Ride Suggestion / Tour Guide Thread

[jlm43]

Between Land Cruisers and bicycles, I'm sure most of us here would enjoy a post ride adult beverage with one another. I'll go first.

I mostly ride in the central Maine area. Bangor / Old Town / Orono area to be more precise. Sugarloaf / Carrabassett Valley and Acadia NP are also on my list of frequent riding locations. If anyone is ever in one of those areas, please reach out. I'd be more than happy to play tour guide for a day.

Also, I'll be driving north on the Blue Ridge Parkway with my adult daughter the week of Thanksgiving. Well, from Asheville to the northern end. Any "must do" rides or hikes along that route would be greatly appreciated. Plan A is to have a few days riding the Greenville SC to Asheville NC corridor with a buddy of mine. I'm not sure where just yet, he lives there and will be the tour guide. After that, I'll be picking up my daughter in Charlotte on Friday the 21st and driving back with the only requirement being that we make it to CT by Wednesday evening. I will have the LX all set up for camping along the way but will probably do a hotel for a night or two. Any suggestions on campsites is also greatly appreciated.

 

[jlm43]

If this thread works as I think it might, I'll update this post with usernames and locations for ease of finding the location of choice.

@jlm43
Maine - Bangor, Sugarloaf / Carrabassett Valley, and Acadia NP.
I probably have a spare bike and full access to all the tools for fixing bikes, trucks, and aircraft if needed.

 

[OGBeno]

@OGBeno:

Southern Arizona, Tucson, Borderlands, Southwestern NM.

Have a full-service bike shop at the house; And access to a bike shop in Tucson.

Have plenty of room to host/Tons of public lands for camping, etc.

Have Land Cruiser shop to work on Land Cruisers: www.olc4x4.com

 

[OGBeno]

If this thread works as I think it might, I'll update this post with usernames and locations for ease of finding the location of choice.

@jlm43
Maine - Bangor, Sugarloaf / Carrabassett Valley, and Acadia NP.

My brother has a vacation home on Long Lake and lives in Naples. Definitely bringing a bike next time I come out and I haven't been up in your neck of the woods since college. Will definitely hit you up!

Great idea for a thread.

 

[jlm43]

My brother has a vacation home on Long Lake and lives in Naples. Definitely bringing a bike next time I come out and I haven't been up in your neck of the woods since college. Will definitely hit you up!

Great idea for a thread.

Beautiful area! Back in the late 90's, Chute's was my "go to" bakery in Casco.
If you come this way, I can make any bike work. Acadia is perfect for gravel / road riding. Bangor doesn't have much for hills so the SS works great. Sugarloaf is full squish territory. Choose your poison.

 

[CruiserTrash]

@OGBeno:

Southern Arizona, Tucson, Borderlands, Southwestern NM.

Have a full-service bike shop at the house; And access to a bike shop in Tucson.

Have plenty of room to host/Tons of public lands for camping, etc.

Have Land Cruiser shop to work on Land Cruisers: www.olc4x4.com

Sold. We’re gonna start planning haha. Might be a nice winter trip.

My suggestion is probably a bit of an obvious one: RAGBRAI. If you have even a remote interest in riding all day and eating homemade pie every couple hours, I highly recommend it. Before you go make up your mind about how you’re going to approach it. You can either get up early, ride all day, and get to the next stop, or you can wake up late, casually make it to whatever town is halfway, drink a ton of beer, and ride the sag wagon. Seems like the split on that is 50/50. For extra fun, don’t register, just show up and ride the whole week self supported with your bivy, clothes, and food. Yes, it’s an enormous group ride that’s all planned out, but it’s also very high on the fun scale. Early morning departure times mean less crowds. Lots of regular bikes but plenty of weird ones too, which is cool to see. Hard to beat just riding all day for a week.

I’m also looking for recommendations for easy MTB trails in and around Denver. I need to get this old rigid 26er out on some dirt. Mild challenge & good scenery is what I’m after. I’m not afraid to go over the bars but also don’t necessarily need to set myself up for that. Anybody?

 

[Somebodyelse5]

Phoenix, AZ
Close to trails + can fix. Always willing to host a South Mountain ride.

 

[SmoothLC]

Sold. We’re gonna start planning haha. Might be a nice winter trip.

My suggestion is probably a bit of an obvious one: RAGBRAI. If you have even a remote interest in riding all day and eating homemade pie every couple hours, I highly recommend it. Before you go make up your mind about how you’re going to approach it. You can either get up early, ride all day, and get to the next stop, or you can wake up late, casually make it to whatever town is halfway, drink a ton of beer, and ride the sag wagon. Seems like the split on that is 50/50. For extra fun, don’t register, just show up and ride the whole week self supported with your bivy, clothes, and food. Yes, it’s an enormous group ride that’s all planned out, but it’s also very high on the fun scale. Early morning departure times mean less crowds. Lots of regular bikes but plenty of weird ones too, which is cool to see. Hard to beat just riding all day for a week.

I’m also looking for recommendations for easy MTB trails in and around Denver. I need to get this old rigid 26er out on some dirt. Mild challenge & good scenery is what I’m after. I’m not afraid to go over the bars but also don’t necessarily need to set myself up for that. Anybody?

Ya, RAGBRAI, at least to me, is one of those "do it once" and take in the "full experience" type of rides.

"Weird ones?" Check out Will Walker who road it backwards. Passed him a couple times during the week and couldn't believe he road it backwards the whole way. Crazy.

 

[tnkayaker]

The Parkway is closed from Craggy Gardens to Little Switzerland so my suggestion of Heartbreak Ridge is out, but you could get off the Parkway at highway 70 in Asheville and drive east for 30 minutes and hit Kitsuma. That's a 10 mile loop. Gateway trails are also in the Kitsuma area and less technical.

In VA, Carvin's Cove is just outside of Roanoke. Worth the side trip.