Cycling from New York to South Carolina?

Hi, Im planning a cycling trip from NY to SC with my boyfriend and were just looking for advice on what to bring with us and what to expect. Were looking to camp out during the trip but we’ve never camped out before and we dont really ride bikes much. I just want to live home and see different places and think about life a little plus i do love riding my bike and we would of planned a road trip but we cant afford a car rental. any advice? thanks

Sounds like it could be a really fun trip! Depending on where you intend to start and finish, this could be a 600 plus mile ride. From what you’ve described, it sounds like you all may be looking at something like a 10-12 day jaunt. Logistics of a long bicycle tour like this can be pretty daunting.

To me a key to success is asking yourself a bunch of questions about how you want to do the ride. Answers to these questions determine much about the equipment and food you’ll need.

First off do you really want to camp? Camping means you need: a good quality tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, toiletries, camp stove, eating/cooking utinsels, towels, etc., etc., etc. This isn’t an insurmountable problem, but it means you’ve got to carry lots of equipment with you. (Plus, you’ve got to buy, beg, borrow or steal all the gear you’ll need to camp.) You’ll need racks on your bicycles and panniers to carry everything. Can you get all of this stuff? It also means planning your trip around places you can camp.

Would you prefer to stay in hotels? This means somewhat less stuff to carry, but is a lot more expensive. Again, you’ll need to plan your route to get you within range of places you can stay. Plus, you’ll be going through somewhat larger towns where you can find hotels and other places to stay. As an emergency precaution, I’d want to have sleeping bags, and emergency shelter, etc. in case I got lost or simply coundn’t make it to a planned hotel. So, you’ve still got to carry some of the same stuff as if you are planning to camp all the time. If you book places in advance, to insure you have a room, you lose a lot of flexibility in your trip. If you come down through the mountains – like the Blue Ridge Parkway, there aren’t a lot of places to stay on the parkway. Thus, you may wind up having to climb to the parkway in the morning and descend to a town and a hotel in the evenings.

How and what do you want to eat on the trip? You’re going to work up a powerful hunger riding 50-10 miles per day. It is cheaper to plan on making your own meals, but you’ll have to stop in grocery and convenience stores along the way to get supplies. In the country, you won’t be able to count on finding your favorite gels, etc. so you’ll have to stock up on those up front. Fast foods and restaurants are more expensive, but convenient.

Do you want to go flatlands or mountains? The beauty of an east coast tour is you can choose to do either (or both.) As you know, summer in the East is hot and sticky. If you go up in the mountains it’ll be much cooler, but the riding will be vastly harder.

Are you all capable of a ride of this magnitude? This type of ride requires a lot of physical and mental strength. You really ought to take at least one multi-day shake down trip prior to making this ride. With luck, the weather on your shake down trip will be horribly windy and rainy one day then incredibly hot and humid. This will give you a great idea of how horrid it can be! If you enjoy yourself and all of your equipment works out well, you’ll know you can handle whatever comes.

There are lots of other things to consider and get together, but this should get you started with your planning.

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