi toward the Gulf, transports could pass Vicksburg’s gauntlet cycling on that bridge. No way. No how. my own destination. Fascinating. on some moonless night to carry his army Nor is there a ferry. But there is a bridge But, by early evening, the fascination back east across the river to the Mississippi we can ride in Natchez, about 85 miles was wearing thin. I’d come almost 100 miles side, where he would then contend with farther south. I pedaled it when heading to (only the tailwinds and flat ground had Southern armies and attack Vicksburg from the Gulf in 2004 and found it smooth sail- allowed me to rack up far more than my the rear. ing. Still, that’s a long way around. Better usual distance), and I still had 11 miles to Finally, success. We can’t cross the river to beg your way across by approaching go. Unlike the Union Army, I had no plans where the army did, but we can ride the driver of a pickup or someone with a to capture Vicksburg. I just wanted to get Louisiana bayou roads to a marshy spot bike rack when you pull into the Welcome there in daylight. very close to where they embarked (direc- Center. Remember to smile. And I would have, had I not stopped Towering figures. Statues stand guard over Vicksburg National Military Park. tions shortly). But you’ll have to watch for Of course, it isn’t necessary to ride all twice to take some pictures in the misty alligators. of the route to get a feel for the battle, for twilight along Business 61 (Washington the heights above. Not a happy thought as badly by hungry Confederate armies in the His army outnumbered and living most- the terror of the siege, and for a fun taste Street) just beyond the north edge of town. one pedals into a town bone-tired, but at East, would not reach those troops. ly off the land, Grant confused Pemberton of current Mississippi culture and the way Walz Caps speak Years later, a bit better read, and aboard the least it would have taken my thoughts The goal was obvious, but Grant couldn’t by not striking due north to Vicksburg folks down there ladle out tales of their for themselves. a mountain bike, I would appreciate this off myself. march an army overland to Vicksburg from but fighting his way east instead toward past. Our wonderful National Park Service What will yours say? remarkable spot for far more than its looks. While that failed attempt was com- the north due to flooded bayous, or from the state capital of Jackson, and taking it. has preserved a huge piece of the original On that April evening, I didn’t know manded by General Sherman, the overall the northeast due to distance and the pres- Assigning Sherman the task of burning nearly 10-mile arc of fortifications anchored about the Civil War fight of December Union commander to end the Vicksburg ence of enemy forces. The Union navy had anything of value to Southern armies, he to the river north and south of town. 1862, mounted from the Chickasaw bayou stranglehold on river traffic was led by failed in attempts to suppress Vicksburg’s then pivoted due west to invest Vicksburg, Bristling with cannon and abatis (an entan- to my right. Ignorance, therefore, kept me General Ulysses S. Grant. Smash this miles- cannon in an artillery duel from ironclad pinning Pemberton’s 30,000 troops inside glement of sharpened branches) and sharp- from imagining the mass of cannon and long gauntlet of huge, accurate cannon gunboats on the river, and human charges the town of 4,500 civilians. In two weeks eyed Confederate infantry, these defensive eager Confederate riflemen who, four days lining the bluffs with Union gunboats up the bluffs had been suicide. So a series of his army had marched 180 miles, fought works took full advantage of the hills and after Christmas, looked down from atop the would effectively split the Confederacy in additional “bayou experiments” were made. five major engagements, and lost half the hollows, the sharp ridges and steep ravines 300-foot-high Chickasaw Bluffs to my left two. Grain and other goods produced in Please bear with me, we’ll be back on 7,000 casualties he’d inflicted upon the for which you’ll gain an aerobic apprecia- and in two hours killed 1,800 men in blue the Southern states west of the Mississippi a bike soon, but to understand the final enemy. Not bad for a general considered by tion when pedaling the 16-mile paved road who swept across this very spot to storm (Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana), and needed campaign route, it’s necessary to know why the Northern press to be a drunk. through today’s battlefield.

12 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 13 As with its sister killing ground of reach it, as city residents cowered in hand- Gettysburg 1,000 miles north and east, be dug caves from the constant shelling and sure to pack some food for your battlefield ached for food. At the last, Confederate Nuts & Bolts: Riding Civil War History — Vicksburg ride. The more than 1,300 monuments, mark- troops were existing on one biscuit and a ers, and statues are going to slow you down, bit of bacon a day. When to ride: and the U.S.S. Cairo — one of the ironclad The free battlefield Official Map and Summertime is green and lovely, gunboats — and the museum next to it (con- Guide (available at the park Visitor’s Center but the combination of heat and veniently located halfway through the bat- and online at nps.gov) is excellent help humidity – and bugs – should tlefield loop) will stop you cold. It’s one thing for touring not only the park but also the make you choose another sea- to read about the size of these monsters (more town, and in reaching the site of Grant’s son. Autumn is excellent and than half a football field in length, wider Canal (the aborted attempt to dig a path comes late enough down here than a half-dozen city buses); it’s another to around the guns on the Vicksburg heights). that if work keeps you out of the park your bike next to one and stare. As that map shows, it’s not far across the saddle through fall somewhere Clay Street is the busy, fast-moving road river and just north of I-20. I drove to north, you can still enjoy that at the entrance to the battlefield, and it runs that spot on one of my two recent visits season by heading south. But straight downtown only two miles west. to pedal the sections of Grant’s campaign springtime (late March through You’ll want to bale off as soon as possible that I’d missed, leaving my car there to April) – when azaleas are to the parallel Grove Street north of Clay, ride US 80 west to Thomastown Road abloom and the trees are flower- which happily takes you past the Highway and north through flat fields to as close ing and the heavy, heavenly smell 61 Coffeehouse just a block from the water, to the site of the Milliken’s Bend battle as of honeysuckle wafts up as you and on down a steep hill to the flood wall you can get. Here, in an attempt at some ride past — there’s little that can with Robert Dafford’s 30-odd murals of relief for the besieged at Vicksburg, a compare. Vicksburg history. Don’t miss them. 1,400-man Texas brigade attacked a Union Ashbrook interviewing Winston Maps: will have you riding blind. I used A quick word about the water behind Mississippi lies two miles south, on the force of white and recently enlisted, poorly Books: Groom about this battle.) The Vicksburg National Military to find the MRT site – mississip- those murals: It is not the Mississippi but south edge of today’s expanded Vicksburg. trained black troops from nearby planta- l Bicycling Guide to the Park map is great for the park pirivertrail.org – easy to use and the less romantically named Yazoo River Before you head there, however, look up tions. The fight was at close quarters and Mississippi River Trail, by Bob l For a non-Civil War read that’s and good for an overall view extremely helpful, but now the Diversion Canal instead. The capricious at the old courthouse at the top of the hill. was occasionally hand-to-hand until the Robinson. Vicksburg, 1863, fantastic history, try Rising of the campaign, and like the maps are maddeningly difficult. Father of Waters changed course in 1876 Today, it’s almost exactly as it was a century Union ironclad Choctaw arrived to rake the by Winston Groom. (For an Tide: The Great Mississippi Natchez Trace Parkway map I hope it’s just me. Or maybe and left the city literally high and dry. The and a half ago when Union troops tried to Confederates with its guns. The Rebel com- almost hour-long audible taste Flood of 1927 and How It is available when you show up they’re designed that way to of this excellent book and Changed America, by John M. onsite and also via nps.gov. propel us to purchase Bob its interesting author, go to Barry. You’ll learn a lot about Google Maps is priceless for Robinson’s book. They didn’t onpoint.wbur.org and search the river and much about man- the detail it offers, but ask the need to for it’s worth the money. for Vicksburg. You’ll hear the kind. But read it at home. It tips locals if the dirt roads have kind and brainy moderator Tom the scales at 500 pages plus. gone liquid and if the river fog

mander reported, “The charge was resisted 20. Type “Delta, LA” into Google Maps, troops. They bivouacked there and headed by the negro portion of the enemy’s force then expand to find the network of nar- on to Hard Times Plantation, where they with considerable obstinacy.” Bad news row roads leading to the small town of boarded transports to cross the river to for the South, which had scoffed at the Newellton (roughly 30 miles south via the hamlet of Bruinsburg, 40 miles south thought that former slaves could stand in Hodge Road and your choice of other of Vicksburg and several miles south of battle against their recent owners. paths), then on south to Winter Quarters, the eight heavy cannon that had been Two great days of bayou road riding the only Civil War–era plantation in the mounted on a river bluff near the small lie south of Grant’s Canal and Interstate area to be spared the torch by Grant’s town of Grand Gulf. (There’s no cross-

Snack stop. Cyclists stop for vittles at an old country store on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.

14 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 15 ing the Mississippi here, but camping is either side of the road, you’ll think few have allowed at nearby Lake Bruin State Park. been through since. Plan to spend some If you’re on a mountain bike, I suggest the time reading the displays outside the Shaifer short dirt-road ride through the jungle-like House along the way, especially the one backcountry to Yucatan Lake. Just don’t go about field surgery performed on the porch swimming. Big reptiles will want to play.) for those wounded as the Union fought Grant’s troops missed Grand Gulf, but its way through this forested, hilly coun- you really shouldn’t. You can reach it from tryside. Even after the horror and pain of Vicksburg by following the MRT signs out amputation, only half the sufferers survived. of town to the Natchez Trace (they’re easy As for other pieces of the wide-rang- to miss so have maps or a cue sheet with ing military trail to pedal, you can ride you), heading south past the neat ghost the Natchez Trace north to the Raymond town of Rocky Springs to Port Gibson (40 Battlefield and on into the capital of Jackson. miles from Vicksburg via the Trace), and But nothing there gave me a feeling of those pedaling another eight paved miles on a former terrible times of 1863 or improved two-lane road (you can camp at Rocky my understanding of the campaign. The Springs and Grand Gulf). KEVIN MCMANIGAL Chickasaw Bayou battlefield did, though. There’s a short paved road to the It’s that place I’d passed when riding into Mississippi River directly across from the as they marched east from their landing were like back then. 13 miles from town Vicksburg on an April evening years before. entrance to Grand Gulf Military Monument, point of Bruinsburg. (Pedal west on the on Rodney/552, you’ll come to old Bethel This time, aboard a mountain bike, I but old Fort Cobun another mile west made two-lane blacktopped 552 — also called Church at Russum Westside Road. If you’re took a left onto Long Lake Road on the me feel closest to the men who manned the Rodney Road — from downtown; take on a mountain bike, and if there haven’t north edge of town, off Business 61 just Architectural reminder. The Illinois Monument was modeled after the Roman Pantheon. cannon. The heavy mist just after daybreak Carroll Street off Main to reach it. There’s a been any gullywashers lately, hang a left. past the National Cemetery (a resting place felt cool even as I mountain biked up the Piggly Wiggly grocery a block south; you’ll The connecting roads you want to follow for more Civil War dead than anywhere once called the Walnut Hills for the trees at Dennis Coello continues to combine his love of steep and leafy dirt and rock road to where find no stores where you’re headed.) back to Port Gibson are Shaifer next and else in the nation). I rode slowly, knowing the top, and home long ago to the Natchez history and photography with cycling. Where this the guns had been emplaced. Rodney Road/552 circles all the way Bessie Weathers after that, a left both times the loop was only a dozen miles long, past and Choctaw tribes. Then came forts built takes him next, we don’t yet know. Find out more about Dennis at denniscoello.com. Another road out of Port Gibson allows around to the Trace, but do this and when those dirt roads intersect. You’ll see brush-shrouded Alligator Lake and tree- by the Spanish, and the French, and then you to ride past Windsor Ruins, huge you’ll miss the far more memorable route historic markers for the army’s march, and lined, swampy-looking marshland. As the the Americans, before they divided north columns that once adorned a plantation Grant’s army took toward Port Gibson — after miles of dodging branches and look- dirt and sometimes crumbled pavement and south. Without victory at Vicksburg, on one of the routes Grant’s men took and the most realistic taste of what roads ing at 15-foot-high overgrown dirt walls on road looped east, I looked up at the bluffs, they might have stayed that way.

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16 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 17 Cycling Shangri-La Story and photos by Aaron Teasdale

18 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 19 It’s taken two days of driving rough, cha- hired for our initial travels, said he could otic roads — picking our way through get them for us. He knew Ha Giang and rockfall and honking around hairpin, high- would take us there with bicycles. The plan mountain turns — to penetrate one of was set. the most remote regions of Vietnam, so Our nights in Ha Giang were spent in we’re practically levitating with anticipa- the utilitarian town of Meo Vac, where we DISC TRUCKER tion when we finally remove our bikes faced more than one cultural hurdle. There from the van to ride. Mist hangs heavy are two hotels there, both recently built, in the cool air. In every direction, black and we stay in the nicer one, which is mountains launch into the clouds like giant simple and clean and just fine, except our stalagmites. As we prepare our gear, an bathroom has no toilet seat. I get nominated elderly woman and young girl holding to go to the front desk and ask about it. hands walk past on the road in brilliant, “But they don’t speak English,” I pro- varicolored clothes and scarves seemingly test. cut from rainbows. Ahead, where the road “You’ll just have to pantomime,” Dad snakes past a toss of rudimentary houses, says with a mischievous laugh. women in bright skirts carry handmade Fortunately, I find Joe in the lobby who bamboo baskets and children scamper on spares me the indignity. sharp black rocks that puncture the ground That evening, as we enjoy 75-cent Bia like upturned dragon’s scales. The young Hà N beers in a dingy restaurant, Joe girl turns and looks over her shoulder at us walks up and says, “Can you eat heart and like she’s never seen large white men with kidney?” bicycles and funny clothes before. “No!” Ron says. “No organs.” “Uh, guys, I’m pretty sure we’re on “Can you eat frogs?” another planet,” I say to my father and Ron. “No!” We jump on the bikes and start rolling “Snakes?” down a paved, black ribbon across the “No!” surlybikes.com - 1.877.743.3191 skirts of the mountains. Soon, we wheel “Grasshoppers?” into a Hmong village where women hand “No!” wash clothes beside the road. Other women “Scorpions?” step out from their homes in brightly col- “No!” ored headdresses and look at us inquisitive- “I’ll try any of those,” I say. “Do they ly as if we are from another world. There’s have them?” little doubt we are. “Not now,” Joe says, “Maybe tomor- “These people are the real deal,” Ron row.” It’s not clear if he’s serious or just says. messing with us. Then we discover the On our drive into these mountains, we’d reason for his alternate-meat inquiry — passed a lone sign on a jungly road that the kitchen is out of chicken. Considering read: Frontier Area. The border with China the countless chickens we’ve seen around is only a few miles away, but I’m starting to every corner, I’m not sure how this is pos- realize that we’ve already crossed the real Watch that guardrail. Descending through mist on the road from Ma Pi Leng Pass. sible, but I keep quiet. frontier. Ironically, the crowing of roosters wakes “I’m really enjoying this time away most beautiful place he’s ever seen and our but then only discusses the less remote us the next morning, as they do on every from Earth,” I say, as we climb into the excitement is palpable. “What do you guys areas, not mentioning Ha Giang at all. My morning in Vietnam, but there’s another van a couple hours later. Ron anoints it the think we should call this planet?” Lonely Planet guide, long the imprint for sound, too. As we step out of our hotel, It’s silent for a moment, then Ron lifts more adventurous travelers, says the area we see the foot trails webbing the moun- his palms upward and says, as if it were is a “mind blower” with “some of the most tains around Meo Vac delivering a stream self-evident, “Shangri-La.” spectacular scenery in the country,” but of Hmong and other ethnic minorities. Ron and I have come to Vietnam with devotes only a single page to discussing it. It’s market day and the center of town is my father, who wanted to return to the A few scattered reports on internet message a sea of milling, chattering people from country he fought a war in 40 years ago. boards described a landscape riddled with the region’s dozen tribes. The sound is not After a week surveying the landscape of limestone spires, caves, and deep canyons unlike a massive flock of birds. Dad’s wartime past, we came up here to populated by almost mystical hill tribes We walk around, towering over the ride bikes and explore. We’d been looking entirely removed from the modern world. kaleidoscopic milieu, watching women in for someplace off the tourist track when It sounded almost absurdly compelling. resplendently colorful textiles sell vegeta- we caught wind of Ha Giang, the country’s Then we learned that thanks to inva- bles and handicrafts, little mountain people economically poorest and most isolated sions by the Chinese as recently as 1979, everywhere, talking, bartering, laughing. province. Ron has a Frommer’s guidebook the area is still under military control and None of the women are over five feet tall. that says Northern Vietnam is “where the foreigners must secure permits to enter. The men, only slightly taller and typically CASEY GREENE rubber hits the road for adventure seekers” Joe, the Vietnamese cycling guide we’d garbed in all black, gather at long tables

20 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 21 and drink extraordinary quantities of corn countrymen who have so much find ever whiskey. My attempt to take pictures of more reasons to be dissatisfied. There’s no one of these tables without being noticed doubt life here is hard as stone, yet nearly fails when a man holding a bamboo water everyone we’d met smiled as readily as they pipe sees me and vigorously waves me over. breathed. Not just polite smiles, but smiles Though I haven’t eaten breakfast, and am from their entire face, radiating like flame. not in the habit of downing homemade The Hmong lived in mountains similar liquor before bike rides in the mountains, to these in southern China for thousands of there’s no way to politely refuse. This is years until the 18th century, when govern- actually the second time this has hap- ment persecution forced them south into pened to me this morning, so I’m unusually Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. In the last cen- “happy” when we sit down for breakfast tury, they fought alongside the French and in a small, cement-walled restaurant where Americans against Vietnamese communists. a pretty woman cooks bowls of pho, the Fiercely independent, they still don’t consid- omnipresent Vietnamese noodle soup, over er themselves Vietnamese. They are Hmong, an open fire. a word that some scholars say means “free Two hours later, we’re riding a paved Bike paths on the moon? Riding empty roads through Karst topography in Ha Giang. people.” They exist — always in the high- road that feels more like a bike path on the est, most remote mountains — independent moon, as it cuts into the side of a nearly As usual, there are virtually no cars. We “Imagine growing up here,” I say to Dad of anyone’s notion of borders or country. treeless valley of black rock, mountains stop at a pass, the road continuing into and Ron. “What if this was all you knew of More than once, Joe’s attempts at asking for rising into the low clouds like fangs. This more mist-shrouded moonscape. In the the world?” directions from Hmong we meet on road fail The future Free People. Hmong children pose warily for the camera. entire region is karst topography — an valley just below us, a family with young We talk about how the average American when they don’t speak Vietnamese. When eroded landscape shaped by the dissolving children tend to their emerald plot of veg- would cope living in this environment, I ask him about the Hmong’s relationship still controls the roadways. Though their us before we pedal off. We don’t share with action of water on carbonate bedrock (in etables amid fields of spiking black rock. where people work their fingers to the to the rest of Vietnam he says, “Not good. presence is not often seen, we do come to them the irony of taking smiling pictures this case, limestone) — at it’s most extreme. They wave and laugh when they see us. bone just to survive, while many of our Vietnamese don’t understand them. They a police checkpoint in the afternoon as we with my father, who only a few decades won’t come down in the valley. They want ride into the region’s highest mountains. It earlier was shooting at anyone wearing the to stay up here.” doesn’t take long before we’re letting the same uniform. Nuts & Bolts: Vietnam’s Ha Giang Province The Hmong may be disinterested in curious officers ride our bikes. They grin Soon we’re riding a smooth dirt road the Vietnamese nation, but the military like kids and insist on taking pictures with that twists like a serpent as it carves a high-

When to go: Saigon rides. Perhaps the most We were there in February, when alluring is a mountain-bike trip clouds often smother the hills and through northern Vietnam that  temperatures hovered in the 50s uses dirt trails to connect villages.  and 60s fahrenheit. Vietnam is a country of microclimates, but On your own:  the best months in the far north Buses are available from Hanoi are probably March through to Ha Giang, where you will June, when sun is common. need a special permit to con- September through November tinue deeper into the province. It  are cooler, not as wet as midsum- would be possible to ride here mer nor as cold as winter. self-supported on touring bikes, but the constant steep climbs  Riding: There are several entic- would require Herculean fitness, ing rides that we didn’t do in the distances between towns are area, including one up to the daunting, and decent campsites Chinese border. You could easily and surface water are hard to The author and his father, a Vietnam War vet, make a new friend.  spend five days based in either come by. That’s assuming the Meo Vac or Dong Van and do a police and military who patrol this lever controlled the front brake) — Administrative Atlas from the different mind-blowing ride every “frontier area” wouldn’t lock you you should bring your own bike. Cartographic Publishing House,  day. The road between the two up for even trying. He also rents a variety of moun- which shows all of the country’s towns is one of the most spec- tain and touring bikes. Cyclocross roads. They’re based in Hanoi tacular stretches of road on Earth. Bikes: bikes with strong wheels or stout and the atlases, as well as a  Joe has decent-quality mountain touring bikes would be perfect on variety of other more and less Guides: bikes but if you expect perfection the roads in Ha Giang. detailed maps, can be purchased  Joe Nguyen (bikingvietnam.com) — the derailleurs were somewhat there. Other maps of Vietnam, as offers cycling trips in the Ha misadjusted, one of my Dad’s Maps: well as the the Atlas, can also be Giang region and other areas brakes went out a few times, and The best single solution for seri- purchased from Omnimap (omni  of Vietnam, including Hanoi to my brakes were reversed (right ous navigation is the Vietnam map.com/catalog/vietnam.htm).

22 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 23 Schwalbe_Adventure_May10.ai 1 2/16/2011 1:14:06 PM

to pass. (In other words, it would have been great for mountain biking.) But in recent years, the Vietnamese government, fueled by one of the fastest growing economies The journey is in Asia, has poured money into modern- izing the region — paving roads, building the objective. schools, and bringing electricity to the Not the end. mountains, which, among other benefits, means that the Hmong now have a mightily The perfectly coordinated rubber compound impressive walking path. provides speed, durability and grip. Tread C One American newspaper article and side wall doubly protected. Roads M become uplifting and drift easily by. describing the road said, “it’s not for the Trails are sublime in their ruggedness. weak of stomach,” which missed the pointY DUREME is the most versatile Marathon in the high tech entirely — this is a road for cyclists whoCM Evolution series. like having their minds blown. MY Of course, for some people it’s simply home. Like the kid we meet on a classicCY developing-world bicycle: single-speed,CMY

rod brakes, battered-yet-functional rearK rack, and fenders. Though the temperature is in the 50s fahrenheit and the air misty, he wears no socks and his heavily soiled jacket is many sizes too small. He grins proudly next to his bike, but eyes ours curious- ly, with their countless gears, suspension Nighttime market. Hungry for fresh produce, Harold Teasdale and Ron Goryeb buy fruit in a village near Ba Be National Park. forks, and disc brakes. I see his look, lower my seat all the way down, and hand it over wire path along a mountainside. The sky brakes, stop, and stare. The deepest canyon with small sickles in their hands. We’re to him for a spin. Cautious at first, he’s soon www.schwalbetires.com is still murky, but we’ve moved out of the in Southeast Asia, it plunges off the road to starting to wonder what all these kids are streaking down the road with a grin as big land of tightly packed pyramids and into the Nho Que River 2,600-feet below. This doing romping unsupervised on a road that as the canyon. a higher, bigger place. A deep gorge falls is the last gasp of the Himalaya and above hangs like a shelf on a cliffside when the Before we zoom down to Meo Vac for away to our side, reaching into the distance us unseen summits atop sheer walls of gray sound of talking and laughter tip us off the evening, we see a pair of fires flashing where clouds spill off the mountains and limestone disappear into the clouds. — their families are tending fields on the through the fog on a slope above 1,000-foot everything turns to mist. A patchwork of Then one of us says, “Is that a house?” slopes plummeting below us. In some sort canyon walls. The Hmong are burning. Where will your next rice paddies terrace down the russet and We look and, impossibly, there is a scatter- of athletic miracle, many of them are actu- Along with paving roads and bringing green slopes below us. Sharp clusters of ing of homes amid a loose web of foot trails ally using water buffalo as draft animals. in electricity, the government is working adventure take you? peaks stab into the sky ahead. An occasion- somehow hewing to the mountain. “If they fell they wouldn’t stop for a to stop their practice of slash and burn al scooter and people walking are the only As we ride — soaring across the moun- long time,” Dad says. agriculture, which isn’t exactly environ- traffic, which is good because we’re having tainsides and tunneling through the mist This road through the heavens was built mentally friendly. But they’ve been living a hard time keeping our eyes on the road. — we encounter more people than vehicles, in the early 1960s, funded by the govern- this way for centuries and aren’t interested Then we climb to Ma Pi Leng Pass, or mainly children. Girls too young to babysit ment but cut into the mountainside by the in changing. At least not here, in the last “the gates of heaven,” where a canyon of in the U.S. carry infants in slings on their muscle and sweat of the Hmong and other stronghold of the old ways. such startling severity and depth opens back. Young boys herd goats on precipitous ethnic minorities. Until recently it was I’m riding alone ahead of my dad and ahead of us that we can only grab our slopes. Others scamper around on the road rough, rocky, and not wide enough for cars Ron when the road descends into a side www.co-motion.com valley away from the canyon and towards Meo Vac. There is no sound except my tires on the pavement and unknown birds Find Hidden Treasures calling from the trees. Hmong work their with Dakota Bike Tours fields, and everywhere is brown tilled earth A fully supported, on road touring company specializing in accommo- and lunar rock climbing to the clouds. The dating a wide range of riding smell of cooking fires carries from lime- abilities in spectacular terrain! stone-brick houses, their doorways aglow. Mothers nurse on porches and children play in the draining light. Women walking ...... NEW Book by COLORADO up the roadside call “hello” and giggle as I March 1st for ...... TOUR Early Bird FOR 2012 pass. I ride slowly, soaking it all in as corn Discount The Relaxed bike tours leaves gently rustle in the wind and dusk Adventure Company settles over the land. • Inn to Inn & Private Group Tours • dakotabiketours.com Photo by Thomas Close Dakota Bike Tours operates under special use permit of the Black Hills National Forest continued on page 37

24 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 25 MYRNA KOFFLER AND THE SPROCKET ROCKETS by June J. Siple

Rippling with excitement and continu- summer period to photograph cyclists along ally changing shape, the 50-person peloton the Trans-America Bicycle Trail. Dan had blocked traffic, taking over an entire lane timed his arrival at the eastern trailhead to east of Charles City, Virginia in 1976. But this coincide with the finish of both Scott's group was no race — in its midst, teens and retirees and Myrna’s. Two other bicycling crews, shifting touring gears in unison, former neo- including the vehicle-supported Golden Spoke phytes now fit as athletes, men and women (East) that started in Colorado, plus a second alike eager for the finish. Riders from all over east-bound TransAmerica camping group led the world mixed with a down-to-earth core of by Doug Young, had picked up speed to finish cyclists who had found a new and surprising with the throng of eager cyclists. love of country in the rural heart of America With satisfaction and release, Myrna — all moving along at their usual 12 to 15 watched Dan take photos, believing that the miles per hour. visit was his way of saying “no hard feelings” Burning with pride as leaders, with four and of showing respect for her cross-country groups lined up behind them, Myrna Koffler leadership. There had been harsh words of Nevada and Scott Fischer of Montana broke between Dan and Myrna not three weeks through the crepe-paper finish line at their into the journey back in Missoula, Montana, last overnight, Boy Scout Camp Chickahominy as her group limped into town. But she had near Williamsburg. Cakes inscribed with managed to finish with all 14 group mem- the greetings “Congratulations Scott and bers, an unusual feat for that summer. Many Bikecentennial Group” and “Welcome Trans- groups lost one or two discouraged riders American Trail Riders; 4,246.8 miles” whet- who headed home early, and some teams came ted appetites barely satisfied for nearly three apart completely on the trail, going months. Feeling like trailblazers, the first to separate ways. depart the West Coast in Oregon, Scott and Having completely Myrna, and their cyclist charges, were not the lost her voice from first to finish on the Virginia coast. They had so much yell- been passed by a “Fast TransAm” group that ing and talking did the trip in 55 days instead of 82, that had at the party, arrived more than three weeks earlier. But the Myrna could first “slow” groups, as Fast TransAms called not deliver them, no doubt had the biggest party. From the speech she co-leader Chris Wiscavage’s journal: “The fin- had concocted ish was incredible, hugging, dancing, general in her head and mayhem. Dan Burden had a birthday party could only squeak On August 3, 1976, Dan Burden shot this iconic arranged for Scott, compliments of his par- her good-byes at Bikecentennial photograph of Scott Fischer and ents.” the Yorktown Victory Myrna Koeffler as they led their groups to a ceremo- Director of Bikecentennial, the new non- Monument the next day. nial finish of their Oregon to Virginia TransAm rides. profit behind the summer’s rides, Burden Tears came with nearly every embrace. Even orchestrated the celebration and shot roll her “problem tripper” — a retiree who after roll of film with his ever-present Nikon repeatedly tempted two other riders into F camera. He had motored across the trail using motels and pedaling shorter, more traf- from coast to coast during a two-week mid- ficked routes — offered hugs and praise to the oft-beleaguered leader. But the group Hot weather between the passes kept them … the bike innkeeper was nowhere to be had come together in ways that would last going, but then sunburn added to their found … I went to a gas station to use a decades. woes. Brian Blair, 17 and just out of high phone … a deputy sheriff stopped in to see Her crew, the self-proclaimed “Sprocket school, wrote in his journal about 4,817- what was going on with the bikers … I told Rockets,” or “Rocketeers” not only had foot Santiam Pass: “Rain, blizzard, and Takashi Komatsu (right), the him who I was looking for; he replied that a group name, but also their own bicy- cold with lots of snow around. Thought I Japanese member of the he had passed the guy going out of town. cling graphic artist, Mike Paul, who might get frostbite when my socks froze.” Sprocket Rockets, shot this ‘He’s probably over in the next town visit- had designed a logo, patch, T-shirt, and Mike, on his birthday that day, scribbled series of portraits of his com- ing his mother. Do you want me to pick pennant, and even wrote poems about in his diary: “…constant climbing … him up and bring him in for you?’ … I did the summer. Richard “Zak” Szubeczak freezing fingers and toes, falling bikes … panions on a pass just east of get ahold of him, and he was extremely adopted a stray white kitten that kept 19.5 miles of downhill with baggies on Myrna Koffler Virginia City, Montana. rude and said that he didn’t have any- trying to follow him down the road near our feet … This day turns out badly.” A thing lined up because he didn’t believe Hazard, Kentucky. “Keats” contentedly much-anticipated grocery store near the that thousands of bikers would be riding

rode as group mascot in a handlebar bag top of the pass had burnt into a pile of BRIAN BLAIR out of Hell’s Canyon. Then he hung up cage built with spare spokes from other Santiam Pass. Only four days into the ride, blackened wood and ashes between the on me.” The sheriff and gas station owner riders. Bob “Hash” Brown (named for hash the group was discouraged by the blizzard- date the maps were printed and the after- “got busy, put their heads together, and browns) wrote trip lyrics for the gang like conditions on 4,817-foot Santiam Pass. noon the Sprocket Rockets arrived. arranged for us to get into the fairgrounds based on the Melanie tune “Brand New Takashi Komatsu, their Japanese rider … We literally had to shovel shit out of the Key.” TransAm cyclists absorbed the gritty reali- who rode on lightweight racing rims and livestock barn we were staying in … With ties of the road. Carrying sleeping bags, tires called “sew-ups,” at first carried his the wind rattling the building all night … cooking equipment, bike tools, and cloth- equipment in a backpack, including a none of us got much sleep.” From the same ing, they hauled themselves up snowy movie camera. And he soon showed prog- day, Mike Paul’s journal reads: “cross into passes in the West, pushed across windy ress in his spoken English by cursing quite Bob Brown Howard Smith Bill Harrington Michael Paul Idaho…a killer 6.9-mile climb. Bug city all Kansas plains, and battled determined clearly and lustily at the summit. In spite the way into Cambridge. We stay at fair- dogs and looming coal trucks in Kentucky of the comic relief, hunger gnawed at them grounds in a livestock show room. Wind — in what turned out to be not only a mercilessly on the shiver-provoking descent. on metal a constant roar. Ice cold shower grand adventure, but also an act of com- Bike Inns, simple overnight facilities and plugged up bathroom … Mailed T-shirt pelling patriotism. described as “low-cost shelters” in the design …” Originally, the Rocketeers felt honored October 1975 trips application, were to On days with bad weather and awful to be the first 82-day Bike Inn group to be their nightly destinations and rest day Bike Inns, Myrna endured non-stop criti- leave Reedsport on May 16, along with havens. Bike Inn groups paid extra for cism from at least a fourth of her trippers.

ESTHER PAUL their sister camping group led by Scott the luxury of indoor overnights, so they Along with bike mechanic co-leader Chris Bike Inns? Teepees outside Syringa, Idaho, Fischer. But both groups soon realized didn’t have to carry tents and they slept Wiscavage, she tried to keep group spirits pass for indoor accommodations in Region 2. that their mid-spring departure was more on the floor. “They were community halls, Sandra Shirley Frank Dow Esther Paul Mary Lou Loeschner up, but with almost nightly cleaning duties handicap than honor as they battled chill- school gyms, churches, dormitories, at to ready Bike Inns for themselves and Of the 4,100 riders on the trail in the ing passes above 4,500 feet on the way to least one house trailer, teepees, anything future groups, the troops were losing heart. summer of 1976, numerous other groups Montana. With knee pain plaguing some that could be found for the riders — a At Syringa, Idaho, just two nights were either shepherded by a trained leader riders and sore bottoms a problem for all, hodge-podge collection of places to stay,” before arriving in Missoula, they found and co-leader while crossing the U.S., or they gamely kept up with the daily sched- said co-founder Greg Siple. Golden Spoke themselves billeted outside in teepees — guided on trips as short as 12 days on rural ule, even though their riding skills were (East) trip leader Gayl Teichert recalled their Bike Inn for the night. From Myrna’s back roads. Independent riders also signed still evolving. Muscle soreness from lack other unique Bike Inns, one at a residence personal journal: “The teepees might have up, and bought Bikecentennial maps to of fitness, difficulties with sub-par person- for the developmentally disabled, plus been all right if the cots had arrived in travel on the same trail with no formal tie al equipment, and too frequently a lack of an overnight in Missouri National Guard time … we had to sleep on the ground … tents. Reportedly, at a condemned house since this is a Bike Inn group, there is much Bike Inn, her group drew water from the grumbling … I have no control over these Brian Blair wrote in his journal about well out front to flush the toilet. Brian Blair Richard Szubeczak Chris Wiscavage Bob Butnik things and I seem to be talking to a deaf ear But as the first east-bound Bike Inn in Missoula … it rained all night, and since Santiam Pass: “Rain, blizzard, and cold with group to hit every facility, the Rocketeers also worked over Region 2 in part and movie technician, he convinced the the teepees were not on level ground, the found a third of the Bike Inns from in parcel. But no field team was on the employees to seat their new nylon-clad water was running though them like little lots of snow around. Thought I might get Reedsport to Missoula dirty, unprepared, ground yet to supervise its Bike Inns and patrons. As the Sprocket Rockets swept rivers. Several of us were out with spoons and in one case, not even open. At campgrounds or promote the event with along — sometimes wiping out local food and sticks and whatever else we could find frostbite when my socks froze.” Cambridge, Idaho, both groups unknow- residents along the trail. In the worst sce- supplies with the help of their sister camp- to dig moats around them to divert the ingly pedaled into the black hole of the nario, Region 2 had no one looking after ing group — cafés, gas stations, and store water. Plus it is very cold; icicles on every- to an official trip. Young people nation- sleep plagued the TransAmers. Another trail, Region 2. Extending nearly 900 it. Locals, not used to bicycle tourists com- owners in their wake began to realize they thing in the morning.” At the next Bike wide, politically and socially jaded by the bone of contention — the new maps were miles from Cambridge, Idaho, to Sinclair, ing through their towns, generally regard- could make money from the insatiable, Inn near Lolo Pass, they were locked into a aftereffects of the Vietnam War, had signed often confusing and hard to read. Wyoming, with Missoula a third of the ed them as the crazy kin of motorcyclists unquenchable bike tourists. loft overnight, a dangerous oversight of the up in droves for the official bicentennial On six of their first 17 days, the group way into the region from the west, it had and panhandlers. When Myrna’s group The worst of Region 2’s neglect showed Bike Inn keepers. event, many of them non-cyclists. was tortured by snowstorms and ice on been researched and Bike Inns established. was refused service at an Oregon restau- up in its lack of Bike Inn cleanliness and Before their group commenced travel With the spirit of exploring the coun- passes, interspersed with cold, rainy days, Regional Coordinators (field teams) hired rant, Howard Smith intervened. At age 67, preparation. Myrna’s notes for Cambridge, in Oregon, a complex and unworkable try inch by inch like pioneers, Myrna’s and spells of unfavorable, chilly winds. for the other four regions of the trail had their oldest rider and retired Hollywood Idaho, record her frustration: “May 27 trips meal program had folded. The $5

28 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 29 per-day food allotment was dependent temporarily stationed at on pre-arranged discount meals through the fairgrounds, refused to local cafés, churches, and other entities, let the cyclists be indoors but the field teams found little local inter- during their rest day. That TAWB516 is the 'trip code' for the Spocket Rockets group. TA is for Transam. W is for originating in the West. B is for est. The cyclists needed at least $1 to $2 was the last straw. Mutiny Bike Inn. 516 designates the May 16 departure date. more per person to get enough calories for was in the air. Myrna had to their grueling regimen and had to dip into act. But she did not shy away personal funds to make up the difference. from her responsibility to the Chris, on an extremely tight budget, often Rocketeers. ate with their sister camping group, where Myrna had grown into adult- his cooking skills were most welcome. hood as toughness personified. He helped prepare economical meals for From third through seventh answers. It’s beyond grades, she had to jockey for posi- the leader’s ability to fix tion daily with 200 other children those things. She’s trying at the Montana State Orphanage to protect the organiza- in Twin Bridges, Montana, where tion while pacifying the she was raised by her father, trippers, and how are head electrician, and her mother, shoulders and she felt you going to do that? occasional cook in the institution’s instant relief. But a sink- She’s probably had three kitchen. The 29-year-old mother of ing regret crept into her heart. weeks of hell, and he’s sons aged 8 and 12, she had gone She didn’t want it to end — she treating her like that. She through a divorce four years earlier. wanted it to be better. They stood back, wasn’t backing down — I As a self-supporting accountant before at first stupefied by their mutual outburst. thought ‘good, go for it.’ Tally ho! For the big finish, group member Michael Paul fash- Bikecentennial, she had been in daily “I was just stunned,” Bonnie Hoffmann She wasn’t going to accept ioned a huge pennant from a bath towel. The three-foot-long contact with New York Stock Exchange reflected, “thinking like, this is bad.” what he was saying — she banner was flown atop a wand at the head of the group by bosses in top management. Seated near Dan’s desk with husband wanted some guarantee of Chris Wiscavage. Recently it was donated to Adventure Cycling No reliable system had been set up Tim Leifer, the two had a big stake in better conditions for her by Richard Szubeczak for display in the Missoula headquarters. to help leaders iron out problems on the what seemed to be happening. Tim and group,” Bonnie recalled. road or provide support in an emergen- Bonnie had created and co-directed “But they both did sit down again, and leaders on the trail that summer, accord- cy. If Myrna called at night for advice, summer suffered the Bikecentennial’s leadership training pro- we started talking in a more controlled ing to Bonnie, stood quietly listening, and no one may have answered, or she might most from this lack of sup- gram. They had been organizing for just manner, and Dan let us have a presence in later told Myrna out on the sidewalk, “He have talked to the carpenter who was still port. over a year by late spring of 1976, having the conversation,” she went on. thinks we’re trouble-causers.” Myrna cried building desks and walls in the run-down But at the head of Myrna’s list scoured the country for potential leaders, Dan had been lecturing Myrna about on his shoulder, “Me, a trouble-causer?

DAN BURDEN office. During the day, a bookkeeper with were gripes about unprepared Bike Inns, advisers and course directors. The final the necessity of making the best of every I’m a friggin’ Pollyanna!” she protested. The 15th Sprocket Rocket. On July 24, no bicycling interest or experience, or and she painfully climbed the 25 steps 350 leaders selected had been assigned situation, maintaining a positive attitude Conceived in 1973 by co-founder Greg Richard Szubeczak rescued a stray kitten from likewise a secretary with no information to the office at 430 North Higgins above and were already on the road or awaiting and having sympathy for the overworked Siple as a mass ride to start at Golden Gate the side of the road near Booneville, Kentucky, about the route, would dutifully answer Eddie’s Club bar. Unbeknownst to her, their departure dates. staff — and the chat had boiled over Park in San Francisco, Bikecentennial had and carried it to the finish. “Keats” went home the phone and try to help. Or Myrna the previous evening Dan had invited a According to Bonnie, “I remember into argument. But Myrna was tired of instead fortunately morphed into a sum- with Richard and lived for nine years. might have been lucky enough to call few disgruntled members of the group being horrified. He's yelling at this leader excuses and, under the pressure of Dan’s mer-long series of departures. Group rides over to his house, not including Myrna. who's struggling. I thought, ’Wait a min- scolding, felt her allegiance shift from across America had been done before, but them in which he could share rock-bottom After the visit turned into a gripe-fest, ute. We are not going to lose one of our Bikecentennial to her long-suffering never on the scale of hundreds at a time, expenses. Meanwhile, his Bike Inn group Dan likely thought something had to be leaders.’” Myrna’s group of 12, not includ- group. Earlier, Dan had pulled another let alone thousands. Two of the four co- mostly ate out. done to appease them and felt Myrna was ing leader and co-leader, “were people leader, Doug Young, into the meeting founders, Dan and Lys Burden — with In addition to tolerating to blame for the group’s troubles. He was who have paid money and have expecta- from the hallway, saying, “You need to Dan as director — had shouldered the Bikecentennial’s early-season shortcom- prepared to let her go. tions and who are going to the leader for hear this, too.” But Doug, one of the best project and anticipated 30,000 sign-ups, ings herself, Myrna had developed knee Like a union boss, seated in Dan’s problems and felt worn down physically office, she was ready to face management and emotionally. Now in perpetual knee- about better conditions for her crew. At warmer garb to ease her pain — wool four-foot, eleven-and-a-half-inches tall, socks with the toes cut out — she, along and 95 pounds, Myrna jumped out of with all her riders, longed for a solid rest her chair, glare-to-glare with the six- day and good weather in Missoula. As foot, three-inch, 186-pound Dan Burden.

one of the bigger towns on the mostly “Dan was sick of my complaints about BRIAN BLAIR rural trail, and “World Headquarters” of Big miles. An early cyclometer keeps track the Bike Inns. ‘So do something about it,’ Bikecentennial, it offered amenities such as of speed and distance. I said.” They went back and forth until, bike shops, outdoor stores, and movie the- like careening bullets “You’re fired!” aters. All-you-can-eat restaurants were on when experienced cyclists, who made up rang out as “I quit!” ricocheted around tripper’s “to do” lists, and three riders had at least half the staff, were on duty in the Dan’s bare-bones office. The weight of 17 severe enough knee pain to warrant trips trips, graphics, or leadership departments. days’ worth of late spring bicycle tour- to the doctor. Then the Missoula Bike Inn, Groups leaving both coasts early in the ing hardship suddenly lifted from her

30 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 31 having assembled a staff of 40 by the two groups to better prepare Bike Inns, spring of 1976. campgrounds, and the communities ahead. During a period of three years, And the War Room, a 24-hour office with Open Road Gallery but with most work done during the a red phone and cot for the night shift, 18-month period leading up to the sum- was quickly set up by Ron Mittino, a new mer, they established the route; raised employee brought in from California. An donations; started a membership drive; experienced leadership course advisor KINDNESS, HOPE, AND BELIEF pursued every avenue for free publicity; by Sarah Raz Photograph by Greg Siple advertised; coaxed federal, state, and local agencies to get involved and lend support; organized as a non-profit; and located a dilapidated second-floor space to remodel and equip. They hired a determined crew to research trail facilities; run the trips department; create maps; write and edit guidebooks, newsletters, and how-to guides; and added a program to train and hire leaders. Aided by other staff, they recruited four of five field teams needed to The grand finale. TransAmers celebrate and get the trail up to speed and troubleshoot leader Scott Fischer makes the first cut in his during the summer, plus tried to manage birthday cake. the office and deal with the growing pains of the mushrooming operation. with a sunny disposition, Ron answered The proverbial “tall order,” it was near- desperate leaders’ questions and handled ly impossible to accomplish so much with tricky situations deftly, plus trained staff so little time, and so few resources. By the to cover other shifts. time the first eastbound groups arrived For the Sprocket Rockets and the in Missoula, office morale had crumbled remainder of their journey, things never under the unrelenting weight of work. seemed as bad as the days before Missoula, Fissures appeared in friendships as the and they rode steadily eastward, “We did staff gritted their teeth to “hang in there” it! Sea to shining sea,” Myrna wrote on the through the summer. Seven-day, 60- to last day in Virginia. Their joyful triumph 80-hour work weeks for a $300 monthly at Chickahominy comes back to life with

DAN BURDEN (5) salary had worn out and frustrated the every reunion, and their finish photos still staff. Interdepartmental communications grace the wall to this day at Adventure were almost nil. Office tempers frayed, but Cycling’s “World Headquarters.” the staff hung on in survival mode. But Myrna had, in fact, just success- June J. Siple, a Bikecentennial co-founder, has lived MEET ADAM JOSEPH GRIECO. HE’S FROM KING GEORGE, VIRGINIA, AND A LOT LIKE YOU OR ME EXCEPT that fully negotiated changes that immediately in Missoula, Montana, since 1975 with Greg Siple, he rode 7,000 miles around the U.S. on his Cannondale during the summer of 2011. He left on his Adventure Cycling’s decades-long art director. Myrna benefited all leaders. A husband-wife (Koffler) Rafalovich has retired from Rogue River journey on April 17 and returned triumphantly on August 19. “I did it because I really wanted to team, Jim Richardson and Linda Thorpe, Outfitting and lives with her husband Bob, shoots clay see the country,” he said. “I felt that if I didn’t do it I would be a failure in life.” quickly packed up to temporarily abandon pigeons, and competes in agility with her dog “Will” in Grieco didn’t originally plan to make it a round trip. But you know how it goes. Sometimes their Bikecentennial management jobs to Oregon. The Sprocket Rockets are planning a 40th anni- when you’re riding you just can’t stop. “I had originally just planned to ride to Los Angeles, but take on needed trail work for Region 2. versary ride in 2016. then I decided to ride up to Oregon to visit my father. Then I realized that whatever it was that I Once on the road, they motored past the was seeking I still hadn’t found. So I kept on.” He camped in deserts, state parks, and behind gas stations. Often Greico would stay with total strangers; compassionate folks who took him in and trusted him. Once he stayed for three days with a Lakota family in South Dakota after they called Made in Oregon him in off the sweltering road for a drink of cold water. These stories of kindness, hope, and belief A Dream becomes with pride were, for Adam, at least the beginning of the answer he was searching for. We can all learn a lesson from Adam Joseph Grieco. He wanted to see the American heartland, a Memory one pedal Bike Friday’s 33 employees in Eugene so he rode into it. He felt something was missing in his life, so he went out in the world to find it. stroke at a time. celebrate Made in America month He knew he couldn't do it alone, so he looked for support from those who believed in him. He was by offering $100 toward shipping not too stubborn, not too set in his ways to learn from the people and the landscape around him. Bring your camera. on a new Bike Friday for Perhaps most importantly, Grieco understood that the best way to clear your head is ”a long, long Adventure Cycling members until December 30. bike ride.” From Adventure Cycling’s National Bicycle Touring Portrait Collection. © 2011 Adventure Cycling Association. BIKE FRIDAY ® Visit BikeFriday.com PROMO CODE: 1809 touring / road / mountain /commuter /tandem 800-777-0258

32 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 33 Mechanical Advantage

a cyclist. Therefore, at night, your lights need it: onto the road. Most of these SEE AND BE SEEN should be set to emit a steady beam. You lights come from Germany, because Product Update: A Look at Bicycle Lighting want to see and be seen, but you don’t German traffic laws require a cut-off want to blind oncoming traffic. beam to prevent blinding oncoming traf- The Cygolite by Jan Heine How Bright? fic. However, in Germany, it is illegal to Expilion 400 Almost all modern headlights use ride a bicycle (except lightweight racers) I reviewed the Expilion 250 in the LEDs instead of halogen bulbs. LEDs are without dynamo-powered lights. Until April 2011 issue of Adventure much more efficient so you get a greater recently only generator-powered lights Cyclist and just wanted to add an Modern LED lights have revolutionized bicycle lighting, providing light output. For generator-powered carry the German certification that iden- update: This version of the lights, this means lower resistance and tifies the cut-off beam. Expilion has been upgraded from more light output for less energy. Battery-powered lights are fine more light. For battery-powered lights, Even with beams that are cut off at 250 lumens to 400 but the price for occasional use and can double as flashlights. For frequent, you get a longer run time from the same the top, the headlight must be oriented will remain the same: $139 (and batteries. carefully to avoid blinding oncoming I’ve seen it as low as $115). The longer night-time riding, hub generators offer the best solution. Light beams should As a result, most modern lights are traffic. To check your headlight orienta- Expilion 400 is very similar to the bright enough. Generally, you need tion, ride your bike on a busy trail at 250 lumen version but with these be asymmetric to avoid blinding oncoming traffic and to optimize the light output. different features: The light pattern brighter lights for urban riding where night. If you can see the faces of oncom- is a bit wider and more inclusive Riding at Night side, small battery-powered lights light pollution means that your eyes ing cyclists, your light is oriented too of surroundings; the light color is It can happen to anybody. You can double as flashlights. For occa- don’t adjust completely to the darkness. high. slightly more yellow when com- underestimated the time it would sional night riding, battery-powered To be seen in the city, you have to com- With the best lights, you can ride at pared to the super white light of take to cross two mountain passes. lights are an inexpensive solution. pete with many other light sources. Out night as well as during the day. During the 250; there is one more light You watch the sun setting behind the Generator-powered lights have in the country, your eyes adjust to the our Flèche 24-hour ride, we descended setting, boost, which is the op- jagged peaks that tower above the the advantage of unlimited run time. darkness. An overly bright headlight has on winding roads at speeds of up to 40 tion that provides the max of 400 valley. The sky turns bright orange You provide the power not just to you riding in a cone of light, unable to MPH in the middle of a moonless night, lumens; and the run times are now with shades of purple. As you enjoy propel the bike but also to illuminate see around corners or to notice critters our lights illuminating the road far ahead 2/3/6/13.5/24. That’s 2 hours on the beautiful spectacle, you suddenly the road. Most modern systems use by the side of the road that may run in with their wide beams. boost, 3 hours on high, 6 hours on realize that you still face an hour’s generator hubs that have close to zero front of your wheels and cause you to Taillights medium, 13.5 on low, and 24 hours of flashing. ride until you reach your camp- resistance when switched off, and fall. Out in the country, your lights will Taillights should be bright and red. Otherwise, the upgraded ver- ground or hotel. Darkness is falling very little resistance when switched be the only light source, so you are very Flashing red taillights have become sion is almost identical to the 250. rapidly. Fortunately, your bike is on. Modern generator-powered head- noticeable to other road users. accepted in urban environments. It can be charged by USB micro via equipped with lights so you simply and taillights include standlights Beam Pattern Motorists perceive them as indicating computer or electrical outlet, can flip a switch and continue your ride, (the light continues to shine for sev- A headlight’s output in watts or even “slow-moving cyclist ahead.” On open be mounted on your handlebars, now more visible to other traffic than eral minutes after you stop), greatly JAN HEINE lumens tells you little about how useful roads, a steady taillight may be advanta- stem, or helmet (mount included), you were during the day. After the increase safety for urban riding. it is for night-time riding. Much more geous as it allows approaching traffic and is watertight. It is also slightly glare of the sun, riding at night provides night can stretch the distance you cycle The higher initial cost of generator important is the beam pattern. For a to gauge the speed and distance of the smaller than other bike lights in a welcome respite for your eyes. You hear before needing to replenish your water. systems is offset by the fact that you will pleasant night-time riding experience, cyclist. There is some indication that its class and is very light at 130 different sounds as the nocturnal crit- If you face a road that sees a lot of traffic never have to buy batteries or replace the headlight beam needs to be wide flashing lights may attract the eyes of grams. Additionally, you can buy ters awake, and before you realize it, you during the day, riding at night can make your rechargeable ones once they no lon- enough to illuminate the entire road and drunk drivers, making them more likely an extra quick-release battery, keep it charged, and double your have reached your destination for the for a more tranquil and safe experience. ger hold a charge. For extended night- beyond, so you can ride around curves to hit objects with flashing lights than run times. day. Furthermore, riding under the stars or a time riding, I find generator-powered without riding into the dark. The transi- those with steady illumination. For more about the Cree LED Just as we would not consider buying full moon is an unforgettable experience. lights the best option. tion from light to dark should be gradu- Reflective materials technology used in the Expilion, a car without lights, even if we intend to Batteries or Generator? Flashing or Steady? al. The beam should be long enough to In addition to your lights, it is useful you can check it out here: cree. travel mostly during the day, it is useful Your lighting choices will go a long Flashing lights can be useful during illuminate high-speed descents at night. to add reflective material to your bike com/products/ledlamps_hb.asp. to equip our bikes with lights. Even dur- way toward making cycling at night safe low-light daytime conditions because Many inexpensive lights have round or clothing. Pedal reflectors or reflective Also, Jan Heine mentions that ing daytime, you may encounter tunnels and enjoyable. Your most basic choice is they draw attention to the cyclist. At reflectors like those of flashlights. This ankle bands are very visible and clearly some German lights have asym- or fog that require illumination. between battery-powered or generator- night, flashing lights tend to blind projects half of your light output above indicate to approaching traffic that you metric reflectors because the Ger- Lighting technology has made huge powered lights. Basic battery lights are oncoming traffic, and they make it hard the horizon into the sky. Not only is this are a cyclist. man Road Traffic Licensing Regu- progress in recent years — to the point inexpensive initially, but you will have for the cyclist to see potholes and other wasted light, but it can be dangerous With the right lights, cycling at night lations require a cut-off beam. A where riding at night has become as to budget for batteries. More expensive obstacles in the road. The human eye because it blinds and dazzles oncoming can be pleasant and safe. Good lights good example of this is the Sigma Lightster, which will be reviewed in easy and enjoyable as riding in daylight. lights often come with rechargeable bat- adapts to low light conditions by open- traffic. Imagine a car coming toward you allow you to see and be seen by other more depth in an upcoming issue. Although most of us tour during the day teries. The need to hook up to an outlet ing the pupil and letting in more light. with its high beams on. traffic. For more about the Lightster, see to enjoy the scenery and to meet people, can pose a problem if you are camping. This means that flashing lights are per- The best lights have asymmetric sigmasport.com/us/produkte/ an occasional night-time stage can be use- All battery-powered lights have a limited ceived as extremely bright and painful. reflectors similar to those used in car Jan Heine is editor of Bicycle Quarterly, a magazine beleuchtung. about the culture, technology, and history of cyclotour- ful. When faced with crossing a desert run time so you need to keep track of Furthermore, flashing lights make it dif- headlights. Their beam is cut off at the -Mike Deme ing. His blog is at www.janheine.wordpress.com. with few services, riding during the cooler how much charge remains. On the plus ficult to judge the distance and speed of top so all the light is going where you

34 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 35 36 - ADS - 37

continued from page 25 TOPBICYCLE TOURS IN CENTRAL EUROPE ALASKA BICYCLE TOURS — with BIKE THE FLORIDA KEYS — The ultimate — 7 to 10-day self-guided and guided cycling Sockeye Cycle, since 1988. Offering guided Bicycle Vacation. Bike the entire key system, The next morning, our last in Ha Giang, vacations. We are a specialist for bike tours trips throughout our breathtaking region. down and back. Fully-supported includ- in Central Europe since 1996. We concen- Experience the beauty of Alaska and the ing breakfasts and most dinners. Beautiful we head right back up to the road to Ma Pi trate only on the countries where we live: Yukon with local guides and gourmet cui- sunsets. Swim with the dolphins. Snorkel. Leng Pass. We have to see it one last time. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, sine. 877-292-4154 www.cyclealaska.com. Dive. The Seven Mile Bridge just might be “Well, I just hope we get some good scen- Germany, and Poland. Visit and ride between the most beautiful seven miles you will ever ery today,” Ron says on the ride up. classifiedRate: $115 for the first 30 words, $2 for each additional word. For more information,ads please contact the beautiful cities of Vienna, Prague, COAST 2 COAST — Hassle free closely fol- bike. November 5–12, 2011. Details from As we stand on the roadside looking out Rick Bruner at phone/fax: (509) 493-4930, email: [email protected]. Budapest, Krakow, Salzburg, Dresden, and lowing Southern Tier averaging 63 miles per BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or BikerBubba@ Passau. Carefully planned self-guided tours. day. Fully supported including freshly- pre- aol.com. over the world a short while later, a vibrant Small guided groups with local knowledge- pared great-tasting meals, and a mechanic. Bicycle Touring Gear Help Wanted able guides. We can customize our tours You dip your rear wheel into the Pacific and HISTORICAL TRAILS CYCLING — OREGON THETOURINGSTORE.COM — Buy Expedition JOIN THE CYCLE AMERICA SUMMER STAFF according to your wishes. Quality bike rental your front wheel into the Atlantic, I will TRAIL TOUR 2012 — Ride through the Quality Panniers, Racks, & Bicycle Touring — Spend an adventuresome summer travel- available. www.topbicycle.com. info@top do everything in between. March 8 – April history of Ruts, Wagons, Forts, Cowboys Gear at Great Prices! See Ortlieb, Tubus, ing while sharing ride and work respon- bicycle.com. 30, 2012. BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or and Indians on Americas Mother Road. Lone Peak, and More! Questions? Call Wayne sibilities. Positions include: Tour Support [email protected]. Fully supported, affordable, camping tour. 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Tel: 1-800-613-0390. carolinatailwinds.com; 888-251-3206. bike.com 920-427-6086. & More! 1-800-717-2596. Italy, Greece, Norway, and Ireland. Guided chasm and swirling overhead — it occurs and self-guided. Van-supported. Friendly CYCLOCAMPING.COM — SAVE on Bicycle guides. Charming inns. Custom groups BIKE ITALY WITH SICICLANDO! — Explore ALL RIDES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL — WANDERING WHEELS — Since 1966 Border to me that this may be the most visually Touring Gear & Camping Equipment. 50+ anytime. Over 70% return clientele since the beautiful coastlines of Italy by sea and Challenge yourself riding 400+ miles and to Border (Jacksonville, FL to Cleveland, striking combination of people and land- Top Quality Brands - Ranked in the TOP 1% 2005! Toll Free Phone: 877-777-5699. Please land. Join our NEW BIKE & BOAT TOURS climbing 30,000’ through the Scenic Byways OH) April 17-May 9, 2012. Designed to be scape on the planet. I don’t yet understand in 2012. Bike during the day and relax on and National Parks of the West. 714-267-4591 enjoyable, 60-mile days. You can expect at ResellerRatings.com - FAST Shipping + email us at dana@pedalandseaadventures. how lucky we are to be here now, at this FREE Shipping on orders >$120 - Enjoy our com or visit our website: www.pedalandsea the boat in the afternoon as you go to the www.cyclingescapes.com. great culture, comfortable weather, and Forum, Daily Articles and our Experts Corner adventures.com. next port, the next adventure. Choose a good cycling terrain. Totally supported with moment in time. We won’t realize just how at www.cyclocamping.com. Bike & Boat Tour of the Amalfi Coast or CYCLE CANADA! — Affordable Supported indoor accommodations, just you and your endangered the Hmong’s lives here are until CREATE YOUR OWN CYCLING TOUR OF Sicily. Tours available June and September of Tours Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia’s Cabot bike. 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VACATION BICYCLING — “After taking more of these mountains, Ron says, “Well guys, Tandems - Greenspeed, HP VeloTechnik North American Tours RIDE TWO STATES — Two Countries – Five than 90 bicycle tours, Vacation Bicycling is now that we’ve seen this, what’s the TIMBERLINE ADVENTURES — Fully sup- day, 350-mile fully-supported ride September one of our top 10 experiences!” We provide Trikes - Electra Touring. Jay’s Pedal Power, FULLY GUIDED AND SUPPORTED CYCLE meaning of life?” 512 E. Girard Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19125; TOURS IN HUNGARY — Castle hotels with ported bicycling & hiking adventure vaca- 18-22, 2012 on the International Selkirk beautiful 7-day tours from $1099, includ- (215) 425-5111, Toll-free (888) 777-JAYS, Visit unique atmosphere. Gastronomic adventures, tions with an organization whose sole focus Loop, incredible Scenic Byway through ing hotels, food & SAG through Martha’s We’re quiet for a minute, then my dad our website at: www.jayspedalpower.com. finest wines. Nicest routes & sights, nature for 26 years is extraordinary adventure Washington, Canada, Idaho. www.WaCanId. Vineyard/Cape Cod, NC Outer Banks, Maui, says, “I’ve decided it’s not about my car.” & culture, healing spas, superb bikes. www. throughout western U.S. & Canada. Website: org or 888-823-2626. Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, Florida Keys and This is why we travel. To find places www.timbertours.com Email: timber@earth Canada’s Prince Edward Island. Come join us! ARRIVING BY BIKE — Eugene, Oregon’s tradnaturasport.hu, info@tradnaturasport. that fill us with wonder, with people so Urban Cycling Outfitters. Gear, guidance hu. net.net Phone: 800-417-2453. RAINSTORM™ — July 16-21, 2012. Need 800-490-2173 www.VacationBicycling.com. and enthusiasm to support your life-bik- coast-to-coast preparation? Try five cen- different they cause us to question the ing. Basil, Ortlieb, Tubus, Detours, Showers EUROPE — 200 ROUTES IN 30 COUNTRIES WOMEN ONLY BIKE TOURS — For all turies over five days, with a 160-mile ride WARM UP YOUR SPRING! — Fall is here way we live — and maybe even help us Pass, Ibex and Endura plus loads of fenders, — Bike Tours Direct - Guided and self-guid- ages and abilities. Fully supported, inn-to- on day six. Inn or motel accommodations, and the chill of winter upon us. Why not let discover the meaning of life. inn, bike path & road tours. Cross-country, air conditioning, free WiFi, seven catered your mind wander into 2012 and the warmer, lights, reflectives, tools and Brooks saddles. ed tours with European bike tour companies. As we steer our bikes once more across Xtracycles! 2705 Willamette St., 541.484.5410, Weekly and daily departures. Tours from National Parks, Europe & more. Bicycle work- meals. Contact: 812-333-8176, [email protected], longer days of spring and early summer? Let [email protected]. $600. From familiar - Loire Valley, Provence, shops, wine tasting, yoga. Call for free cata- or www.triri.org. us entice you with our 2012 spring tours the mountain faces of Ha Giang, repeated Danube, Tuscany, Bavaria, Ireland - to exotic log. 800-247-1444, www.womantours.com. — fully-supported events in the warmer calls of “Woo woo!” carry from the moun- TANDEMS EAST — Road, Mountain and - Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia, Adriatic CYCLE AMERICA® COAST‑TO‑COAST — climes of Arizona, Texas, and Utah! Imagine tainside above. I stop to look up, and hear a CROSSROADS CYCLING ADVENTURES Enjoy a Fully Supported Cycling Vacation this yourself riding through stunning landscapes, Travel Tandems. Over 60 in stock. Wheel build- island-hopping. 877-462-2423 www.bike cascade of laughter when I wave at a group ing, child conversions, repairs, parts catalog, toursdirect.com. [email protected]. — Celebrating 15 years of excellence! Come Summer. Explore North America’s treasures looking out over spectacular vistas unen- test rides. Back-stocking Conti and Schwalbe ride with Tracy Leiner - owner, cyclist and on an epic Coast‑to‑Coast tour from Seattle to cumbered by gear and the daily search for of a dozen women and children tending a touring tires. 86 Gwynwood Dr, Pittsgrove, NJ FREEWHELLING ADVENTURES – GUIDED tour director. Tracy travels with every group, Boston. Choose one or ride several Cross State sustenance. You might say that it doesn't get field together. Talking and laughter seem to 08318. Phone: (856) 451-5104, Fax: (856) 453- AND SELF-GUIDED — Small groups and everyday managing daily logistics, driving segments. Good Friends, Great Routes and any better than this, but yes it does! We're issue constantly from these singing moun- support vans and pedaling with her cyclists. First‑Rate Support! Let us help you plan your offering our 2012 tours at 2011 prices! See 8626. Email: [email protected] or visit our private trips for 25 years. Famous and unusu- tains, where the hill tribes are forever at website at: www.tandemseast.com. al rides in Canada, Iceland, Europe, Israel, Small groups, personal attention, superior next fun and affordable cycling adventure. our website or call us for more information. Central America. Go your own pace. Choose accommodations and meals. Extensive pre- 800‑245‑3263. www.CycleAmerica.com. www.adventurecycling.org/tours (800) 755- work coaxing life from stone. Events hills and distances or flat and relaxed. 800- trip support including training plan and tele- 2453. BICYCLE RIDE ACROSS GEORGIA (BRAG) 672-0775; www.freewheeling.ca; bicycle@ phone consultations. Rider reference list avail- AMERICA BY BICYCLE, INC. — Your full There’s even more to this story at — Spring Tune-Up Ride, April 20-22, 2012, freewheeling.ca. able. (800) 971-2453 www.crossroadscycling. service bicycle touring leader. Chose from 38 Madison, GA. 33rd Annual Bicycle Ride com. tours ranging from 5 to 52 days. Let us take adventurecycling.org/teasdale_vietnam. Across Georgia, June 2-9, 2012. Great fun for you on your dream ride — Coast to Coast! families and groups. Various mileage options. abbike.com. 888-797-7057 FREE CATALOG. Aaron Teasdale is an award-winning writer and 770-498-5153, [email protected], www.brag.org. photographer specializing in outdoor adventure, natu- ral history, and conservation. You can find out more about him at aaronteasdale.blogspot.com.

36 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 37 38 - ADS - 39

The World’s Best Bike Tours Featuring the marketMarketplace ads start at $195 per issue. For rate information, place please please contact Rick Bruner. Most Beautiful Rides Phone/fax: (509) 493-4930, Email: [email protected]. Our Affordable More Miles for Less Tours Include Italy Tuscany | Piedmont | Puglia Sardegna | Italian Alps Spain NEW Gran Canaria Plus Croatia, Austria & Czech, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Greece & More 6 day tours from $2,695 Fully Guided and Supported 35

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CELEBRATE THE BICYCLE With see me® wear™ they will. 100% cotton l $17 l Order from Adventure Cycling’s Online Store • Fluorescent colors increase the distance Excellent for bikes with no Water Bottle a driver sees you 5 ½ times! www.adventurecycling/store (Bicycling, December 2010 pg. 34) mounts or an extra bottle for long rides. • See the demo at our website. Replaces the Top-Cap on threadless stems. • Made in USA. Colors won’t fade. Remove the Top-Cap, mount with the long • 100% poly for maximum wicking. Invisible ½ zipper, 3 back pockets. end forward, install cage, go for a ride. • Long sleeve and windbreaker available November 1st.

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38 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 39 Adventure Cycling Association Non-profit P.O. Box 8308 U.S. POSTAGE Missoula, Montana 59807-8308 PAID Adventure Cycling Association

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Find it in Arizona, Nevada, Texas or Utah in 2012! Death Valley Loop · Las Vegas, NV · March 10-16, 17-23 & 24-30 Arizona Road Adventure · Tucson, AZ · March 10-16 Texas Hill Country · New Braunfels, TX · April 7-13 Cycle Utah · St George, UT · June 9-15

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