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USA in 6 months
jul:
Thank you for your suggestions :)
So, the best way will be to combine the US with Canada..
Of course these countries are huge and the climate is different from one region to another.
However, if i focus on these two countries, is it possible to enjoy pleasant temperatures all year round ? (on 12 months)
And if yes, which parts would be most favorable from
Mid spring to mid Fall ?
then
Mid Fall to mid sping ?
@Mickeg, when you say "avoid the south" you mean the south of what ? from where to where precisely ?
@Worldtourer, even if i can ride on the gravel roads or single tracks, it must be flat or with little positive elevation, because my bike and my things weigh are quite heavy.
As well, i don't know about Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, but i also like to cross regularly small city or village stopover, to supply myself with water and food.
@Dan, if the America's Great Basin are too hot in summer, i imagine the regions around is the same (Utha, Arizona, Colorado..)
So what is the adequate period to visit this area ?
Thanks in advance
Danneaux:
--- Quote ---@Dan, if the America's Great Basin are too hot in summer, i imagine the regions around is the same (Utha, Arizona, Colorado..)
So what is the adequate period to visit this area ?
--- End quote ---
Julien,
The Great Basin is comprised of separately designated deserts and smaller basins but is generally regarded as a whole with somewhat ill-defined boundaries. The Great Basin is considered to be a "cold" desert because it can rain or snow there and when it is wet, it can quickly become impassable -- like trying to cycle or walk in pudding. There are hot springs which can be boiling and there is only a little drinkable water from springs, seeps, and areas where cattle graze. The problem is not so much contamination as excessive alkalinity, so I take pH test strips with me to check before drinking to avoid chemical burns inside.
The alkali dust of the playa/dry lake beds is very corrosive and attacks mucous membranes around the nose, lips, and mouth and causes a malady called "playa foot" where the skin can harden and split open from the extreme drying caused by prolonged exposure or walking barefoot or in sandals. The playa dust can and does blow in the wind and there are sometimes dust storms. It is highly abrasive and tends to collect in small crevices and on chains. I floss my chain with a mascara brush each night and freshly re-oil it before I go to sleep.
A good time to visit to avoid the greatest possibility of rain yet also avoid excess heat is, in my experience, from late April to mid-May and about 2-3 weeks after that. Early fall from late September into mid-November can work well also, but temperatures can drop to freezing or below. Winter can be a viable time to go provided you are prepared for cold temperatures and possible ice and snow, depending on the immediate area. The Warner Mountains are often snow-covered well into summer.
I often go in mid-summer, but special precautions must be taken to accommodate the heat and avoid dehydration. I generally do that by consuming 8.5l/day of water and/or water/electrolyte mix and figure 26.5l to be the minimum I need for 3 days' drinking and a little cooking. Water is heavy @ 1kg/l plus the container weight, so things add up quickly. There are no stores for resupply through most of the area and if you do find one that isn't closed, it is unlikely to have much more than a small petrol station would stock. For this reason, I usually carry about 2 weeks' supply of dehydrated food with me, counting in cattle troughs and my SteriPen for water resupply as needed.
There is no cellphone service through much of the area; where it is available, you can bet Verizon owns the towers, as they have the most "build-out" of tower coverage in the remote areas of the American West. Be prepared for injuries if they occur and you need to tend to them. For example, there are official roadside signs reminding travelers there are _no_ emergency services in all of Northern Washoe County in Nevada. When traveling there I take great care to avoid rolling and spraining an ankle while in camp -- a real possibility as badgers dig dens in the playa and the previous year's rains can smooth them over but not fill them in.
Often I will carry a "winter"-weight down sleeping bag in summer as temperatures can swing as much as 80 degrees F from daytime high to nighttime low and the "contrast" cold is something you can really feel (i.e. a drop from 123F down to 43F), especially if you are a bit dehydrated. It is wise to leave a copy of your planned route and itinerary with a trusted friend or loved one and a planned timeframe so if you don't return, someone can come looking for you. I always prepare electronic and paper packets with all that information so it can be transmitted or handed over to authorities if needed. "Authorities" might be local cattle ranchers who will "keep an eye out", as police and ranger patrols are few and far between if they happen at all. Last trip I made, a ranger tapped the map with his finger and warned, "Don't get hurt here. You _might_ see a car every 6 months to 2 years...but I wouldn't count on it". You can bet I take such advice seriously as a solo traveler. I tend to go cross-country and always take 2 GPS units as well as paper maps and (yes, really) a couple of compasses as backup. I've had the rubber switches of my Garmins perish due to the high UV exposure and then it is difficult to find the right-size twig to prod the electronics to life (and no, a conductive allen wrench doesn't work).
This Wikipedia entry may be helpful...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Basin_Desert
I would suggest you check Wikipedia in advance for most of the areas you are interested in touring, as the entries often contain climatological data.
Temperatures are indeed similar for the places you asked about...with the notable exception of Colorado, where it was 106 degrees F when I was at Mesa Verde and the next morning the highway was closed by a snowstorm. The climate can change rapidly where there are mountains.
Hopefully helpful,
Dan.
mickeg:
The south, pretty much the south half of continental USA would be a good place to avoid from Jun through September.
I say that with a very broad brush, as the eastern half of USA in the south will be much more humid than the west.
Are you familiar with dew point temperature and how that relates to how oppressive heat is?
https://www.weather.gov/arx/why_dewpoint_vs_humidity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point
On this forum I usually give SI units since most people here use those instead of the units common in USA. But if you are in USA,you will have to become used to temperatures in Fahrenheit, so I am using that in this post.
I avoid strong exertion when dewpoints are in the 70s or higher. Dewpoint in the 60s, I sweat a lot on a bike, require more water, but I can perform well. Dewpoints in the 50s or lower are quite comfortable for me, require less water.
And of course, the raw temperature comes into play, even in dry conditions (dewpoints in the 50s or lower) if the temperature is in the 90s or more, that will impair my performance on a bike. Ideal is temp in the 70s and dewpoint in the 50s.
I assume you are familiar with this site, but I mention in case you are not. This is my go to site for planning a trip and the likely weather I will encounter.
https://weatherspark.com/
You can pick a location, ideal is one with an airport for past weather data, and enter that location into the website. I live in Madison Wisc, so I will use that:
https://weatherspark.com/y/12796/Average-Weather-in-Madison-Wisconsin-United-States-Year-Round
It is possible that when you are in Europe it lists the temperature in SI units (C) simply because it assumes you use those units, but the Madison site that I posted above lists the temperatures for me in F.
If you scroll down to the chart titled Humidity Comfort Levels in Madison, the color coding is based on dewpoint.
That website calls precipitation in a day of less than 1mm as not having had any precipitation, so the chart with probability of precipitation on any given day will slightly undercount actual. That chart basically says that the months of July and first half of August have a change of being Oppressive or worse over 10 percent of the time. That is not too bad, you can stop for a day if you feel like it. So, I think bike touring in my area during any time in summer would not be bad.
I assume you already have a good feel for raw temperatures where you like to bike and where you feel it is too hot, so I am not discussing the second chart that shows average temperatures. That of course is important, I just choose not to put much emphasis on it here since I suspect you already are well versed in that.
This past April, I did a tour from northern Mississippi to western Tennesee. Mid-point is roughly Tupelo Mississippi.
https://weatherspark.com/y/146447/Average-Weather-at-Tupelo-Regional-Airport-Mississippi-United-States-Year-Round
In Tupelo in April, average high temperatures are in the 70s, average low is in the 50s to 60s, and the humidity chart says it will be mostly dry but occasionally comfortable to humid.
But looking at those temperature and humidity charts, July and Aug would be hot and also often oppressive humidity. In other words, avoid that area during that time of the year.
I can't draw a line on a map and say when to go where, you will have to do that, but this website gives you a tool you can use. That site also gives you good info for length of daylight hours, average wind direction and average wind speed. I did that April trip with a friend. In planning he was most insistent that we ride from northeast to southwest, I insisted on southwest to northeast. If you look at the wind direction chart in April, 60 percent of the time we could expect a south or west wind, so I won the argument.
My two examples above (Madison and Tupelo) were in the eastern part of the country that is more humid in summer. If you look at Denver Colorado:
https://weatherspark.com/y/145689/Average-Weather-at-Denver-International-Airport-Colorado-United-States-Year-Round
It is quite hot in summer in July, but the humidity is low enough that you should be able to ride without problem.
I probably emphasized dew point more than most people. The reason that I focus so heavily on that is that dew point tells you approximately how cool an object will be if you wrapped a damp cloth around it. It could be cooled down to roughly that temperature. (Technically wet bulb temp and dewpoint are close, but not perfectly the same.) Your skin is normally close to 70 degrees. So, when you sweat, if the dewpoint is well below 70 degrees, the evaporative cooling from your sweat will cool you down very well. But if the dew point is 70 degrees, your sweat has to be very efficient to cool your skin down to 70 degrees. If the dew point is 80 degrees, sweating would not be able to cool your skin lower than 80 degrees, which is much hotter than normal for your skin temperature.
One rule of thumb might be to tour in areas where ACA is touring during that time of year. They will pick the best times to tour in various locations.
https://www.adventurecycling.org/guided-tours/
On that list of tours, they listed Natchez Trace in March, April, and October. My example with Tupelo location in this e-mail was for my ride this past April on Natchez Trace. (I did not do it with ACA, but we saw them when we were there.) So, ACA would not try to tour there in June through August, but May and September may be borderline months were you could do it but it would be hotter than ideal.
I spent more time writing this than I planned. I hope it helps.
ACA also publishes bike maps for recommended routes and often those maps are for locations other than where they operate tours. Some people find them to be very useful, I have not found them to be that great, but I will agree that their routes are very good for biking. Maps are not cheap.
Would you plan to buy a local (USA) sim card? I do not know if your European phone would have the right frequencies in USA. Perhaps others would know that better than me. I use Puretalk for my phone. They have a plan that is $20 a month (plus taxes on top of that) for both talk and a few gb of data, you can cancel at end of trip. That company uses the ATT network. My phone is 4g and works well, you do not need a 5g phone ... yet.
https://www.puretalk.com/cell-plans
A side note on USA and prices. In Europe, when you are quoted a price on something, that price includes VAT tax. In USA, there often is a local or state sales tax that is not included when you are quoted a price. So, each time you buy something, expect a small surprise charge when you go to pay for it. In my community the sales tax is 5.5 percent but it often is higher elsewhere. Some things are generally not taxed, such as most foods in grocery stores, but each local will have different categories of what is taxed or not.
Some western states in USA have had forest fire problems in mid summer in past few years. I won't elaborate more but just comment that it is something to be aware of.
mickeg:
One more thing, you will be in areas with lots of bugs. Plan to buy a bottle of bug repellant when you arrive if you do not have some. I use this stuff.
https://www.rei.com/product/887628/sawyer-picaridin-insect-repellent-lotion-4-fl-oz
Not every day will be buggy, but you will encounter them.
JohnR:
I'm not planning to do such a trip, but if I were then I would consider getting a phone or message device that works through satellite as a backup to a normal phone. Garmin make the inReach devices. Regarding normal cell phones, compatibility can be checked using the phone specs at https://www.gsmarena.com and the network info at https://www.phonearena.com/news/Cheat-sheet-which-4G-LTE-bands-do-AT-T-Verizon-T-Mobile-and-Sprint-use-in-the-USA_id77933. In general, the more expensive the phone then the more likely it is to cover a wider range of wireless frequencies.
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