I'm not a super experienced touring rider, but I've made about 6 trips between 2 and 5 days, all alone or with one other person. I haven't had training or been on group deals, nothing wrong with them, but I'm OK by myself, and a lot of times that's the point.

I've done a dozen or two long day trips between 50 and 100 miles round trip, in the summer you can get pretty far from home in half a day. When we lived in Virginia I used to ride down to DC or out to Harpers Ferry or catch the C&O towpath and ride along the Potomac. I've discovered every hour or two your perspective changes, when you are 25 miles from home the "issues" you've been thinking about get a lot smaller. At 50 miles they get smaller and simpler, and you cannot believe how easy the solution is and know exactly what you need to do. This is always a laugh out loud moment... (I think this is a trick in your mind, and the truth is you've been thinking of little else for 2 or 3 hours, and of course if you take that much uninterrupted time to think about something you can look at all sides and come up with the solution).

I've credit card toured, where basically, you take a change of riding clothes, minimal casual clothes (shorts/tank/sandals in Florida) , toothbrush, shaver and sunscreen. Yeah you got your tool kit and flat tire kit and camera and energy bars and all that, swimmers towel... but it all fits into a little backpack, trunk rack or handlebar bag. Pick your mileage for the day and make a motel reserve, or just take off and see where you end up. The next day will be easier because you recover quicker than you expect, and you know your limitations better. In Florida summer... 90+ and blazing sun all day, it's nice to have a clean shower, bed, and air conditioning at day's end, not to mention sit down to a served meal and iced drinks before calling home and going to bed. I think you rest better and recover quicker. Another nice thing about credit card touring is you can pick up anything you forgot along the way, and you can get back home easily.

After a few of these, you can camp, or go further. I HAVE camped and backpacked a lot, and bike touring is very much like backpacking (easier on your feet and back)! Buy lightweight gear, take the minimum, organize by "rooms" (house, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, first aid, garage, technology). Going for longer times loaded with 25-50 lbs you pace yourself a little more, and go a little slower, but I found only about 2 mph slower than your normal average. You can go 30-70 miles a day, depending on many things you soon learn about yourself.

My longest self-contained tour was 5 full days of Florida in the last week of July, yeah... hot. About 300 miles in all, with a wreck laying me up for a day to repair my bike and tape up by big toe... I was too tired to cook dinner so after a spring swim and shower thought to ride up the road in shorts and sandals for dinner, but all was closed and it got dark and when I went to turn around I didn't see that median until it was tooo late! So I ended up with a microwave dinner on the sidewalk at the quick-shop while I repaired my toe and bent my bike frame back to a rideable state and limped back to the campground. It was funny I thought I was done for sure, 90 miles to home, a bent bike and bloody parts here and there... I'd call my wife in the morning and ask her to come pick me up.... but in the morning, after breakfast and discovering the bike was rideable, and there was a hardware store in town... I changed my mind... by 10pm that night (cooked my own dinner too)... I was ready to head home in the morning, day long rain forecast notwithstanding. And I made it... 90 miles yes it rained most of the way but once you are wet... it's like backpacking... you put on a poncho and keep on truckin. I can't wait for my next tour around Florida this summer. I had best intentions of getting away while we had cool weather but it didn't work out that way this year, and I'm not about to go through summer without a tour.

We vacationed in Canada last summer, and of course I took my bike and rode about the cottage country near Georgia Bay.

This winter I did my first cool weather tour up to Gainesville and back. It got down to mid 30's in the nights and mornings but I was OK w a 20 degree sleeping bag and an extra layer of lightweight stuff. Much easier on the bod than the summer heat!

In the next few years I plan to get training to lead tours and participate in a group tour or two... I think my "retirement" will almost certainly involve helping people ride bikes and more touring is likely.