Adventure Cycling Association

Turning 50 was once considered a shift to being “old,” or as I like to say, “experienced.” But as the Adventure Cycling Association hits that milestone this year, it is quite obvious that turning 50 no longer means that gray hair and reclining chairs define you. Instead, it means it’s time to slide on the bike shoes, pull on your favorite cycling jersey, and get outside. It’s time to put on your party helmet.

Nowhere was that on better display than the recent celebration in the Montana town where it all started. Thanks to four friends in the early 1970s who had a vision to merge a country’s 200th birthday with the creation of an iconic, transcontinental bicycle route, an epic event called Bikecentennial was born. And the Golden October Celebration in Missoula brought young and not-so-young riders together once again.

Outsiders might hardly believe that many of the folks who descended on Missoula for the event pedaled all or part of the 4,200-mile TransAmerica Bicycle Trail in summer of ’76. But we did. And seeing both old friends and new made returning home to the Adventure Cycling headquarters so much more than a reunion. “It was so special to reminisce and mingle with others who share an emotional connection to a life-impacting experience,” said Adventure Cycling Life Member and Bikecentennial rider Theresa Leland. “Don’t be fooled by all the gray hair, wrinkles, walkers, canes, and hearing aids.”

In a way, the Golden October Celebration marked a rebirth of Adventure Cycling by looking to the past with both eyes on the future. Members who discovered bike travel decades ago met face-to-face with the creative hands and innovative minds charting new routes at Adventure Cycling today. It’s a staff that has dedicated its professional and even personal lives to making bicycle travel more accessible for everyone through powerful advocacy outreach and programs that shape cycling policy at the local and national levels. Every staff member strives to fulfill the Adventure Cycling mission: “to inspire, empower and connect people by bicycle.”

“It truly is like coming home because I was on the TransAm in 1976 for Bikecentennial when it came through Missoula,” said one attendee. “I haven’t been here since, and they really have done it all here.”

It took months of planning by a volunteer committee, including me, and input from members to pull off. Initially, we planned to gather in Missoula in late June, but competition with other local events and higher lodging costs urged us to slide it to the fall, when the northern Rockies were putting on their color show.

After arriving from all points across the United States, everyone was glad we did.

The stars truly aligned when all four Adventure Cycling cofounders — June and Greg Siple and Lys and Dan Burden — were able to lock their schedules in to join us. They started it all, fresh off their own great bike adventure, dubbed Hemistour, in the early 1970s. Now, five decades on, generations of bike travelers were eager to share their own stories. The founders graciously listened to every tale and every thank-you, and they were genuinely touched by the adulation throughout the weekend.

A soggy Day-One kickoff reminded us all that rain, sleet, or peanut butter mud meant we were in our element. For many, checking in for the event at the headquarters also meant checking out the building and its historic artifacts for the first time. The bicycles hanging on the walls took some members back to the days when bikes of all styles were finding their place in the growing bicycle travel movement.

Many of these rigs have graced routes around the world. One was ridden by the father of cofounder Greg Siple, for example, and others simply got people around town, like the Iver Johnson singlespeed cruiser. Their motto? “Iver Johnson Bicycles will last years and years and years.” And they did.

And what would a party be without cake? Luckily, there was plenty.

Adventure Cycling members also shared the evening with our board of directors, which conducted its first in-person meeting since January’s Jubilee in the Desert near Tucson, Arizona. It was a chance for members and supporters to hear the collective vision of those shaping the organization’s future while expressing their own ideas for where Adventure Cycling should focus next — recognizing recent successes while also noting areas where a little “truing” is needed.

“Looking out on the sea of faces, it was as if 50 years had fallen away, and we were kids again,” said Barb Samsoe.

As the night wound down and the rain continued outside, it was obvious that these 50-somethings — and the other attendees — were just getting started.


PEDALING MEMORIES

Waking up to sunny skies on Saturday, October 24, set the mood for an exciting day. As they did the evening before, the Siples hosted tours of the headquarters filled with history and colorful stories. Dan Burden spoke to a packed room about mapping the TransAmerica Trail, and various members shared their own history of bike travel during the aptly named Stories from the Road session.

I was thrilled to host a ’76ers session (try saying that three times fast). The recollections we shared dipped us all in memories as if Bikecentennial were a few short years ago rather than five long decades. I was humbled by how candidly Adventure Cycling members expressed fresh enthusiasm for this organization that literally paved the path of their lives after Bikecentennial.

Many attendees participated in interviews conducted by the Burdens for an oral history project Dan is producing. Members were also watching from afar, wishing they were in Missoula rather than online. “Just seeing the photos brought my own stories forward. They were life-changing then and life-changing on a new level now!”

 Ann Stewart commented.

A common theme throughout the day was camaraderie. No one was a stranger. An impromptu chat turned into an extensive, sit-down conversation of common bikepacking tales familiar to anyone you spoke with. Oh, if those walls could talk.

CYCLISTS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS

It’s no secret that cyclists love to talk. Walk up to any rider along a quiet highway, at a gas station, or in a campground, and they’ll share their stories from the saddle. Tourists will often ask us the darndest questions, and as we all know, we’ll proffer the darndest answers. So when you have 200 experienced bike travelers in a lavish hotel complete with a ballroom social hour, you’re going to hear some brow-raising tales.

At Missoula’s downtown Holiday Inn, the dinner program ranged from Bikecentennial reflections to the guided tours Adventure Cycling offers each year to the ongoing mission to enhance nationwide bike travel routes and advocacy. Preceding the dinner presentations was a group photo of the Bikecentennial riders who made the trek to Missoula. By the best count, 67 “’76ers” gathered in the hotel atrium for what we called “our class picture.”

Throw in a room full of memorabilia collected over five decades, a silent auction of cycling art, and the main event hosted by Drew Echelberger, Adventure Cycling’s new development manager, and you had an epic evening.

Once again, our four cofounders captivated attendees, with some added comedy scripted by the Siples in which a local actor played the part of a Bikecentennial cyclist transported to present-day Missoula due to a mysterious fog on Lolo Pass. A little humor will always win over a crowd of cyclists, as we saw. Our emcee, Drew, took on a different approach, nailing the delivery of a spirited Dr. Seussian poem about what bike travel and adventure mean to him. The doctor himself would have been proud.

And perhaps the most emotional 15 minutes of the evening was “Bike Back Into America,” a recently restored slideshow created in 1975 to promote Bikecentennial and the blossoming bike travel lifestyle. Tears were common. 

The celebration concluded on Sunday morning with a chilly but pleasant and meandering ride through Missoula led by former Adventure Cycling Executive Director Jim Sayer. It was a chance to stretch our legs after three days with our friends, and the chill in the air was warmed by the fun conversations we had while discovering Missoula’s well-maintained bike paths.

It’s not often an organization gets to celebrate a half century of existence, every 50 years to be exact. So it is fitting that Interim Executive Director Max Caplanides called the Golden October Celebration a “capstone to an incredible year of festivities and forward momentum for the organization. I am more confident than ever that the community that built Adventure Cycling will carry it forward.” Max closed by reminding the audience that membership and donations will be critical in keeping that momentum pedaling forward.

That vision is certainly within all of us. Those of us who either work as staff or as volunteers know that supporting Adventure Cycling is vital for its continued success. And there’s every reason to believe that Adventure Cycling has another 50 years as the leader of the bike travel community.

Are you in?