 Wearing plaid is not mandatory, but always welcome. Interested in becoming more involved in Bikepacking Roots? Apply to be a Board Member!
Our Board Members act as representatives of the organization and advocates for the bikepacking community and the landscapes through which we ride. They’re responsible for ensuring we’re executing our mission, accountable to our membership, and organizationally healthy. We’re seeking new Board Members whose experience, expertise, perspective and passion will help us fulfill our mission. That might include experience (in no particular order) with:
We welcome individuals of all identities (racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, ability, size, age, etc.) to apply. The Board of Directors meets quarterly, with three video meetings and one in-person weekend retreat each year. Committees meet as needed. The approximate monthly time commitment is 1 to 4 hours, and we ask that members make a two-year commitment. You can read the full job description here. We will begin reviewing applications on September 5th, and follow up with applicants the week of September 12th. New Board Members are invited (but not required) to join us at our annual in-person retreat in Tucson, Arizona, November 12th and 13th.  Our 5th annual Bikepacking Community Survey is happening from now until August 7th. Whether you're an avid bikepacker or an aspiring adventure cyclist, we want to hear from you. Your input will help us better understand who bikepackers are and what they want and need, so that we can best serve the bikepacking community. The survey results will inform our route development, community building, education and advocacy initiatives in the years to come. The survey should take no more than 5 to 10 minutes to complete. As a thank you for your time, you'll be entered to win one of five prize packs, including an Osprey hydration pack, a $100 gift certificate to JefeVelo, Bikepacking Roots swag, and more.  Bikepacking Roots is excited to celebrate the 2022 BIPOC Bike Adventurers. These cyclists and projects were selected for their transformative impact on the applicants' lives and larger communities. The BIPOC Bike Adventurers will be mentored by experienced BIPOC bikepackers Sam Scipio, Eugene Pak and Antonio Miranda. The more than 50 other applicants and other BIPOC cyclists are also invited to participate in mentorship. Thank you to everyone who donated to the grant fund and helped make these transformative trips possible, especially our friends at Salsa Cycles.  Shawnee Dez was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. She is the founder and organizer of the Black JoyRide. In June 2020, Shawnee and friends organized a mass Juneteenth bike ride to promote Black joy, wellness, and to take up space in the second most segregated city in the United States, Chicago. This ride is a symbol of liberation and mobility. Shawnee's work centers youth and community advocacy. When off the music stage, she activates spaces for creative youth to express unapologetically. The mission of the Black JoyRide is to get as many Black folks on bikes as possible! Shawnee will be bringing the Black JoyRide to Leimert Park, Los Angeles to host the very first Black JoyRide in California on August 25th, 2022. Their goal is to connect with Black folks throughout the diaspora, domestic and abroad, to promote liberation, wellness and joy through biking!  Will Cortez, Silas Sanderson, and Sukho Viboolsittiseri formed BikePOCPNW to respond to the community need for cycling spaces for BIPOC folks in the Portland Metro area. They are actively creating a brave space for BIPOC folks to ride bikes, build community, forge life-long friendships, and challenge the status quo. They do this while holding themselves accountable for behaviors that may replicate or uphold any and all forms of oppression. Since its inception in January 2021, the group has hosted an AAPI Solidarity Ride, monthly rides for all disciplines of riding (party pace, mountain bike, gravel, etc.), clinics, and trained riders interested in competition. They are using the grant to build BilePOCPNW’s bikepacking gear library. The gear will be used to for bikepacking trips to Stub Stewart State Park, the Deschutes River State Recreation Area, and more.  Roxy Robles is a cyclist, urban planner, sewist, and Filipinx food enthusiast living on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish (Seattle, Washington). She started bike touring after realizing that bike touring was not that different than hauling groceries up and down Seattle hills on a bike. In Seattle, she organizes with Friends on Bikes, and volunteers with The Bikery & Outdoors for All. She has conducted introductory bike touring courses with Seattle Colleges, Adventure Cycling Association, and Swift Industries. Roxy is passionate about supporting new cyclists and spreading her love of bikes and bike touring. She thinks tarot cards are an essential item on any packing list, and loves to talk about feelings. You can get her book, An Introduction to Bike Touring to get started on your cycling journey! Roxy is using the grant to lead a group from Friends on Bikes Seattle (FOB) to occupied Nimiipuu and Shohone-Bannock territories in colonized southeast Idaho for a 80-mile loop near Warm Lake. The route includes climbs, views from the Boise National Forest and HOT SPRINGS! FOB is a community for people living at the intersections of trans, two-spirit, women, intersex, gender nonconforming and Black, Indigenous, and other people of the global majority identities.  Annijke Wade’s outlook on life has been changed by mountain biking. Through it, she has found more balance, the ability to work through challenging situations, a wonderful community, and traveled to many awesome locations and trails. In 2021, Annijke experienced a life-changing spinal cord injury from a horrible mountain biking accident. She is now entering the adaptive mountain biking (aMTB) world. One of her recovery and recreation goals is to figure out how to bikepack with a spinal cord injury. Annijke is committed to using her position to amplify BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and Disabled voices and will be using her privilege to empower folx in the community. Annijke is using the grant to go on a one day bikepacking adventure with her friend Fanny in Golden, Colorado!  Selena Feliciano is an artist, strategist and half of the Borikén Bicycle Tour team based on occupied Chochenyo Ohlone territory (Oakland, CA). She spends most of her days dreaming of how to deepen connections to the biosphere on a mass scale, and how to reverse the effects of capitalism, white supremacy, and centuries-long destruction of indigenous roots under colonialism. Most days, she engages with groups doing work to shift our focus on community in the just transition of our local economies, and is currently working alongside incredible organizers to decolonize our energy system for a more resilient, safe, and democratized grid with The Energy Democracy Project. Outside of computer and organizing work, she finds the intersection of bicycles and art ripe with possibility for deepening our ties to our beloved Earth; She is an avid bicycle tourist and contributing performer with Agile Rascal Bicycle Touring Theatre Company, as well as a 2022 athlete with the Ride for Racial Justice Gravel Team. Selena and her collaborator, Jackie Rivera, are using the funds to embark on the Borikén Bicycle Tour in the spring of 2023, across the island of Puerto Rico, creating art, memories, and reflection from the inevitable inspiration of our ancestral ecology and genetic ties to Taíno lands and waters. They invite other artists and activists of Puerto Rican ancestry to join them on this ancestral journey. Find out more at www.selenafeliciano.com  Ester is a purpose-driven Afro-Latino woman from Brazil who lives in Syracuse, New York. She works in the climate and energy sector, and in her free time you can find her biking and being a cat mom. She got her first bike seven years ago to commute to college and since then she has never owned a car. Biking has always been her main way of transportation. She is also a passionate, lifelong motorsports fan, advocating for for diversity and inclusion in the male-dominant sport. Ester is using the grant to tackle the 585+ mile Adirondack Trail Ride (TATR) bikepacking race in fall 2022, and preparing for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in 2023.  Suzanne Alexander developed a passion for endurance sports after a three-day, 60-mile walk in support of breast cancer research. Her love for biking grew when training for and completing her first sprint triathlon. Suzanne is a member of the Atlanta chapter of Black Girls Do Bike and enjoys biking on trails around Atlanta. Suzanne is thrilled to plan and complete the inaugural “Tubman Trek”, a multi-day bike adventure along the 125-mile Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway. She plans to expand the trip to include others in future years. The trek will facilitate freedom:
 Elisha Bishop is a husband, father to a two-year-old and a member of the Gila River Indian Community. He organizes bike rides for the community in Gila River, where he met Mario and his son Isaac. Elisha is using the grant to embarking on his first bikepacking trip with Mario and Isaac along portions of the Western Wildlands Route and Arizona Trail from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon.  Melissa grew up in sunny, hot Las Vegas, NV, and since then has lived in and explored various Western states. She began her outdoor adventures at the age of 19, teaching herself how to snowboard on artificial snow. Her love for nature is equal to her love for culture. And so, she became an anthropologist. When not in the classroom teaching, she enjoys being outside, gardening, hiking, camping with her family, and riding her bike. Her favorite bird is the Northern Flicker and her favorite flower is the foxglove.
One of her long-term goals has been to go on an overnight adventure on her own. She goes hiking alone a lot. The peace that results when alone in nature, grounds her and keeps her afloat in this busy world we live in. She feels as John Muir did when he wrote: “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” Melissa's is using the grant to take a trip that involves just her, a bike and some gear to sustain her through the backcountry on a section of the Oregon Timber Trail. It will be the most adventurous thing she has ever done.  The Intermountain Connectors are here at long last! We’ve teamed up with the Adventure Cycling Association to release six routes linking our Western Wildlands Route (WWR) to the iconic Great Divide MTB Route (GDMBR). The WWR was inspired in part by the GDMBR. Since we released it in 2017, riders have been asking for routes to link the two. After years of reconnaissance, they’re finally here. You can use the Connectors to create loops with easier logistics or ride them as free-standing routes. Each one is a unique adventure in its own right, crossing diverse desert, mountain, and plateau landscapes. The Connectors are non-technical riding, mostly off-pavement, created for wide and knobby tired bikes. Water sources and resupply stops are regularly available and detailed in route resources. 
Bikepacking Roots will be accepting applications for the 2022 BIPOC Bike Adventure Program from between April 14th and May 15th. The BIPOC Bike Adventure Program is an effort to reduce the barriers to bike adventure by providing grants and mentorship to BIPOC bike adventurers. We recognize that this is a small step in the face of massive systemic racism and entrenched inequality, but we believe that bicycles and the outdoors are for all, and that everyone should have access to the freedom, joy and self-actualization they engender. We also know that there are many barriers to multi-day self-supported adventures to be dismantled before beginning to bikepack, such as finances, equipment, confidence, experience, camping skills, and access to routes. So we're not creating many constraints. The program will support BIPOC cyclists' fun and empowering bike adventures. We’ll leave it up to applicants to define what adventure is for themselves. The BIPOC Bike Adventure Program:
If you have any questions about the program, please contact Program Coordinator Brooke Goudy at brooke@bikepackingroots.org In 2021, the program distributed nearly $30,000 to 22 BIPOC adventure cyclists, for everything from mother-son day rides to Great Divide MTB Route finishes:
Brooke Goudy is an athlete and bicycle advocate. She has a love for cycling, but her greatest joy is introducing cycling to women of color as a co-leader of Black Girls Do Bike Denver. As the community events manager for VIDA MTB Series, she co-leads an Impact committee that works to eliminate barriers to make mountain biking more inclusive, equitable, and diverse. Her love for biking extends to conservation and advocacy for trails. She recently became a member of the Board of Directors for Boulder Mountainbike Alliance and co-leads the Women's Colorado Mountain Bike Association Program as their Program Marketing Manager. Representation matters and so does making long term policies and laws that break down barriers for marginalized communities to enjoy nature in any way that they see fit. Brooke serves on the Denver Mayor Advisory board, and is a member of the Denver Parks and Recreation Technical Advisory Committee. Having a seat at these tables allows her to identify the communities’ needs, and prioritize opportunities to support equity, inclusion, and diversity in outdoor adventure sports. Last summer, she rode the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route and developed a love and enthusiasm for bikepacking. She is looking forward to competing in the Westfjords Way Challenge, 960 kilometers/ 595 miles around Iceland's most beautiful and remote landscape.  The BOLT Act is in Committee in both the House and Senate, and we need your help in moving this bill forward! What is the BOLT Act? The "Biking on Long-distance Trails" Act is federal legislation that would result in the identification of potential new long-distance bike trails on federally managed lands. What does the BOLT Act mean for the future of trails and bikepacking? If passed, the BOLT Act will mandate that federal land managers identify potential for new long distance bike trails. This could lead to support for restoration of existing long distance bike trails that need resurrection, completion of long distance trails that are in progress, and federal support for existing and new long distance trails. How has Bikepacking Roots been involved in the BOLT Act? We have been working with the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) and the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) in communicating with the Congressional committee staff involved in refining the BOLT Act language. BPR, with support from IMBA and ACA, have specifically recommended refining the language used to define “long-distance trails” in the context of the BOLT Act to those that:
In refining this language, the BOLT Act will be more specific to dirt oriented, off-road bikepacking rather than paved or gravel trails. We recommended this change because we currently can create exceptional gravel and road routes without substantial land manager involvement, but singletrack routes require much more of land managers like the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Bikepacking Roots has submitted testimony to the House Committee on Natural Resources to voice our support as representatives of bikepackers. Now we’re calling on you, the bikepackers, to join us in voicing your support for the BOLT Act! Committee votes are likely to happen soon, so let’s all help this bill advance. How can you support the BOLT Act? Call or write your member of congress and share your support for the BOLT Act. You can use the Advocacy Toolbox for Bikepackers for tips to make your call or letter effective, or you can submit a comment through the Action Network set up by ACA. When submitting a comment through this platform, be sure to customize the text to reflect your personal values around bikepacking on long distance trails! You can refer to the bikepacking talking points provided at the bottom of the Advocacy Toolbox for Bikepackers. Including your personal story goes a long way! Beyond this, encourage your fellow bikepackers to speak up, too.  Bikepacking Roots is partnering with Adventure Cycling Association on their BOLT Act action campaign. "The Adventure Cycling Association is a non-profit org that inspires, empowers and connects people to travel by bike. We manage a route network of more than 50,000 miles of mapped routes around the country, work with AASHTO to designate the US Bicycle Route System, and lead guided tours on both road and trail routes. We want to create more places for folks to travel by bike, and make our existing route network safer."
 Bikepacking Roots is hiring a program coordinator to lead and help expand its BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant Program thanks to generous support from Salsa Cycles.
The BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant Program was created in 2020 to help reduce the barriers to bike adventure for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) individuals. The program provides funding, in-kind assistance, and mentoring for recipients to pursue fun and empowering bicycle adventures and skill building of all kinds. In 2021, the BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant Program received 96 applications and gave 13 grants to 20 recipients. The grants ranged from $1000 to $3300 and included in-kind equipment grants from gear manufacturers. The Program Coordinator for 2022 will:
Qualified applicants will have:
The Position:
To apply, please submit a cover letter and resume to ally@bikepackingroots.org by Friday, January 7th 2022.
Bikepacking Roots (BPR) is excited to welcome its new Executive Director, Ally Johnson, a passionate bikepacker and experiential educator based in Salt Lake City. Ally has a master’s degree in Policy, Organization, and Leadership from Stanford University, undergraduate work in nonprofit leadership, and last taught US history and civics at the high school level. Ally was chosen from a large candidate pool of highly qualified individuals, a testament to the passion and diversity of experiences in the bikepacking community.
“After serving as Executive Director of Bikepacking Roots for four years since the organization was founded, it’s time to pass the torch,” shares our Founding Director Kurt Refsnider. “I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Ally - she brings a wealth of valuable experience and perspective both on and off the bike that will help BPR continue to expand our support and advocacy for the growing bikepacking community.” Refsnider is moving into a director role overseeing route development while co-founder Kait Boyle remains the Education and Events Director. Both will continue to race off-road ultra endurance events professionally. BPR is also welcoming Nan Pugh moving into the Board chair role. She has volunteered with BPR since 2018 and is an experienced nonprofit organizational leader and outdoor educator based in the Teton Valley of Idaho. BPR invites you to get to know Ally, who will begin in a part-time role while also spending time riding many of BPR’s routes. The organizational goal is to expand the executive director position into full-time as quickly as possible to facilitate BPR’s continued growth. What excites you about Bikepacking Roots and this role? Bikepacking has had such a transformative, positive impact on my life. I’m passionate about Bikepacking Roots because they help people have those life-changing experiences, connecting them to landscapes and communities. I am excited to enable Kait and Kurt to do what they do best. They aren’t going anywhere. I’m joining them to help grow our organization’s capacity to connect people, protect public lands, and map new routes. Personally, I’m most passionate about the community and education piece. I went to a Bikepacking Roots GoBikepacking event during the interview process and it was an incredibly connecting experience. I’m stoked to put on more in-person events post-pandemic. What was your first bikepacking trip? The Tour Divide in 2019. I thru-hiked the PCT in 2009, and toured the Northern Tier route in 2015. I figured I had the experience to combine the two and have the best of both worlds - I had no idea how hard or transformative it would be. The Tour Divide Grand Depart wasn’t as welcoming as I expected, but a few women encouraged me that I did belong even if I wasn’t racing. That support carried me through the ride, and it made me passionate about ensuring our community is inclusive and welcoming. During the Tour Divide, my future husband met me up in Aspen Alley, outside of Rawlins, Wyoming. He told me to ride towards him so he could snap some photos. When I reached him he dropped down on one knee and proposed. Later that evening, he offered to lance my saddle sores with the diamond ring. True dirtbag love. What do you love about bikepacking? The breadth of the sport is incredible. You can push your body to the absolute limits if you want, or you can ride slow and silly. I love the symmetry that Kurt [Refsnider] once had the fastest known time on the Tour Divide and I was DFL. Fifteen days vs. fifty. I love that Bikepacking Roots has the space to encompass both of us and our experiences. That’s the source of our strength; we one-hundred percent want to have and welcome both. What is something you can’t live without on bikepacking trips? Fuzzy slippers. My biggest challenge bikepacking is staying warm while sleeping. I need something between sleep socks and down booties, and cheap, old-lady fuzzy bunny slippers are the sweet spot. What does the future of bikepacking look like to you? Bright! Our sport is growing so fast. I’m hopeful that we can harness that energy to create an even more engaged and inclusive community. As cheesy as it sounds, I really do believe in the power of people on bikes to change the world. We are excited to officially release the long-awaited Northwoods Route, a 600-mile-long circumnavigation of the western half of Lake Superior through northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Following primarily gravel roads, relatively smooth two-tracks, rail trails, and short sections of pavement through thick forests and along countless lakes of all sizes, we created this loop to be inviting to riders on both mountain or gravel bikes. And for riders looking for more technical riding opportunities - loaded or unloaded - along the way, the route includes singletrack alternates and trail networks in route communities along the way. The loop is closed by utilizing the passenger ferries that travel to Isle Royale National Park to cross Lake Superior (note that bikes are not allowed on any of the trails on Isle Royale!).  Each of the three states along the route offers unique landscapes and riding experiences, from the cobbly beaches and cliff lines of Minnesota, to the heavily eroded ancient mountain belts of Michigan, to the glaciated and remote countryside of northern Wisconsin. Small towns along all these segments offer regular resupply and lodging opportunities. Singletrack alternates along the route include the 43-mile-long Duluth Traverse, the relatively new Jackpot Trail near Tofte, Minnesota (with more trail construction coming soon), and some of the most popular trails in the CAMBA trail system near Cable, Wisconsin. A dozen additional mountain bike trail networks along the route provide many more opportunities for singletrack riding. “This was an especially rewarding route to create,” says Kurt Refsnider, Bikepacking Roots’ Executive Director and lead route developer. “I grew up in Minnesota and rode and hiked extensively in the Northwoods, and I had ambitions to do some bike tours in the region before I moved away. That never happened, but now we’ve been able to create an amazing route for others to experience and learn about the region by bike.” In the summer and fall of 2020, several dozen members of our volunteer Route Test Team test rode sections of the route and alternative alignments to provide feedback and help refine the loop to provide the best possible riding experience. These riders also helped identify cyclist-friendly businesses along the route to include in the route guidebook.  In order to make trip planning as easy as possible and to help riders more deeply connect to the landscapes through which they ride, Bikepacking Roots has also developed a 70-page guidebook for the Northwoods Route. In addition to providing all pertinent logistical details, educational chapters explore the region’s geology, forest ecology, the recovery of the gray wolf, and the story of the world-class CAMBA trail system in northern Wisconsin. The introductory chapter by Alexandera Houchin, bikepacker and member of the Fond du Lac Band of the Lake Superior Ojibwe, shares her perspective on her homeland and the treaties through which that land was ceded to the U.S. Government. More information about the Northwoods Route, the digital navigation and waypoint data, and the full 70-page route guidebook (in both e-book and print formats) are available here. Development of the Northwoods Route was made possible with support from Bikepacking Roots’ members and from Otso Cycles and Shimano, companies that both believe in the transformative power of bike adventures. |
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Bikepacking Roots is a 8,000-member-strong 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing bikepacking, growing a diverse bikepacking community, advocating for the conservation of the landscapes and public lands through which we ride, and creating professional routes.
Our Business Partners support the bikepacking community, conservation, and public lands:
Our organizational partners that support bikepacking, advocacy, conservation, and outdoor recreation:
