As part of our participation in Bikerversary, Adventure Cycling board member Erick Cedeño — also of Bicycle Nomad — joined the festivities. To share the joy of bicycle travel, he went on a bikepacking trip to Panola State Mountain Park and talked about his unique bicycle adventures with people new to bicycle travel.

Once Erick arrived in Atlanta, he met with our new Events Coordinator, Timberley Jones of Spokes Digital Media. Their partnership included spreading the word about Adventure Cycling and our Bike Overnights Program.

The bike overnights adventure started at Loose Nuts Cycles and ended about 25 miles away at Panola State Mountain Park Campgrounds. The weather and vibes were great! Along the way, Erick and Timberley brainstormed ways to inspire and share resources with people who are interested in experiencing the joy of bike travel.

Erick and Timberley rode to Panola Mountain State Park, set up their tents, and spent the night under the stars. Friday morning came fast, and they left the campsite for the ride back to Atlanta.

Bikerversary 2022 Community Ride

Saturday, Timberley set up an information table at the outdoor event. She engaged cyclists with questions about their bike adventures and interest in participating in a Bike Overnight trip. The tabling portion was a team effort. Timberley trained a local ambassador, Alexander, on Adventure Cycling’s mission and key talking points for bike travel. The table included items a cyclist would need if they decided to go on a bike overnight trip self supported. 

With Erick and the event team working the crowd, we reached our event goals. New cyclists were introduced to Adventure Cycling Association and we got their gears spinning about what’s possible.  

Bike Travel Presentation

Sunday, Erick gave a presentation sharing tips and tricks for bicycle travel. The participants asked questions about Erick’s adventures over the last 13+ years. He’s a great storyteller and really got the participants excited about loading up their bikes for their own unique bike travel adventure.

Join the Bike Overnights Mission

If you are interested in collaborations and partnerships, please reach out to our events team at t.jones@adventurecycling.org.

We’re available to come to an event, or present to your organization about bike travel in person or virtually.

Photos and info courtesy Timberley Jones, Spokes Digital Media

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Letter from the Executive Director
First, I’d like to discuss how we’re impacting our mission, which is, “To engage, empower, and connect people to travel by bicycle.”

I’m very excited to report that we started the year with record Tour registrations! We have 1,274 registered participants, which is double where we typically are this time of year. We wrapped up 2021 with 980 tour participants. We are getting prepped for the 2022 season with leader training, new leadership development, and the start of the season with tours in Florida and Hawaii. 

Our Bike Overnights program is a strategy we use to entice more people into multi-day cycling trips, and it has been a success in helping people from marginalized communities travel by bike. Late last year we completed an assessment of the initiative, and learned that giving stipends is our most effective strategy. In 2021, Bike Overnights rights in Chicago, Mexico City, Seattle, Portland, Austin, New Haven and Madison engaged 100 entry-level riders with $3,000 in stipends. This was a great validation, and we’ll increase these stipends in 2022 to reach even more people. 

We also continue to advocate for improved policy and more routes. This March, at the National Bike Summit, we’ll partner with Rails-to-Trails, East Coast Greenway, WABA and local groups in DC to host a mobile workshop focused on partnerships as a strategy for infrastructure advocacy.  We’re also making progress on the BOLT Act—which would establish long-distance trails on federal land—by coordinating with other national partners to improve the bill language. 

Staff updates

In December, we said goodbye to long-time staffer Eva Dunn Froebig. Eva spearheaded our 40th anniversary event, and grew Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day into the large-scale events they are today. We also wished adieu to Development Director Jackie Slovak, who organized the Philanthropy Committee to develop a long-term strategic plan for development and fundraising, and to tours specialist Shannon Fischer-Kendro. We will miss them all!

We also celebrate the addition of a new role at Adventure Cycling: the Chief People and Culture Officer.  Nicki Bailey (she/her) has blazed a lot of new trails in a short period of time. About half of Nicki’s time is dedicated to advancing our diversity, equity and inclusion work (both internally and within our programming). The other half is spent helping us with people management and leader development. We’ve grown a lot in the past 47 years, and Nicki is helping us create the systems and tools we need to ensure we recruit and retain the best talent to further our mission. She’s already accomplished a lot, including transitioning us to a new payroll system; drafting a template library for staff reviews; finalizing our DEI plan and established a JEDI working group; securing grant funding for staff training; and is currently evaluating all job descriptions across the entire organization, including updates of policy and procedures for our tour leaders. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have her on the team!

We are also joined by new staff Kelly Fehn, Membership Coordinator.  Phil Shutler has been contracted to work on the Route Conditions Mapping Tool.  Ambar Johnson (she/her) has been contracted as Production Assistant to work on season 2 of the podcast.  Marketing staff hired Gott Advertising to run Facebook and Google Grant Ads for the organization. 

Our programs continue to show a lot of momentum. This is a building year for us, and we are working hard to set a solid foundation so we can more effectively accelerate our work. I’m energized by all we’ve accomplished in late 2021 and early 2022. Thanks to all our members —  you are what makes this organization great!

—Jennifer O’Dell, Executive Director

Employee Spotlight

Meet Jenn Hamelman, our current USBRS Program Manager! Jenn first started at Adventure Cycling in 1994 as part of a college work study program, and is currently in her third act of employment here. She’s been a cartographer, senior cartographer and assistant director. When Jenn first started, Adventure Cycling was just beginning the transformation from pen and ink, 3-color maps to 4-color maps drawn on the computer. The route network was at about 20,000 miles and Jenn helped it grow to almost 50,000 miles. She worked on the transition from pen and ink to computer to data distribution to a mobile app. She estimates that by the time she left the org in 2019 to return to Oregon, she had probably worked on every map section in our catalog at least once.
When not biking, Jenn loves to get messy and creative with color, paper, glue and/or fiber, knitting, listening to podcasts or reading a good story.
Favorite bike adventure: “I resisted the call to take on a longer distance trip for a long time. In 2016, the bug finally bit and at the 40th Anniversary, in front of Wally [Werner] I declared I was going to ride cross country. June of 2017 I set off from Cape Elizabeth, ME on a solo, self-contained trip mostly on the Northern Tier Route and made it as far as the headwaters of the Mississippi River where I ended the trip due to the excessive wildfire season in the West that summer. 
“Two of my learnings from my trip: 1. reassurance that most people, most of the time, are generally kind and want to be helpful and 2. even a vegan can find enough food in a rural convenience store for a meal!”

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Tell us a little about yourself!

I grew up in the suburban Bay Area and always wanted to bike to school, but my parents were freaked out because our town had really small windy roads and no bike lanes. They assumed I would get hit by a car in the mile to my elementary school, so they drove me or I took the bus every day instead. I really got into cycling as a form of fun and transportation in college since I didn’t have a car. I didn’t know what panniers were at the time, but my roommate was a bike mechanic and he got me a huge bike basket wholesale. I mounted it on this big beach cruiser I had, and I used that basket for errands, dumpster diving, and taking my pet rabbit to class! Bikes were mostly about transportation for me until I was no longer a student in 2017. I started bike touring that summer because I didn’t have a car and I was tired of using car share or pestering my friends with cars to get me to the mountains. I figured if I could haul my groceries up Fremont Avenue in Seattle (it’s pretty steep), I could probably handle riding with camping gear. 

After a few years of learning and building community on my own, I got a little fed up with the bro-centric tone and focus of bike blogs and media and decided to develop my own resources. I started writing a book about bike touring in early 2019, and self-published it in e-book form on my blog in May 2020. I also worked with a friend of mine from grad school to develop a Spanish-language version which I released in September 2020. Now I am really excited to offer the book in paperback! 

What’s your favorite type of riding to do?

I really love riding the gravel fire and forest roads that are so plentiful outside of Seattle. The westside ones are pretty accessible by ferry, and the foothills of the Cascades are chock full, too!

What’s your favorite bike you’ve ever owned or ridden?

I’m very obsessed with my 2015 Kona Sutra that has been my main rig for the last few years (steel is real), but I think my favorite bike was my commuter in college. It was an old-school red Nishiki, and was a little too small for me, but I kitted it out with bubblegum-pink handlebar grips, bottle cage, and those deep-V wheels that were so trendy in the early aughts.

Right now I have the Kona and I traded a friend an espresso machine for a 90s GT mountain bike that I use for short trips around town.

What’s one of the hardest bike touring experiences you’ve had? 

When I first started touring I didn’t know a lot of femmes or queer people that were into it, so I was riding with a lot of tech bro types because that’s who I knew. It was difficult not feeling safe being vulnerable or asking for help from the people you are touring with, which is why I started to plan trans, women, intersex, and gender nonconforming (TWIG)-only trips and invite strangers from social media and random corners of my life. Now that I’ve spent so many years building it, I feel really lucky to have a deep community of like minded people with whom to ride.
 
In a physical sense, a friend of mine invited me to do the southern tier of the Odyssey of the VOG and it really kicked my butt, but it was so much fun and a great challenge. It was my first multi-day backcountry trip and I can’t wait to do more!

What’s one of your favorite experiences on a bike adventure?

A few years ago a friend of mine organized a tour through the Willamette Valley wine country. I found a donkey farm that was open to the public and made an appointment for all 15 of us to go hang out with donkeys for an afternoon, and it was a really fun and goofy time.

Where are your favorite places to bike on Duwamish ancestral lands (Seattle)?

The Burke Gilman Trail and Lake Washington Boulevard both have great spots to take a break and swim in the lake, and I love water.

What’s the best bike snack? What’s your favorite bike touring meal?

I am a salt fiend (not the biggest fan of sweet snacks) so I LOVE corn nuts on a sweaty day. It’s also one of the few snacks you can get at a gas station that doesn’t have a ton of preservatives and other junk in it.

A friend of mine got me into taking a head of cabbage on longer trips — It keeps really well and it’s so nice to have a crunchy vegetable on hand when you’re eating camp food and granola bars for days on end. I like to wrap salami and cheese, or hummus and some kind of grain in a big ol’ cabbage leaf and chow down.

Do your bikes have names?

Nope… Should they?

What are things you like to do when you’re not on a bike adventure?

When I’m not on my bike I love making big meals for my friends. My sister and I visited our extended family in the Philippines in the fall of 2019 and I was inspired to learn more about Filipinx cooking. I am perfecting my adobo, and can make a really great bibingka and fresh lumpia! I also volunteer for too many things in Seattle including The Bikery, a donation-funded and volunteer-run community bike shop, and Friends on Bikes, a community for TWIG BIPOC folks.

Where are some places you’d like to visit on a bike?

The Japanese island of Hokkaido, it has 95% of the country’s natural areas and 5% of the population, it’s supposed to be sublime. I would also really love to see South Korea by bike; I got to do a little bit of hiking when I was there in 2018, but it’s such a big and beautiful country I can’t wait to go back.

Lightning Round:

Flat Bars or Drop Bars
Drops

Disc Brakes or Rim Brakes
Disc! Seattle is wet.

Gels/Gummies or Energy Bars
Ugh neither… Corn nuts or dried mango.

#coffeeoutside or post-ride beers
Both

Shoulder Season: Spring or Fall
Fall! This may be controversial but I think Spring sucks… It’s unpredictable and violent.

Maps or Bike Computer
Does Ride with GPS count as a bike computer?

Dogs or Cats
Rabbits!

The post An Introduction to Bike Overnights Ambassador Roxy Robles! appeared first on Adventure Cycling Association.

This year’s adventures involved careful planning for COVID-19 considerations as loosening restrictions and new CDC guidelines emerged. While many rides stayed local and kept things simple, others were more adventurous with ride leaders and participants eagerly looking forward to a life-changing adventure.

“I had a positive experience this year. It was my first time camping and my first time bike traveling.” –Whitney Theis

Growing the Community

As riders got online to connect to one another, the Bike Travel Weekend Facebook Group grew by nearly 300 members in the weeks leading up to the event. Riders from around the world shared ideas, photographs, and encouraged one another to participate in Bike Travel Weekend. The group’s timeline is now filled with pictures and stories from ride leaders and participants.

We hosted two informational events via Zoom. The first, held on May 13, focused on the registration process and was primarily meant for first-time participants and those who hadn’t yet registered. The event was well attended by nearly 25 people with lots of information exchanged. Devin Cowens and Corinna Wollman shared their experiences with registering a trip and joining an existing ride as first-time participants.

See the recorded session on Adventure Cycling Association’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1DGtmySNzI 

The second of the two virtual events was a lot of fun too. We posted a poll on the Bike Travel Weekend Facebook page and asked members of the group which topic they’d like to learn more about. The winning topic was how to select gear for a bike overnight adventure. In a follow-up webinar, Devin provided her expertise in leading group overnight rides for people of color and LGBTQ+ groups. Nearly 40 participants tuned in and asked questions and talked about the gear that they use on their own bike overnights!

See the recording of this session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI_6fJPqYkY 

Bike Travel Weekend By the Numbers

Bike Travel Weekend 2021 included 713 trips with more than 5,651 participants in both public and private rides. That’s an average of eight cyclists per trip! The event had trips in all 50 U.S. states, six Canadian provinces, and 15 countries across the globe! Everyone who registered to lead a ride or who joined an existing ride was entered to win a Co-Motion Americano bike. The first 250 people who registered to lead a trip also received a Bike Travel Weekend patch and sticker in the mail!

Wanderlust was clearly alive and well within the cycling community as thousands of cyclists all over the world actively sought out adventure by bicycle the first week of June. Many riders took to the road with destinations ranging from rustic campsites to boutique bed and breakfasts across the country. Other bike adventures included off-road trail excursions and gravel road adventures that gave participants an opportunity to truly immerse themselves in the outdoors. All of the stories, feedback, and photos Adventure Cycling has received point to this year’s Bike Travel Weekend as being one to remember!

“It is such an amazing way to introduce others to something that I love. Being there for someone’s first trip and seeing them find the joys of things they see, hear, and smell as they ride along is so fulfilling.” –Gary Davis, Ride Leader

Bike Travel Weekend and Our New Bike Overnights Initiative

If you haven’t heard yet, Bike Travel Weekend is now a part of our new Bike Overnights Initiative, aimed at creating shorter and more accessible routes for cyclists to enjoy. The initiative will focus on creating short routes and a network of supportive Ambassadors in eight metro areas (Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Austin, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles).

Bike Overnights has already found associations in Bike Travel Weekend with 83 of the registered rides taking place in and around these eight metro areas. Seattle offered 17 rides, Minneapolis 15 rides, and San Francisco 10 rides this year. These rides provided numerous opportunities for hundreds of cyclists.

“Just keep it going!” –Mike Ciesielski
 

Looking Ahead

Didn’t get enough cycling adventure during Bike Travel Weekend? Explore by bicycle on September 25, 2021, for Bike Your Park Day! Along with thousands around the globe, you can ride to and through parks and public lands on the same day. Ride however long you like on roads, bike paths, or singletrack. Stop and enjoy a spectacular view, your favorite ice cream, or a cooling lake, and learn something new at a historical site. Share your joy and journey with friends and community while adventuring on your public lands by bicycle. 

Thanks again to the volunteers and participants that made Bike Travel Weekend 2021 such a success! This year’s Bike Travel Weekend may be behind us with all those panniers unloaded and seat bags unpacked but we are already looking ahead to next year’s adventure!  

Save the date for next year’s Bike Travel Weekend held June 3–5, 2022!

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Adventure Cycling encouraged people throughout the world to go on either a local overnight bike adventure or a local day ride to parks or public lands. A virtual option to ride all or part of the Parks, Peaks, and Prairies route was also provided for those who wanted to stay close to home. (Free registration remains open at resport.io/ppp through December 31.) Adventure Cycling encouraged participants to follow COVID-19 guidelines by riding locally and only with people in one’s household. Most participants wanted to go on a local bicycle ride and discovered adventure out their back door. 

Bike Travel Weekend & Bike Your Park Day included:

• 925 events
  • 34 percent participated in a multi-day bike adventure
  • 60 percent visited parks and public lands by bicycle
  • Six percent participated in a virtual event
• The 6,336 participants were from:
  • 50 U.S. states and Washington, DC 
  • Four Canadian provinces
  • 17 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Philippines, Switzerland, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.

Everyone who registered received a Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day sticker in the mail, and the first 500 people who registered received a patch. Everyone who registered by September 20 was entered to win a Salsa Cutthroat bike. The winner of the bike will be announced in January 2021.

To the Moon and Back

Participants rode 406,718 miles during the weekend of September 25- 27. That’s almost equivalent to riding to the moon and back! Each participant rode an average of 64.2 miles. Ninety-nine percent said they will participate in Bike Travel Weekend and/or Bike Your Park Day again.

First-Time Bicycle Travelers

One of the goals of Bike Travel Weekend & Bike Your Park Day is to introduce bicycle travel to people who have never tried it before. It was the first multi-day bicycle adventure for 32 percent of participants who went on an overnight adventure. Ninety-six percent are hooked and said they’ll go again.

“This gave me the confidence to continue to do more bike traveling. It made me feel like I can accomplish more than I ever knew.” -Carol Simmons, Kennewick, Washington

A Chance to Ride During the Pandemic

The weekend was an opportunity to experience adventure for many people, even if it was a short ride close to home.

“In a year of cancellations, it was nice to enjoy a local fall weekend of riding while celebrating/promoting bicycle travel.” -Dave Battista, Gibsonia, Pennsylvania

It Was National Public Lands Day, Too!

Bike Travel Weekend & Bike Your Park Day landed on the same weekend as National Public Lands Day (on purpose). Some people found a way to participate in all of the events at the same time.

“I’ve never picked up trash on a ride before! We brought a garbage bag and gloves and received a ‘good on ya!’ by other cyclists passing by. It felt good to not just be out at a great state park (that partially burned in the CZU complex fire), but to be helping in some way added a whole new take on it.” -Rachael Brown, Scotts Valley, California

Ride Leaders from Underrepresented Communities

Adventure Cycling is committed to supporting Bike Travel Weekend & Bike Your Park Day ride leaders from underrepresented communities. This year, thanks to financial support from the National Environmental Education Foundation, ride stipends were provided to eight ride leaders who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, and LGBTQ, to help reduce the barriers of going on a bicycle adventure. 

"For many of us who are deeply entrenched within the inner workings of organizing and participating in community led efforts to dismantle structural racism, a seemingly simple activity such as biking and camping offers the opportunity to heal and rest from the daily grind of the city. Personally, this trip was about connecting with my friends while introducing some of them to a Type 2-fun hobby that I always look forward to during the less-wet shoulder seasons and beautiful summers of the Pacific Northwest. Bikecamping as a metaphor has taught me – one pedal stroke at a time – that through struggle and strife comes great strength and resilience to keep in perspective what is keenly important." -Jess Kim, Seattle, Washington

Volunteers, You Made It Happen!

Thank you to the 345 Bike Travel Weekend & Bike Your Park Day volunteers from nine countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, the United States, and the United Kingdom), 46 U. S. states and Washington, DC. Volunteer Advisors and Influencers provided resources and guidance to participants and helped promote Bike Travel Weekend & Bike Your Park Day. 

Thank you to everyone who participated. Save the date for June 4 – 6, 2021 for Bike Travel Weekend and September 25, 2021 for Bike Your Park Day!

The post Bike Travel Weekend & Bike Your Park Day Riders Discover Local Adventures appeared first on Adventure Cycling Association.

Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day are do-it-yourself rides. Adventure Cycling encourages people throughout the world to get out and ride during the last weekend of September, whether it’s an overnight bike adventure or a day ride through public lands. You choose the day (during or around the last weekend in September), who you go with, and where you go. You can create your own ride and experience or join a ride in your area that someone else created. 

Here’s how to be part of Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day during the weekend of September 25 – 27.

•    Plan your favorite bike overnight or day ride in parks or public lands in your area and plan to go some time during the weekend of September 25 – 27, 2020.

•    Register your ride and it will be added to Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day map. Consider making your ride open for others to join when you create it. If your ride is not open to the public it will still be included on the map to provide inspiration for others and to be included as part of Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day.

•    If you’d rather not lead a ride but you want to join one being led by someone else, check out the rides in your area that are open to the public on the join a ride page. Click on the ride details page of the ride you’re interested in and sign up to join. Keep checking the join a ride page as more rides are being added to the map every day.

•    You can also connect with a Bike Travel Weekend and Bike Your Park Day Advisor in your area to help you plan a ride.

•    Everyone who leads a ride or joins a ride will be entered to win a Salsa Cutthroat bicycle. Ride leaders get an extra entry for each person who joins their ride, whether the ride is open to the public or not.

•    Once you register to lead a ride or join a ride, Adventure Cycling will send you planning and promotional resources. You can look forward to riding on the same day as thousands of others– and if you’re leading or joining a ride you’ll get to meet other adventurers in your area.

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The Greg Siple Award helps young adults get in the saddle and out on the road by providing the skills and the gear needed for a lifetime of bicycle travel adventure. In exchange, the winners perform an outreach project that will inspire youth and/or young adults in underrepresented communities to travel by bike. Mary took Adventure Cycling’s Leadership Training Course, which came with a travel stipend and a voucher from BikeFlights.com, to get her and her bike to and from the course. Mary also received Bedrock Sandals and a gift certificate from Cyclosource to update her gear.

Mary recently gave Adventure Cycling an update on her project.

My project for the Greg Siple Adventure Cycling Scholarship is centered around starting the tradition of an annual bicycle trip to my local cycling/mentoring club of high school students here in Greenville, South Carolina. This group already meets three times per month for cycling and life skills sessions with volunteer adult mentors. Most of our youth started this program in middle school and therefore have some bike riding experience; however, most rides have been centered around recreation and are less focused on travel. Through the Leadership Training Course that I took with Adventure Cycling last June in Denver, I now feel more equipped to introduce our youth to the joys of bicycle travel. From my own experiences with bike touring, I know how empowering it is to see the world via your own pedal strokes, and I am so thrilled to be able to share this with these students.

Because most of our youth have limited or no prior experience with bicycle travel and camping, I decided to break my project into three separate opportunities to participate, with each experience building on the previous one. First, we would ride to a nearby facility to an indoor ‘lock-in’ overnight in February when the temperature in South Carolina are still pretty chilly. Second, with temperatures warming up by late April, we would ride with our gear to a nearby host house and camp in the backyard for an outdoor overnight experience. Finally, in early June once school here lets out, we had planned on a four day trip with a shuttle down to Georgia, riding approximately 120 miles out and back from Smyrna on the Silver Comet Trail. 

The skills development for our February overnight focused on campsite setup, gear, working as a group to stay on schedule, and riding in a group while carrying personal items. Based on previous trips we have taken with the youth, and the recommendations I learned in the Leadership Training Course, I knew that I wanted to focus on guiding the youth and letting them lead in individual roles instead of trying to micromanage or take over too many responsibilities.

"I knew that I wanted to focus on guiding the youth and letting them lead in individual roles instead of trying to micromanage or take over too many responsibilities."

For this ride, I had arranged for the tents and camping gear to be dropped off ahead of time at the center, since we are still in the process of installing racks and panniers to the youths’ bicycles. The youth brought their own personal items in backpacks, and they were responsible for setting up their ‘campsites’ indoors upon arrival with tents and sleeping gear. Following a brief demonstration of a fully loaded bicycle setup for a taste of what we would be doing in April and June on our self-supported rides, we gathered for a group dinner followed by a few rounds of capture the flag and other fun group games.

The next morning, the youth packed up their gear to be ready for the next outing, we had breakfast at a local diner within University Center, and after a debriefing we rolled back to the bike shed where the youth got rides home.

So far there has been a lot of enthusiasm about the group tours and we are really looking forward to taking the youth on outdoor overnights, hopefully to make it an annual tradition. Although it is truly disappointing to have to postpone our spring plans due to the coronavirus outbreak, it gives us an all new appreciation and anticipation for opportunities to participate in these events with our youth, and I am really looking forward to sending out an update with the results of the rest of our bike travel adventures! I am enormously grateful to the Adventure Cycling Association for the opportunity to bring the joys of bicycle travel to this group of remarkable youth, and to use this activity to strengthen bonds and relationships within our community. 

Adventure Cycling recently announced the winners of the 2020 Greg Siple Award. The 2021 application opens November 1. Thank you to the 2020 sponsors of the Greg Siple Award: New Belgium Brewing, Surly Bikes, BikeFlights.com, Big Agnes, Arkel, and Bedrock Sandals.

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Rachel did just that this fall at Bike!Bike!, a conference which gathers do-it-yourself cooperatives from around the world to align on empowering the world on two wheels. Rachel shared more about Bike!Bike!

This year’s conference was held in Tijuana, Mexico where I organized a speaker panel highlighting female ridership in bicycle travel. We sat in a circle with the speakers integrated among the audience to share experiences from the road. We talked tips and tricks as well as dreams and challenges in a valuable discussion that reinforced the strength in the room. It was particularly powerful because the young woman who inspired me to ride solo from Los Ángeles to Mexico City was one of the speakers; for me it took connecting with someone who had done it before to show me that I could do it, and now many more people know that it is possible! It is common for women/trans/femme riders to be discouraged from taking trips based on our gender; it was powerful to hear how participants overcame negative feedback to enjoy positive experiences. 

The Greg Siple Award helps young adults, ages 18 – 30-years old, get in the saddle and out on the road by providing the skills and the gear needed for a lifetime of bicycle travel adventure. A 2018 recipient of the Outdoor Leadership Award, Rachel took Adventure Cycling’s Leadership Training course in Colorado this summer. “The training cracked a shell of limitation I had grown for myself and reminded me that I have certain skills to offer,” she said. 

In exchange for the 2020 award, four winners will perform an outreach project to people in underrepresented communities such as but not limited to women, LBGTQI people, people of color, indigenous people, refugees, and people with disabilities. 

Rachel had this to say about her outreach project:

The most rewarding part of the project was facilitating a collective energy among 30 women/trans/femme people who support each other in bicycle travel. At the final go-around, people shared that they felt inspired and empowered to take on their bike travel dreams. We left the space continuing the conversation!

The 2020 Greg Siple Award application is open until December 31. Sponsors of the Greg Siple Award include New Belgium Brewing, Surly Bikes, BikeFlights.com, Big Agnes, Arkel, and Bedrock Sandals.

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Thea jumped at the chance to work in Kotzebue, Alaska, a village hub for the Northwest Arctic region, where youth make up nearly 40 percent of the population. Thea’s role with the NPS in Kotzebue was to teach science and history curriculum. She connected the dots to the Greg Siple Award and facilitated youth bike safety, instruction, and maintenance. Thea also organized a Bike Your Park Day ride. 

The Greg Siple Award helps young adults get in the saddle and out on the road by providing the skills and the gear needed for a lifetime of bicycle travel adventure. In exchange, the winners like Thea perform an outreach project that will inspire youth and/or young adults in marginalized communities to travel by bike.

The youth in Kotzebue spend a lot of unstructured time roaming around town by bicycle.   

While working for the National Park Service we did 3-hour weekly bicycle roves with a trailer, bringing educational props around town to do a lesson about natural and cultural history. Youth would frequently tag along forming a bicycle caravan throughout town over the course of the program. Average outreach for the weekly program was between 25-60 youth. 

I scheduled, organized and facilitated a Bike Your Park Day event. Because all of the parks in our region are only accessible by snowmobile, boat, or plane it wasn’t feasible to bike within the park units, instead we scheduled a community bike ride. I recognized that most members of the community had never been on an organized ride, severe winds altered the course the day of the ride and we rerouted the ride throughout town to the local parks to do a clean up. With the long days, youth spend a lot of their free time at the parks throughout the summer months and without extensive trash disposal infrastructure in the remote community it can accumulate. We brought a scale to weigh in the trash, prizes, and snacks and hot beverages for the blustery day. Total participation was 34, with over 80 pounds of trash collected. 

It was exciting to see the amount of biking that happened in my community, particularly with youth. Biking gave young people a sense of independence and I would see kids as young as five wrenching on their bikes and doing wheelies. I loved being able to be responsive to the biking culture that already existed and adapting my project to the specific needs within the community. It gave me the perspective that community bike projects should be a reflection of local conditions and needs. There are a lot of opportunities for bike outreach in rural communities and that energizes me. 

“Getting people on bikes and strengthening the rapport between gateway communities and public land is something that I am passionate about. This kind of community outreach project has the potential to be scaled up or down and be replicated in other towns adjacent to public lands.” -Thea Garrett

The 2020 Greg Siple Award application is open until December 31. Four winners, ages 18 – 30 years old, take an Adventure Cycling educational course and get the gear they need for a lifetime of bike adventure. In exchange, they perform an outreach project to people in underrepresented communities such as but not limited to women, LBGTQI people, people of color, indigenous people, refugees, and people with disabilities. Sponsors of the Greg Siple Award include New Belgium Brewing, Surly Bikes, BikeFlights.com, Big Agnes, Arkel, and Bedrock Sandals.

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