Bicycle Touring 101: Dreaming in the depths of winter

A globe, a map and some old memories make for a delightful pre-tour dreaming session.
Click to enlarge.

Here in the northern hemisphere where I live it's winter time.On the eve of Christmas an unexpected package arrived at my mailbox. Inside the package was a carefully wrapped map with a hand note. The note was a simple one wishing me well and explaining that the enclosed map would likely prove useful to me one day.

The map was of the Lake Superior Circle Route. In seconds I was reliving some of my favourite memories of my tours around Lakes Erie, Michigan and especially Huron. It didn't take much more then reading over the map to catapult me into dreams of circling another of the world's greatest lakes by bicycle.

Lake Superior calls to me in a way that is very unique. It is larger, more remote and more topologically challenging then any of the other lakes that I've circled. The few people who I've met in the past from the areas surrounding the lake have always been extremely nice. For me a successful tour seems to be one that combines some personal challenge with intersting people and non-trivial terrain. Throw in some wildlife, the odd campfire and my trusty pocketmail journal tool and the ground is set for a fun time. Lake Superior appears to have all of those things with plenty of hidden gems likely in reserve as well.

The north shore of Lake Superior hosts the Trans Canada highway. In this part of Canada that highway sees thousands of Cross Canada cyclists rolling along at about the mid way point of their epic and very rewarding adventure. While rounding Lake Huron I spent two days riding with some of these adventurers and those days were significant highlights in an amazing tour.

My journey around Lake Superior still rests in the future but in my heart and in my mind the journey has already begun with the act of opening a simple map that opened my mind to the pleasures that await. My sincere thanks to the person who sent it my way. In sending the map you gave me an opportunity to look into the future and see the pleasures that await me. What better gift could someone receive during this festive time of year?

Winter is a great time to think about your future tours whether they are medium length 30 day journeys or short 24 hour adventures. I encourage you to take out your maps, check out world globes, read your old journals and once more look to the pictures of past tours to see what future delights await.

My tour began today even through it's really over six months away from completion. When do you start yours?