Touring on a Tandem - First Sortie

As a long-distance backpacker, I've been casually interested in the whole bike-touring thing.  It's a similar event to backpacking, with the packing everything down and doing the hermit-crab, self-sufficiency thing, but instead of your feet hurting, it's your butt.  The whole not-having-a-bike thing, combined with the horrible saddle soreness I experience when I first hop on a bike after a long break, deterred me.

I had a chance to do some bike touring on a tandem, though, so I jumped at it.  Not-having-a-bike, solved.  Saddle soreness?  Readily apparent.  But all things pass, so I'll deal.

Our first trip was a short overnight of 40 miles there and 40 miles back, with the possibility of avoiding a climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge on the return if we took a ferry.

5 hours of biking, including lunch breaks, pee breaks, and get-off-the-bike-and-walk-around-because-life-is-too-painful breaks.  We used Google Navigate, on the much-improved bike setting.  There were a few wrong turns, but nothing too serious.  The worst was a very hilly gravel road that turned out to be a driveway, which put us right back on the correct trail, with the exception of a six-foot-tall chain-link fence.

But a quick unload, boost-and-climb, and a helping hand from a dog-walking stranger saw the tandem, the two of us, and our paniers, safely over the fence.  Not even a ripped stocking.  Onward to Samuel P. Taylor state park, to the hike/bike walk-in campsite.  We set up camp, made dinner, and even got a happy fire going.

The next day, we packed up, retraced our route, and headed to the Sausalito ferry for the easy route home.

All-in-all, a huge success, and a not horribly numb tushy.  The next attempt will be a longer, multi-night route.