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Spring Bike Touring Optimism
Plus, camping helps your circadian rhythm, your "last hour" bag, and Stats for the Nerds
Sam Westby
March 29, 2026
Welcome to the Bike Bulletin. It’s like the first warm Saturday when everybody suddenly remembers they own a bike. Paradise.
This newsletter is about a love for two-wheeled transit. From riding around town to riding across the country, the more time you spend on a bike, the better. You can look forward to a new edition every week.
Here’s what we have today.
🌍 RIDE: The Pine Creek Rail Trail
🧪 RESEARCH: Camping may help your circadian rhythm
💡 TIP: Pack your last hour bag
🎥 WATCH: A surf and bikepacking adventure
📰 NEWS: New legislation and a really expensive bridge
Written by Sam Westby, @samcwestby
ROUTE ON MY RADAR
Pine Creek Rail Trail
By User:Ruhrfisch - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2898282
They call it Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon. It’s a 62 mile trail through north-central PA on crushed limestone. It’s a long green corridor tucked between steep ridges.
You can turn this route into an overnighter - bike to one end of the trail, sleep there, and bike home the next day.
You might even see a bald eagle if you’re lucky.
The official website looks like it’s from the 1990’s and I love it: https://pacanyon.com/index.html. Also, here’s the wikipedia if you’d prefer that wikipedia.org.
FROM THE IVORY TOWER
Camping Can Nudge Your Body Clock Earlier
A small University of Colorado study found that after a week of camping with only natural light, people’s internal clocks shifted earlier. The researchers tracked melatonin timing, a reliable marker of when the body thinks night begins, and found that participants also went to sleep and woke up earlier.
That does not mean one bike trip will stop you from staying up until 2am watching Instagram Reels. Mark Zuckerburg wouldn’t want that. But it does remind us that our bodies and sleep cycles can reset even after years of neglect.
The main takeaway is solid: natural light appears to help the body keep better time.
Here’s a link to the Current Biology paper [link]
BIKE TRIP TIP
The “Last Hour” Bag
For an overnighter, put everything you’ll need from 6 p.m. to bedtime in one bag or stuff sack. This will make your life so much easier.
That means:
sleeping clothes
headlamp
toiletries
dinner
whatever else you need at night
Few things get me more frustrated than rummaging through every nook and cranny on my bike to find my spork when all I want to do is eat.
This sorting works well for each stage of your day (e.g. while you’re riding, you want food + repair kit).
WHAT I’M WATCHING
More than two wheels | A surf and bikepacking adventure
This video follows a surf + bikepacking trip across the Outer Hebrides, with ferries, coastal roads, bad weather, and mechanicals. Great relaxing 11-minute watch.
Watch on YouTube
$700 million. The cost to build a bike and pedestrian path along the Bay Bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco. Advocates want it. Legislators don’t. (Oaklandside)
Southbound. NYC is adding a southbound bike lane through Greenwich Village, a place where cyclists previously had to wing it in lanes of traffic. (Streetsblog)
Lawsuit. In Washington D.C. where the Trump administration is trying to remove the 15th Street NW bike lane, advocates have filed a lawsuit to prevent the removal. 4000 cyclists use the bike lane every day. (Streetsblog)
SPEEDS Act. A new bill in Congress would federally define 3 classes of e-bikes. This will be great for the e-bike world amid many complaints of e-mopeds or e-motos. (ABC 28)
Bill H7670. In Rhode Island, a new bill was proposed to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs. (Bike Newport)
A Note From Sam
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