Retired marketing executive Bart Coddington is a veteran of half a dozen such tours, a long-standing member of the ACA and an ardent exponent of environmental and bike-related causes. Relaxing from a long day of riding, he tells me how repeatedly impressed he is by the variety of touring cyclists he has accompanied in these groups over the years, from eager teenagers to amazingly well-conditioned seniors. “It’s inspirational,” he says with a smile. “A guy in his 60s like me, getting passed on a hill by an 82-year-old man who’d just ridden across the entire U.S.”
That same transcontinental tour is next on Coddington’s itinerary. He is biking from San Francisco to Rye, N.Y., to attend his 45th high school reunion in October of this year. He’ll head southwest to Pueblo, Colo., then vector east and north per ACA’s maps and recommended route strategies. The entire trip will require about 4,000 miles in the saddle. What gets him going? Probably what figures in our tour leader’s admonition to the riders of my Winter Warmer group: “The main thing you need is, be ready to ride.”
Around the World
Galilee Tours, Israel
Springtime in a forested stretch of northwestern Israel. My guide, Ran Gefen, and I board full-suspension mountain bikes beside the Keziv River, just south of the Lebanese border, and set out over an ancient road once tramped by Roman soldiers. Unlike riding on pavement, mountain biking is often less a matter of wind-in-your face cruising than of solving the technical problems of negotiating rough terrain. This pebbly Galilean trail is relatively uncomplicated, allowing me to look up from the turf and scan the slopes around us, dense with wild laurel and buckthorn. Snapdragons are starting to show, and a tiny stream, Ein Tamir, trickles from a crevice in the rocks.
Ran’s bike shop, Ranofun, in the nearby village of Shavei Zion, provides mountain and road bike rentals, as well as guide services for excursions at any level of difficulty. I’ve chosen this ride partially for its proximity to an extraordinary 12th-century relic of the Crusades—Montfort Castle, built on a precipice above the forest and high enough to offer an unobstructed 360-degree view that includes the shimmering Mediterranean far to the west. We dismount at the base of a steep switchback and climb to the ruins. There, amid Montfort’s broken casemates, the silence is profound, interrupted by the occasional far-off keening of a jackal. For biking experiences in this ancient land, consider:
- Ranofun in Shavei Zion, Western Galilee: Guided and unguided biking tours and rentals; send English e-mail to ranofun@gmail.com
- Ofanaor, Tel Aviv: Full-service guided mountain bike excursions all over Israel, from Galilee to the Negev Desert to Eilat. Select the English link at www.ofanaor.co.il/ofanaor_israel_bike_tours.php or e-mail ofanaor@gmail.com
Israel’s national air carrier, El Al, partners with the Israeli Bike Experience to provide a selection of tours (and the airline will ship participants’ bikes free of charge). Select the Israeli Bike Experience at www.elal.co.il/ELAL/English/AllAboutYourFlight/SpecialOffers
La Route Verte, Quebec
Some 2,400 miles of prizewinning bike routes crisscross the charming countryside of this Canadian province. Choose your season carefully but know that many enthusiasts call this “the best bicycle route in the world.”
www.routeverte.com
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1 Comments
Add CommentI set out to circumnavigate in 2005, and made it only two years and as far as italy. It was just too beautiful. I cannot wait to retire and finish the trip. Nothing like it in all of life.
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