TANDEM Diversity
2019 - New England Fall Foliage: Viewing the fall colors in New England, from our tandem, has been on our bucket list for years. We managed to combine that with checking out another tour company for suitability as a tandem tour operator. Sojourn was selected for this test ride.
Bottom line: they did a great job with route finding, support (including excellent on-the-road picnic lunches), accommodations, and dealing on the fly with a day of challenging weather. We rode through beautiful Vermont countryside on quiet, small roads and trails, and we also met the challenge of riding over Smugglers Notch, an iconic local climb festooned with the most brilliant fall colors we've ever seen. This was a great combo of vacation and research for us.
We rode our Co-Motion Equator.
Let us know if you'd like to chat about our insights on tandem touring in this area, as well as Sojourn as a travel company. mark@tandemdiversity.com
Days riding: 7
Miles ridden: 220.8
Elevation gained: 14,537'
2019 Tours
2019 - NW Tandem Rally: The Northwest Tandem Rally was in Boise, Idaho this year. Roughly 200 teams attended the rally over the July 4th Holiday. We had an excellent time riding and visiting with new and old friends. We spent quite a lot of time with our vendor display but still managed a couple of rides. Thank you Boise! See everyone next year in Spokane, Washington!
Days riding: 2
Miles ridden: 73.8
Elevation gain: 1972'
2019 - Wallowa Mountains and Hells Canyon: Late September found us in Eastern Oregon with a group of riders from our home town, enjoying the spectacular scenery and peaceful rural roads riding offered by the area around Hells Canyon and in the Wallowa Mountains. We've ridden this area many times in the past and can't quite get enough. This trip was characterized by sunny, warm weather, stunning scenery, low traffic, good friends - well, you get the idea - a vacation!
We'd be happy to share insights on riding in this area, including accommodations, routes, etc. With lots of mountains and climbs, it's challenging, but on the other hand there are tons of rollers, great for tandems.
We rode our Co-Motion Equator.
The group used our Tandem Diversity van as its main support vehicle. Hate to brag, but it was perfect of this role!
Days riding: 6
Miles ridden: 275.7
Elevation gain: 17,454'
This video lets you go along with us.
2019 - Baltic States : A month was spent in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. We first visited Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, then took a train from there to Klaipedia in Lithuania, following which we rode to Tallinn, capital of Estonia, by way of Latvia and the Estonian offshore islands.
Great scenery, great food, wonderful people. Pretty good roads, most of the time.
Bike routes numerous and well signed. Cycling infrastructure was excellent; riding into and out of big cities was a breeze.
Some very peaceful paths through forests.
And then some roads that were not so good.
Cool old houses.
And lots of very nice seaside riding.
Lots of riding through tranquil farmland.
And every farm seems to have a resident pair of nesting storks.
This was a fully self-contained, self-organized tour. This trip we elected to use panniers rather than our Bob trailer. Total weight in the panniers was in the vicinity of 40 pounds.
We shipped our bike cases from the start of the tour in Klaipeda, Lithuania to the final hotel in Tallinn, Estonia.
Days riding: 16
Miles ridden: 738.9
Elevation gained: 9163' (this was a really flat ride!)
This video sums up the entire experience.