I recently had the job of researching the western "half" of Adventure Cycling's new Bicycle Route 66 route. So what do we do when we research a new route? First of all, after we have a general idea of a new route, e.g. Historic Route 66, we gather information from local cyclists and clubs in each area to get suggestions on specific roads to use. Then we take these suggestions, along with a handful of bike maps and other detailed maps, and hit the road.

We've got a lot of fantastic tour leaders here at Adventure Cycling, as well as our fantastic tours themselves! Often a tour leader can take a tour experience from alright to amazing, as I'm sure you know. So how are you supposed to choose? Well, we've selected two of our best for you this week, both leading fall tours along the Pacific Coast, and pitted them against each other to help you decide which leader style is right for you!

A bicycle route network launched by the European Cyclists Federation is made up of 12 routes and goes through multiple countries. EuroVelo is supported by national, regional and local governments, commercial serice providers and a leading sponsor, the Accell Group. The 12 routes will total 66,000 km when the system is complete. At present, 45,000 km are in place.

As you may already know, Adventure Cycling announced their Early, Epic, and Educational tours for 2013 this past Wednesday. The response has been very overwhelming here in the tours department. The January Florida Keys and Florida LTC tours are already 50% full in just 3 days!

It's been a sad week for cycling, but if you think I'm writing about Lance Armstrong, you would be mistaken. I'm deeply saddened by the death of Leslie Bohm, one of the best people I've met since taking the helm at Adventure Cycling seven years ago.

Every bicycle journey has a theme song. At least all of mine do. A tune that fits the mood of the journey ... or describes the place you are pedaling through ... or sometimes it's just the tune that is incessantly playing on every radio.

When I arrived at work Monday morning I learned that Chuck Harris, the Mirror Man, had passed away. Without thinking about it I immediately raised my hand to touch the glasses-mounted rearview mirror that I wore. Chuck made that mirror for me many years ago, one of more than 88,000 that he made by hand over five decades.

I remember last spring sitting down to write a blog article about helping my 17-year-old son plan his cross-country bike trip.

If you get a tour of the Adventure Cycling headquarters in Missoula, I'm your last stop. I sit upstairs, on the far end of the building and I spend most of my time staring at a computer, wearing headphones.

Greg Edwards has been leading and staffing Adventure Cycling tours since 2008.

There were no signs. We pedaled 50 yards along what looked to be a trail. It dead ended in a marsh. We were disappointed, but the traffic out on the road wasn't bad. We hadn't pedaled more than a quarter mile when Kat said, "There's got to be a trail back there. We just missed it."
 

It's been a busy summer here at Adventure Cycling headquarters. Last month Adventure Cycling celebrated the much-anticipated completion of our renovation and building expansion with a huge community block party. We saw members and donors from all over the country, gave away freezers-full of free ice cream, danced to live music, and even got to be on the radio!

Today's guest post was written fresh-from-the-saddle by Amie Thao, who is wandering around the world on a little blue bicycle -- 12,400 kilometers and counting:

For an avid touring cyclist, there is nothing quite like the opportunity to check another item off your bucket list of places to ride. Alaska was one for me.