JT and BC's 2004 Pacific Coast Ride

In 2003, JT and I rode the Atlantic Coast from New Hampshire to Maryland without ever actually seeing the ocean. For 2004, the plan is to ride the Pacific Coast and almost never lose sight of the ocean.

If everything goes well, these pages will chronicle our adventures starting Memorial Day weekend and running through the Fourth of July weekend.

This trip is going to require considerably more effort than last year's East Coast Trip. On that trip, we stayed in hotels or sponged from relatives. This time the hotels and relatives are fewer and farther between, and the hotels are likely to be booked up solid. So we're going to have to be prepared to camp. This adds a significant amount of weight to our gearload...tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, ground cloth, bug spray, cold weather clothing, waterproof teddy bear, etc.  Because of all the extra crap we'll have to carry, JT and I now both have purchased touring bikes. I still have the heavily-upgraded Cannondale T-800 that I rode down the east coast and JT has a Cannondale T-2000, which is essentially the same bike except that it has a paint stain on it that looks a little like a map of the world.

We were supposed to take a fully-loaded practice ride in April, but JT couldn't make it so I rode alone. Then we finally got together in early May for another trial run where we simulated actual touring conditions by camping. Several lessons were learned on these trials, and they are described here as well.