Adventure Cycling Association

Adventuring by bike is inherently sustainable, so give yourself a pat on the back. But you can always do more, and often it’s the simple stuff that pays off big. Decisions like the outfitter you book, the events you attend, and even the trails you choose to tackle can all help protect the places you love to ride. Here are 10 culturally rich and environmentally smart trips where you can tread a little lighter.

This story originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine.

AQUARIUS TRAIL HUT SYSTEM

Jared Fisher, co-founder of Las Vegas-based cycling tour company Escape Adventures, spent two decades ruminating on his moonshot idea to build a hut system in southern Utah’s scenic backcountry. He knew it was virtually impossible to get permits to construct permanent structures on public lands. His solution: shipping containers which could be installed and removed without disturbing the environment. In 2017, he built the first of five solar-powered shelters along the 190-mile Aquarius Trail, a route of Forest Service roads and singletrack that weaves between Bryce and Zion national parks. It starts at the 11,307-foot summit of Brian Head Peak, winds through Panguitch, Hatch, and Bryce, and ends in Escalante, population 827. The Forest Service receives a three percent fee on bookings, and Escape Adventures helps clear winter downfall and has planted vegetation in areas damaged by fire.

Each hut is crafted from a retired 40-foot shipping container split into two bunk areas, with room for six in each. Outside, a deck connects the living spaces to a 20-foot-long half-container filled with solar-powered amenities — including a shower room and refrigerator — and a full kitchen outfitted with a propane stove. Backcountry comforts include hammocks, sanitized hut shoes, a fire pit, power for charging electronic devices as well as e-bikes. Fridges come fully stocked with water, Gatorade, and ingredients like ground beef for burgers and tacos. A beer pack can be included for a $65 fee.

You’ll want to train (and pack a puffy), especially coming from sea level. The route averages 8,000 feet of altitude along limestone hoodoos, red canyons, and ponderosa forests with Days One and Four above 10,000 feet. And be prepared for some big climbs, including Day Four’s 2,200-foot, 10-mile grind up Aquarius Plateau. The entire six-day, 190-mile hut trip is available from July 1 to October 1. Shorter options are available starting in June. In peak summer, temperatures can reach around 80 degrees. September dazzles with golden foliage, though you can run into snow at high altitudes toward the end of the month.

EAST COAST GREENWAY

The East Coast Greenway is proving that bike trails might be one of the smartest investments local governments can make. “Greenways are havens of health,” says Dennis Markatos-Soriano, executive director of the nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance. “The biggest obstacle for people to live active, healthy lives is a lack of safe infrastructure.” Stretching 3,000 miles from Maine to Florida, the East Coast Greenway links both major cities and rural regions via a sprawling network of roads and paved, dirt, and gravel paths.

More than a boon to community health, the greenway has also helped revitalize and protect over 1,000 miles of land along its corridor. Cramer Hill Waterfront Park in Camden, New Jersey, and Cobbs Creek Trail in Southwest Philadelphia, both built on reclaimed landfills, are shining examples, and a 2019 study found that the greenway protected 9,900 acres of land around the Delaware River Watershed leading to $39 million in environmental benefits. “When we build greenways, we rebuild ecosystems,” says Markatos-Soriano. “This has been a great story of natural restoration and human connection. We’re seeing freshwater mussels in the Delaware River for the first time in decades and eels and beavers returning to the Bronx River.”

More than three decades in the making, the greenway is almost 40 percent completed. Markatos-Soriano believes the historic $550 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, passed in 2021, could provide the funding needed to finish it within the next decade. While most people use the greenway to commute or for daily exercise, Markatos-Soriano estimates a couple hundred endurance junkies have bikepacked it in its entirety. “From puffins to pelicans, pines to palms, moose to manatee, and also the best blueberry and key lime pie you’ve ever tasted,” he says, “this trail is an ever-changing regional lens.”

Curious? Check out Adventure Cycling’s four Short Routes along the greenway.

ADVENTURE SOUTH NZ

Since 1992, Adventure South NZ has embraced a business philosophy rooted in environmental, community, and cultural stewardship. The New Zealand cycling and hiking specialist is a longtime supporter of trail trusts such as the Otago Central Rail Trail, and donates bikes to local nonprofits like Big Sisters Big Brothers. Those efforts haven’t gone unnoticed: For six years running, Adventure South has earned the Qualmark Gold award for Sustainable Tourism Business (the equivalent of a LEED Gold certification for building). Not surprisingly, that same ethos applies to its itineraries.

“I’m always thinking about how to reduce our collective impacts on trips,” says general manager Philip Wyndham. All single-use plastics have been removed from its excursions, and over 90 percent of waste is recycled. “Some recent numbers made me realize that we prepare at least 20,000 meals with red meat, and we’re looking at reducing that,” he says. Both of the Adventure South NZ trips below are part of the government’s Great Rides of New Zealand project, a collection of 23 long-distance trails that promote environmentally sustainable tourism and support the economies of the small towns they pass through.

ALPS TO OCEAN CLASSIC

The result of 14 years of development, the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail is New Zealand’s longest bicycle route, stretching 195 miles along South Island from the foot of Aoraki Mount Cook to the Pacific. Adventure South NZ is part of a biodiversity project that will annually distribute an estimated 3,000 native plants and trees along the path. Riders will enjoy six mostly mellow days along the AO2C route, though there is a 51-mile, 2,100-foot elevation day you’ll want to prepare for. Highlights include touring Maori rock art sites, stargazing the clear skies of Omarama, and an overnight in a historic homestead.

OLD GHOST ROAD MOUNTAIN BIKE ADVENTURE

Encompassing 53 miles of predominantly purpose-built track ranging from fast and flowing to tight and technical, Old Ghost Road winds through remote valleys and over rugged mountains. A true feat of engineering, the route resurrects a 19th-century gold miners’ route between the ghost town of Lyell and tiny Seddonville in the South Island’s West Coast region. Mōkihinui-Lyell Backcountry Trust, which helps manage the trail, has deployed 1,000 predator traps along the Old Ghost Road to help revive native bird populations, such as tomtits and kākā. The trust also supports youth programs that teach leadership and environmental stewardship through on-trail initiatives.

MADBUSH FALLS

If you could distill Vermont’s long, sudsy tradition of beer-brewing into a trail, you’d get the 248-mile Green Mountain Gravel Growler. The route begins in Burlington and follows bucolic dirt farm roads, historic woodland trails, and flowy New England singletrack, passing cult-favorite breweries, like Hill Farmstead, and brewpubs, such as Prohibition Pig. Madbush Falls, a new lodge and riders’ outpost along the route, gives bike-backers a basecamp to recharge for the second half of the journey. In addition to having everything that a rider could ask for — two saunas, a killer restaurant, and its namesake 30-foot waterfall- slash-swimming hole, just to name a few amenities on offer — the multimillion-dollar project boasts energy-efficient pumps that heat and cool the 15,000-square-foot lodge. Tents perched along the Folsom Brook draw on solar power to run their lights, toilets, showers, and state-of-the-art stormwater system.

As if that weren’t enough, its founder, Jonny Adler, helps bike-packers customize a Green Mountain Gravel Growler tour. He advises allotting five days total and camping in Smuggler’s Notch State Park and Groton State Forest on nights one and two, respectively. Day Three, from Greensboro to Madbush, is a big ride (68 miles with over 5,000 feet of elevation gain), so recover with two nights at Madbush Falls. An on-site bike shop and repair service, Riders Outpost, ensures your steed will be ready for the Gravel Growler’s biggest challenge: the Lincoln Gap, which boasts a sustained grade of 24 percent near the top.

HOME GROWN TOURS

You don’t have to sacrifice choice for sustainability. Just look at the trips crafted by Tucson, Arizona-based mountain biking outfitter Home Grown Tours. Each bespoke itinerary is tailored to the terrain you want to conquer and how you want to relax post-ride — even down to your favorite style of campfire beer. Husband-and-wife owners Art and Tara Alcantara have been riding in southern Arizona for more than 15 years, and they take pride in bringing clients to places other guides are unwilling to go. And to ensure those spots are protected, they’ve founded a non-profit trail maintenance and advocacy organization called Tucson Off-Road Cyclists & Activists (TORCA). “Signage is virtually non-existent,” Tara says, “but since we do the trail building, we know every inch of terrain, so you never have to worry about missing a turn.”

Multi-day expeditions explore the Arizona Trail’s southern passages as well as remote singletrack in the Santa Catalina Mountains and Sonoran Desert. Home Grown takes care of the transportation, camping equipment, and meals, which might include carne asada tacos one night and a Mexican squash casserole called calabacitas another. “We are completely self-sufficient,” says Tara. “Sustainable to us means we leave the trail better than we found it.”

DUVINE

Becoming the world’s first 100-percent carbon-neutral bike tour operator sounds like the ultimate eco accolade. But carbon offsets, which DuVine makes through third-parties such as Brazil’s Envira Amazonia Project and a solar power initiative in India, only get you so far. Realizing this, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company has taken more tangible steps, from returning pedals in cloth sacks instead of plastic bags to shipping jerseys in compostable mailers to partnering with conservation-minded hotels, such as the family-run Tintswalo Atlantic on its South Africa Winelands Bike Tour.

Then there is that trip’s social impact. Riders veer off the beaten path, visiting local communities and sampling traditional dishes. “The experience is a full perspective,” says DuVine guide Arien Coppock, a former pro cyclist who grew up in rural South Africa during apartheid. “You will dance and kick a soccer ball with the kids, enjoy roosterkoek [traditional bread] with tannie [auntie] Siena in her one-bedroom house as she prepares soup for the locals in her community, and sip wine with one of our top sommeliers.”

BIKEPACKING NORTHERN NEVADA

Since moving to Reno in 1999, Kurstin Graham estimates he’s ridden well over 10,000 miles throughout northern Nevada. Then a decade ago, he used that hard-won experience to launch Bikepacking Northern Nevada — a blog filled with witty, colorful musings of his backroad discoveries — to encourage more riders to become better stewards of their public lands. Once he earned a following, Graham began leading bikepacking trips designed to spotlight local environmental issues. “I’m more of a host than a guide,” he says. “I post a route and map, notes on what to expect, and a meeting point and time on my blog and Facebook. The first trip had zero participants, but I didn’t take it as failure. I did the ride anyway.” He’s since hosted nearly 40 rides and escorted participants hailing from Reno, the Bay Area, and even England.

Held each October, the Fly and High Rock Canyons Ride is “the crown jewel of routes,” Graham says. The two-day itinerary bags 66 miles and 2,600 feet of climbing while taking in the ancient glacial potholes of Fly Canyon and tracing High Rock Canyon’s Emigrant Trail, a path the 49ers once used to travel from the Midwest to California and Oregon. On Day Two, the group descends to Little High Rock Canyon to join local nonprofit Friends of Black Rock High Rock’s stewardship team to clean up trash in this high-impact zone. “My goal with these rides is to make a greater connection between the participants and the land they’re riding on,” Graham says, “and hopefully inspire them to come out and do volunteer work on their own the next time they ride.”

CLIMATE RIDE

If you’re going to pedal, why not do it for the planet? That’s the idea behind Climate Ride, which has raised nearly $15 million for conservation, climate, and active transportation-focused initiatives since 2008. What really sets the nonprofit apart, however, is its people-powered funding — in order to join a trip, participants must source at least $3,200 dollars in donations through personal fundraising efforts. Equally important is the awareness its 8,000 participants have raised: The nonprofit estimates each rider reaches over 100 people on average while campaigning.

Want to get involved? Climate Ride’s popular Glacier Ride takes just 30 riders per trip through three spectacular national parks across two countries: Glacier National Park in the U.S., and Waterton Lakes and Banff national parks in Canada. The six-day, 250-mile adventure gets a makeover for its July 16-21, 2025, departure, with an itinerary that includes the Kananaskis Highway, Alberta’s highest paved road; the Icefields Parkway; and a stop at Lake Louise. Riders will ascend high-alpine passes, pedal past retreating glaciers, and witness 500-year-old cedar forests.

Glacier National Park Conservancy, the fundraising nonprofit of its namesake park, is the beneficiary of this ride, making Climate Ride one of its largest donors. Those funds have helped reintroduce bison to Glacier and establish a bike shuttle on the iconic Going-to-the-Sun Road. Worried about the carbon you’ll create by traveling to your ride? Donate to Climate Ride’s Tailwinds Fund, which offsets those emissions through tangible projects such as funding the installation of solar panels on an affordable housing complex.

10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION HUTS

Colorado’s 10th Mountain Division huts are primarily known as coveted backcountry skiing basecamps. But when the snow melts, this network of 40 off-grid shelters strung between Vail, Aspen, and Leadville becomes a playground for bikepackers thanks to 350 miles of old logging roads, turn-of-the-century railroad grades, and high-alpine single-track.

Named in honor of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division, which trained at nearby Camp Hale in the Pando Valley during World War II, the nonprofit that manages the cabins recently launched the 10th Mountain Climate Project. Ben Dodge, executive director of the Aspen-based organization, says its future was threatened by climate change, including smaller snowpack, increased fire danger, and more severe weather.

The association’s first move was to partner with Clean Energy Economy for the Region, a Roaring Fork Valley nonprofit focused on sustainability and energy independence, to improve the efficiency of its hut and administrative operations. Staff also worked closely with the Forest Service to assess how best to create defensible perimeters to protect the huts from wildfires. Perhaps the most important focus of the project, however, has been simply raising awareness among hut users. When you spend a day riding through pristine mountains, Dodge says, you want to do everything you can to protect them, whether that’s carpooling to the trailhead or burning less wood.

AMITY TOURS

When Amity Tours founder, Cristián Levy, learned that 40 percent of Chile’s waste ends up in landfills, he challenged his company to become the country’s first zero-waste tour operator. Since 2019, the South American outfitter has incorporated robust recycling, compost, and waste reduction initiatives into its trips, with post-ride picnics curated from local, organic ingredients and dismountable recycling points throughout each route. At the end of each season, it even donates any remaining reusable water bottles to local sports clubs.

Amity has since taken its efforts a step further by mitigating its carbon emissions through a partnership with the Lemu Cooperative, an indigenous reforestation effort. Mapuche-Pehuenche families in the cooperative collect, store, and germinate seeds from the region’s temperate rainforests on their land in the rural town of Curarrehue. After germination, the saplings are nurtured for two years, and then the young trees — including 14 for every Amity Tours guest — are planted to restore depleted sections of forest.

See the fruits of those efforts first-hand on Amity Tours’ seven-and eight-day mountain biking and gravel itineraries in the Lake and Volcano District. Riders will meet the local Mapuche community and visit Kütralkura Park, Chile’s first UNESCO-recognized geological site and another project Amity Tours supports.