| Week of January 15-21, 1998 |
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American cycling trips in early March Question: I am trying to find a good bicycling trip in early March and it seems nearly impossible; most are summer tours. Backroads has one in California, but are there any others I’ve missed? Jaime Napolitano
ϳԹ Adviser: I, too, found only a few bike trips in the States during the month of March, and some of these have a glitch: they require riding a mountain bike. First off is Classic ϳԹs’s “Natchez Trace Antebellum South” tour. The seven-day trip, offered March 21-27, starts in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where you’ll bike past Civil War monuments and palatial antebellum mansions. From there, you’ll wind along the Natchez Trace Parkway, a route that combines a spectacle of natural and cultural sights. The 50-mph car speed limit makes the Natchez Trace one of the least-dangerous bike-tour roads in the country. A word of warning about this trip: You’ll need to be a big-time architecture buff or acquire a taste for it — much of your ride will include tours of famous mansions. You’ll even stay in a few historic inns along the way. The trip cost is $1,329 and includes breakfasts and dinners. Call 800-777-8090 for more details. Option number two is a four-day (March 19-22; $575) mountain-bike trip offered by Western Spirit Cycling called the “White Rim.” An extremely dense layer of sediment within the Colorado Plateau, the White Rim encircles a carved out section of Canyonlands National Park called the Island in the Sky. The average mileage per day is 25 and the elevation is pretty moderate, Western Spirit also offers a five-day (March 24-28; $1,195) adventure called the Moab Sampler. The itinerary includes biking Moab’s famous trails, spending a day whitewater rafting on the Colorado River, and a day of hiking in Arches National Park. You’ll stay in a funky Moab inn that provides hearty breakfasts. Call Western Spirit Cycling at 800-845-2453 for more details. World Trek Expeditions (800-795-1142) out of Lakewood, Colorado also offers March itineraries in Moab. Finally, if you’re looking for something decidedly more tropical, consider Bicycle ϳԹs’s six- or eight-day cycling tour of Hawaii. On both trips, you’ll start in Hilo and travel along palm-fringed white- and black-sand beaches, through tropical rainforests, and on top of spectacular mountains with vistas to the crashing waves hundreds of feet below. The six-day tour averages 40 miles per day, and the eight-day tour averages 50 miles per day. Prices in 1997 were $1,494 and $1,868, respectively. For more details call 800-443-6060. |
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