Completed first tour (in NJ)

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I love touring! A friend and I rode a 2-day tour, 108 miles, from Edison to Monmouth Beach and back. The NJ shore is a great place to bike!

Lessons learned:


Mud puddles, dead ends, and heavy gravel are great fun - on a mountain bike with the right tires, not so much with 30 pounds of stuff hanging from the rack. riding into Cheesequake State Park was a bit of a risk, since I couldn't get detailed trail maps -- or indeed trail maps of any sort. In the future, I'll avoid planning routes through large parks without knowimg more details.
I'll pack a litle better next time, knowing what I actually used this time. I could have left the extra cycling outfit, book, and iPod home, but I wish I had taken a rain jacket.
Arm and leg warmers are invaluable. Even in warm weather, it gets cold in the early AM.
Rain is hardly a disaster. I would have thrown the arm/ leg warmers back on if we been hit by more than a 10-minute burst.
Utility roads are to be avoided in the future. Water Works Road in Old Bridge, NJ turned out to be a dirt and gravel road blocked by scrub and a downed telephone pole.
I'll always bring a compass and a non-intertubes map. Where bikely cue sheets failed us, "real" maps saved the day, and where Hagstrom county maps were misleading, the compass came through and got us home. Bike-mounted compasses suck if you have a steel frame. I took along a small hiking compass I picked up for $10.
I'm thinking a 3-4 day tour is next.