A message from the board:

As we approach the end of Adventure Cycling’s 50th Anniversary year, the Board is preparing to gather in Missoula next week for our first in-person meeting since January’s Jubilee in the Desert event. I wanted to share a brief update on what we’ve been working on and what we’re preparing for in 2027.

Board Priorities and Direction

As Max describes in his update below, ACA’s financial results have continued to improve. Thanks to you, fundraising and membership activity have both exceeded expectations. Expenses remain below budget, the result of disciplined spending decisions from leadership, along with operating with a leaner staff than originally planned. I’m grateful to Max and the entire staff for all they’ve done to keep ACA moving forward. We’ve made real progress toward stabilization, but we still have much work to do to achieve growth in sustainable revenue.

Over the past several months, the Board has been taking a close look at which parts of ACA’s work are strongest, where we might grow, and what we can afford to take on. We’ve been drawing on the experience of Board members, staff, and others as we consider how the organization should respond to changes in how people discover, plan, and experience bicycle travel. We continue to work through what ACA should prioritize and where we may need to focus by doing less.

When the Board meets next week, we’ll discuss priorities for 2027, which will, in turn, help shape next year’s budget. That includes choices about where ACA invests in its routes, tours, magazine, and advocacy work; how we strengthen membership and cultivate new sources of revenue; and what staff will need to carry out that work. We’ll also discuss the path toward permanent executive leadership and priorities for Board recruitment and onboarding.

Coming Together in Missoula

I’m particularly looking forward to the Golden October Celebration. It will be wonderful to see so many familiar faces — and to meet others for the first time. I want to thank everyone who has spent months planning the celebration, especially the planning committee: Marin Byrne, Dreux DeMack, and David Read.

To those of you traveling to Missoula, thank you. I’m grateful that so many of you will be there to celebrate, reflect, and ride with us.

To those who can’t be there, this is your celebration, too. We’ve heard from members across the country and around the world who have written to say they’ll be with us in spirit. Whether you’ve been part of this community since Bikecentennial or found your way to us more recently, you’ve helped make ACA what it is.

In recent months, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing from members and former staff about the many ways the organization has been part of their lives. These conversations have brought to mind a line from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, spoken by Bilbo Baggins:

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

Fifty years ago, Bikecentennial invited thousands of people to pedal out without knowing quite where it would lead. Fifty years later, the stories of those journeys — and of all the people who followed — are part of Adventure Cycling’s story.

To everyone who has traveled some part of that road with us, thank you. Here’s to further adventures ahead.

Flavia Chen

2026 ACA Board Chair

A message from the Interim Executive Director:

When I wrote to you in July, I said we were moving forward together. Three months later, I can say it with even more confidence. The work of stabilizing ACA is giving way to the work of building what comes next, and the results from this year show what’s possible when this community rallies.

The clearest sign is how you’ve shown up. More of you have stepped up to give this year than at this time last year, and that support has been crucial to turning a corner. Membership has outperformed our expectations, with renewals running ahead of forecast, lapsed members coming back, and more than 1,500 people joining during our summer member drive alone. Paired with careful stewardship from staff and leadership, all of this has us on track to finish the year ahead of our budget expectations. There is more work to do, and we will keep reporting on it openly, but the direction is the right one.

Big News: Membership Gets More Valuable in 2027

I promised you’d hear more this fall about rethinking membership for the next fifty years. Here is the first result, and it’s an exciting one: beginning in early 2027, members will gain unlimited, free access to our entire digital route network, ready to download whenever inspiration strikes. All we ask in return is that you opt in to automatic renewal, a membership option we’re rolling out in December. Life members will automatically gain access. Prices aren’t changing, and if you opt in, you can still cancel at any time. We’re tying the new benefit to the auto-renew plans as a way to further stabilize our renewal rates. Of course, you can also still choose to simply purchase digital maps and receive renewal reminders if you’d rather not have an auto-renewing membership.

Our routes are the heart of what we do, and we want them in the hands of as many riders as possible. This benefit is our way of saying thank you to the members who carry this organization forward year after year, and our response to feedback from members who told us membership value hadn’t kept pace in recent years. We will share full details in the next few months along with instructions on how to opt in so that you have access the day the benefit goes live.

Two New Routes and a Better Way to Find Them

This year we added over 4,700 miles to the Adventure Cycling Route Network. The Golden Gravel Trail, our 50th anniversary route, already saw hundreds of adventurers in its inaugural summer. For riders looking for something more mellow, just this month we launched the Eastern Canada Bike Route, a 930-mile scenic ride on mostly dedicated multi-use trails, linking Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, and Québec City.

Finding and planning your next ride is getting easier, too. Our rebuilt routes webpages, launching at the end of this month, give every route in our network its own detail page, including all U.S. Bicycle Routes and our library of 48 Short Routes. We are excited to bring this wealth of information into a much sleeker, easier-to-navigate interface to put the full breadth of our Routes team’s expertise at your fingertips.

Building Momentum for Safer Routes

The U.S. Bicycle Route System now spans more than 24,000 miles across 35 states and Washington, D.C. This year’s work focused on making existing routes better, moving seven routes in four states off roads and onto trails, greenways, and safer crossings. We also launched our new Advocacy Hub, signed on to 10 advocacy actions on issues like federal trail funding and public lands, and helped release an interactive atlas through the Amtrak Bike Task Force showing where trains connect to our routes.

Fifty Years Together

Our 50th Anniversary year has brought this community together in person and on the road, starting in January with more than 300 people who came out for the Jubilee celebration in Tucson. This summer, over 1,100 group rides took place as part of our Drop-In Rides event on three of our iconic epic routes. Next week, we will gather in Missoula, where it all began, for the Golden October Celebration to talk about the road ahead and honor our founders and the Bikecentennial riders who started it all.

Caring for Our Home

Our Missoula headquarters has welcomed cyclists for decades, and we are investing in it for the decades ahead. Just last month we had a brand-new roof installed and are working through additional maintenance updates to keep the building in good shape for staff and the touring cyclists who stop by.

On the Road

Our guided tours had a strong season, with 22 tours, 335 days in the field, and more than 300 riders out on the road. We hope you might join us for a guided trip next year. Our 2027 tours are now open for registration.

None of this happens without you. Thank you for riding with us through this milestone year. You are a part of our story, and we are honored to be a part of yours. If ACA has meant something in your life and you want to help carry it into its next fifty years, a donation today makes a real difference.

Happy pedaling,

Max Caplanides
Interim Executive Director