In June of 1976, Adventure Cycling — then known as Bikecentennial — mapped and publicized their first route: the TransAmerica Trail. This cross-country route stretched over 4,000 miles from Astoria, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia and became an instant classic. But even as the TransAmerica Trail was being finalized, another idea was taking shape: a second route that would also cross the U.S. coast to coast, but this one would stay up north. The idea was to hug the Canada / U.S. border, aiming to maximize the grandeur and rugged beauty of the northern part of the country. This is the route that wo ..read more

This year, I got to check bikepacking off my bucket list. I didn’t just check it off my list; I immersed myself in all things bike travel—from the ocean to the mountain—though not in one ride. My rides started as day trips, progressed to bike overnights, and concluded with a three-day bikepacking 80-mile ride. Bikepacking trips served as an escape from the mundane slog of suburbia. These mini getaways, though carefully curated in some instances, were precisely what I needed,tthough I did not always know it at the time. With an abundance of caution and an endless supply of doubt, I dipped ..read more

Picture this: You hop on your bike in Washington, D.C. and start pedaling on a series of bike paths and peaceful sections of rail-trails. You angle northwest through Pennsylvania and cross Ohio, continuing across the Midwest into Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho until you reach Washington and cycle all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This journey across the U.S. is separated from traffic, utilizing a series of interconnected multi-use trails and allowing you to safely explore the vistas, small towns, and rich history across the country.  Sound nice? That’s the Rails to Trails Conservancy’s (RTC ..read more

Watch Cycling the World on Vimeo on demand with 20% off using code “AdventureCyclingAssociation” at checkout until May 15. When McKenzie Barney was 29, she flew to Ho Chi Mihn, bought a bike, and pedaled across Vietnam. Afterwards, she rode across Europe and then headed to Africa. By the time she crossed the length of Africa from Cairo to Cape Town, she realized she could keep pedaling around the whole world. She also realized she had a story to tell. Over the course of three years, Barney cycled 29,000 kilometers across 28 countries and five continents. She mostly rode solo, filming her adven ..read more

Our Short Routes program is set for an East Coast expansion thanks to a recent partnership with the East Coast Greenway Alliance — a nonprofit working to develop a 3,000-mile, traffic-free route from Maine to Florida that connects 450 communities across 15 states. The Short Routes program is a collection of 50-200-mile routes that take two to five days to ride. Together, we’re able to share the creation of four new Short Routes in New England. These routes come complete with suggested itineraries and showcase the best of the East Coast Greenway, all available to you now at no cost through Ride ..read more

When I first suggested the idea of merging skiing with bikepacking to Diego, his round blue eyes widened, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. Looking back, I can understand his reaction — I was improving my ski touring skills at that moment, while he was new to bikepacking. He had recently acquired his first touring bike and had only a handful of short pannier-packing experiences. The idea of blending off-road cycling, camping, and skiing felt too big to comprehend. But that was a few years ago. Diego is someone who requires time to mull over an adventure, to mentally prepare for it, whereas ..read more

Despite their prevalence in society, bikes aren’t commonly featured in mass-consumed media. At least, not for stories set in the modern day, and not ridden by adults. So when a show like “Stranger Things” comes out and the opening episode has children riding their bikes home from a late-night game of Dungeons & Dragons, the fog as thick as the whimsy still in their hearts, I — like most bike nerds out there — latched on. I was that kid, and at 41 years old, I still am. It struck me hard: look how much fun they are having! I thought. Sure, one of them got captured by a monster and kept from ..read more

Like an isolated Galapagos, Fairbanks, Alaska, in the 1980s was a veritable hotbed of thriving mutants who evolved with a suite of novel outdoor skills built on the experience and wisdom of the climbers, canoeists, backpackers, skiers, snowshoers, hunters, and homesteaders who came before them. But by adapting an explosion of new gear to novel techniques, Fairbanks’s adventurers marked the beginning of outdoor pursuits that would spread across the world over the coming decades. One of those would later be called “bikepacking,” but in the 1980s three of us called it “hellbiking.” The soggy clou ..read more

This article first appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Black Mountain Cycles: they’re simple and affordable steel bicycles designed by owner Mike Varley and produced in small batches overseas. After reviewing an MCD way back in the July 2019 issue, I purchased a Road+ frame that I turned into my beloved do-anything fender/basket bike. Since then, both the MCD and the Road+ have been discontinued and replaced by the Mod Zero. In addition to the Mod Zero and the rim brake Monster Cross, Black Mountain Cycles also o ..read more

and you should go there ..read more