Out Our Front Door Newsletter - October

‍Welcome

Goodness. Where to begin. This month. These last two and a half months! This whole season. The biggest Flock Off the Block ever. Then, the next weekend, we had 14 folks depart to ride bikes around Lake Michigan to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Then, in October, we had a bike camping trip every. single. weekend! A family overnight, 2 adult overnight including 105 riders on Adult Autumn Sun Harvest, and then. . . and then. . . we just wrapped up our Adaptive Overnight with KEEN Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan right here in Chicago.

It’s been a while since we sent a newsletter, mainly because we’ve been out bike camping on the regular. And while we still do have a few more events before the end of the year, we can feel the frenetic non-stopness of our bike camping season winding down.

As an organization, this is the end of our fiscal year as well (wanna donate?), so in a couple weeks, our board of directors are headed off to a house on the lake for our annual weekend retreat. We will be reflecting on this past year, planning for the coming year, and welcoming three incredible new board members. How’s that song go? “Future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.”

These last couple of months could honestly be made into a small book. The amount of connections and friendships made/deepened. The challenges overcome and the Type-2 fun had. The epic moments of being in the heart-shaking beauty of nature, whether rolling along a trail, leaping into the lake upon arrival to camp, or unzipping the tent to a stunning sunrise. The folks at OOFD have put in so much work, so much time, to set the table so we can welcome our fellow Chicagolanders to a table abundantly spilling forth with the feast of friendship, nourishment of nature, and the attitude of adventure.

Dang are we lucky. To have this beautiful city to call our home, for all of the natural spaces that have been preserved and continuously cared for for millennia, and to be able to immerse in and educate about it with you.

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Three Major Things Lately

MI Lag(r)o - Circle Tour Around Lake Michigan

How to capture in words what 14 of us completed? 20 days, 1100+ miles around our beloved lake, celebrating our 10 year anniversary as an org and celebrating the volunteers who have made OOFD what it is. Next to impossible to put into words (but I’m trying . . . stay tuned for an article about it soon).

I can say that the people that make up OOFD are some of the most profoundly lovely humans on this planet. To be able to adventure along the shores of our lake, hugging it for 20 days straight, and then to gather around the warm orange glow of a campfire each night, sharing the stories of our day, has been one of the delights of many of our lives. I am not sure I have ever laughed that consistently over a 20 day period.

So much gratitude for all the amazing campgrounds and the small towns with their welcoming and curious citizens and little cafes and institution-type restaurants. The ice cream shops. The beaches. The conversations. The friendships created and the friendships deepened. The experience of building a beautiful adventure together, a wild dream, and making it happen and having it surpass our wildest expectations.

Sun Harvest

This has been our capstone event each season since the beginning. It has grown from a group of 7 participants and 2 guides in 2016 to 88 participants and 17 guides this year. For a long time, it has been a way for OOFD to give back to its volunteers, giving a free ticket or two to our most dedicated folks over the season. The weather this year was incredible, highs in the 70s, lows in the 40s. Not swimming weather, but that didn’t stop over a dozen brave folks form leaping into the lake upon arrival to camp. We also had two riders with disabilities, Ryan and Antonio, ride 112 miles over the weekend on our adaptive bikes piloted by Daniel S-E and Glenn. Huge props to all the guides, especially first time lead guide Hannah, who did everything with such grace and a welcoming spirit.

Adaptive Overnight with KEEN Chicago

While we welcome riders with disabilities on many of our regular overnights, we have been doing one overnight each year specifically for families with a child with a disability. We are so lucky to have partnered with KEEN Chicago on this event for years now. They are the dream team when it comes to partnerships. The original date this year was canceled due to wildfire smoke in July, but we were determined to make this ride happen, and we did! Huge props to Adaptive Overnight Director, Daniel S-E, and all the volunteers. And heaps of gratitude to The Chicago Park District for tirelessly working with us to pull this off, loaning/transporting the camping gear for the families, and for allowing us to camp on the lakefront just south of 35th Street. Couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful spot for an overnight, and the 11 families that attended the event were such a blast to ride and camp with.

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What We've Been Up To

Ok. Those were some more immediate highlights. We haven’t sent a newsletter in nearly 3 months. So so much has happened since. Here are the cliff notes of August, September, and October, and the 20 events we did.

1. Monthly Hang - Rainbow Beach - August 4
A lovely night to hang on the lake with the nearly 20 folks that came out.

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2. KEEN Chicago Field Day (Adaptive Day Ride) - August 9
Brought our adaptive bikes out to ride with dozens of kids with disabilities at the Bernard Horwich JCC in Rogers Park.

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3. Blackwell Campground (Family Overnight) - August 14-16
One of the most challenging and beloved family overnights which is a family tradition for a handful of folks that came out. Have seen some kids go from riding in a bike trailer as a toddler to riding and even guiding the whole 70 mile weekend on their own bike! 19 participants and 6 guides on this one.

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4. Waterways to the West - Starved Rock (Adult Overnight) - August 21-23
The longest single day ride we do. 110 miles to Starved rock. 15 awesome riders and 7 guides were up for the challenge this year!

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5. Flock off the Block - Sullivan (Overnight for Everyone) - August 29-30
Oh yeah, just before MI Lag(r)o, we threw one of our biggest bike camping parties ever! 83 participants plus 26 guides, so 109 total, rode out to Camp Sullivan, including families, kids, riders with disabilities. Everyone was welcome and everyone showed up:)

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6. Monday Funday -  Big Marsh (Adult Overnight: night ride) - August 31-Sept 1
Our first try at a night ride/sub-24 hour overnight. We had 4 participants and 3 guides ride this one, a few of them had just returned from Flock Off the Block the day before! Thanks to the Chicago Park District for their partnership on this one.

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7. Monthly Hang - Horner Park - September 1
One of our best attend hangs each year, with dozens of folks coming out to this gem of a park on the Northside.

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8. MI Lag(r)o Circle Tour   (10 Year Anniversary Celebration) - September 7-26
One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been a part of in my life, and a piece of perfection when it comes to celebrating 10 years of Out Our Front Door. 14 folks rode the whole loop, one beloved volunteer drove the whole thing, 3 joined for a week or two at various points and 16 family members, friends, and OOFD volunteers joined us for the last night of the tour at IL Beach State Park.

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9. The Drumlins of WisKohler - Kettle Moraine and Kohler Andrae (Adult Overnight)- September 11-14
Our first time running this 4 day ride. Started out of Milwaukee, up to Kettle Moraine North, over to Sheboygan and Kohler-Andrae for two nights, then back to Milwaukee. 7 participants and 4 guides tried it and liked it! We will be doing it again next year for sure:)

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10. Fall Nature Fest at LaBagh Woods (Tabling) - September 12
A great event that our partners at The Forest Preserves of Cook County put on each year. A lovely gathering of all kinds of awesome nature focused orgs.

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11. Bill Jarvis with Patagonia (Where the Wild Things Grow) - September 12
Been running this ride for over a half decade with two of our beloved partners, Patagonia and the site stewards at Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Had 15 participants and 2 guides come out to help care for this beautiful natural area on the lakefront at Addison.

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12. CITE/Opportunity Knocks Picnic (Adaptive Day Ride) - September 18
Our Adaptive Program Director, Daniel S-E, is a special ed teacher, and he helps put on a beginning of the school year picnic with all sorts of activities so of course we were out there with some of our adaptive bikes, giving rides to over a dozen students with disabilities.

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13. Nature of the South to Big Marsh (Adult Day Ride) - September 26
A handful of folks followed OOFD lead guide and Big Marsh enthusiast, Louie, for this lovely day ride to a special Chicago Park site.

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14. Opportunity Knocks - OK Classic Softball Tournament (Adaptive Day Ride) - September 26
We came out to this softball tournament hosted by Opportunity Knocks, a great non-profit that works with/for adults with disabilities on the Westside. We had some of our adaptive bikes, giving rides to a handful of riders with disabilities.

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15. Roll to the River - Kankakee State Park (Adult Overnight) - October 3-4
An 80 mile day, rolling from Beverly all the way down to Kankakee SP. We had 7 participants and 4 guides roll along this ride that touches more than 6 different trails. Train back from Joliet on Day 2.

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16. Monthly Hang - Promontory Point (bonfire) - October 6
Over 30 folks were out for one of the best hangs of the year, a bonfire on the lake down in Hyde Park.

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17. Indigenous People's Day  - Camp Sullivan (Family Overnight)  - October 10-11
Our biggest IPD family campout in three years! We had 24 participants and 7 guides (including a new junior guide Milo!) take advantage of the beautiful fall weekend, rolling from Brainerd Park out to Camp Sullivan in Oak Forest.

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18. Emily Oaks Nature Center Service Day (Where the Wild Things Grow) - October 11
The folks at Emily Oaks are so great to us, and we always want to find ways to reciprocate, so we sent a crew of about 10 folks out to help cut invasive species out of and around the pond on their grounds.

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19. Sun Harvest - Illinois Beach State Park (Adult Overnight) - October 17-18
88 participants and 17 guides riding 120 miles over this gorgeous fall weekend. The biggest Sun Harvest yet, and it was sold out like 2 weeks in advance. It really was a beautiful weekend of fun, community building, and nature immersion.

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20. Adaptive Overnight with KEEN near Oakwood Beach - October 24-25
You can see above, but goodness! This weekend was pure magic. The guides, the partners, the families, the riders with disabilities. Just endless good times and laughs along the lake. We had 11 families partake as well as 13 OOFD volunteers, 4 KEEN staff, and 1 Chi Parks staff, so over 50 folks in total, camping out on Chicago’s south lakefront, riding bikes all weekend:)

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Ok. I just had to get that off my chest and make sure you were in the loop on all the incredible things that have been happening since you last got a newsletter. Each of those 20 events are filled with countless stories of adventure and friendship.

Volunteer Gratitude  - Bill Sadlick

Bill has been a part of the OOFD community for years, having first met us when we rolled by his campsite at ILBSP on the first or second Sun Harvest in 2016/2017. He started riding with us regularly, and basically would be a “participant guide” meaning he would just always be a super smart, competent helping hand, especially when it came to all things fire related. He started officially guiding with OOFD a couple years ago and always brings such an incredible spirit of curiosity, care, and adventure. He has helped scout a number of our rides and certainly has ideas for dozens more:)

And most recently, Bill was the guiding light on our 20 day MI Lag(r)o ride. He assembled the route; he booked all the campsites; he thought through the minutiae; his daughter made the beautiful bandana for the riders; he rolled out of camp early each day on the ride and sent back his scouting report on the route including good spots for a beer, rough pieces of trail, interesting characters to try and catch along the way. I could go on and on, but I know Bill is squirming right now because he prefers to serve under the radar. But I couldn’t help myself from shouting him out because I and OOFD in general are so dang grateful for Bill and lucky to have him as part of the crew.

In Bill’s own words. . . Bill wouldn’t send me his own words because he thought it might help prevent me from shouting him out in a newsletter. Still gotcha Bill:) And for real, thank you so much man for everything you have done for OOFD, especially being such a crucial part of the MI Lag(r)o planning and crew.

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Upcoming Events

So what’s left? Just a few more things before we move into a more or less restful winter mode.  

Adult Day Ride: Haunted Halsted Halloween Parade

Saturday, October 31
OOFD will be in this Halloween Parade on Northhalsted. There are still a few spots left in case you want to get dressed up and march in this parade with OOFD. Deets and sign-up here.

Monthly Hang at Exchequer Restaurant and Pub

Tuesday, November 2 at 730pm

Come out for the last hang of the year. We’ll be in the bar of the classic downtown spot, Exchequer (on Wabash and Jackson). Come early at 6pm, with a computer, for a Marketing Working Session. We will assign everyone some photo albums from this year's rides to pull out their favorites, and then we'll have everyone at the hang vote for the best pictures of the year. The 2027 Ride Line-up will be revealed at the hang too! Deets and sign-up here.

Adult Day Ride - Nature of the West (Morton Arb + Fermilab)

Saturday, November 7
Join us for a lovely day ride, rolling from Glen Ellyn to explore some unique nature spaces in the Western Suburbs: the Morton Arboretum, Danada Forest Preserves, and Fermilab. Deets and sign-up here.

OOFD Board Retreat

November 13-15
Our group of 13 board members will hunker down in a house in Michigan City for a weekend of deep reflection and planning for next year as well as lots of community building and general good times.

Volunteer Appreciation Party

Thursday, December 3rd
If you are on our volunteer list, you will get the official invite very soon with more details including the location. Even if you didn’t volunteer this year but are very much into the idea of volunteering soon, just fill out this Volunteer Interest form, and we’ll get you on the mailing list as well as get you an invite to this party. Also, those of you that volunteered with us years ago but haven’t been able to lately, you very much are welcome to join too.

Mini-Fundraiser at Sketchbook Brewery Skokie

December date tbd
Dates and location are tbd, but very likely will be mid-December and hopefully back at Sketchbook Brewery in Skokie, just like last year. Stay tuned for more details.

Decemberg (Adult Overnight) - December 12-13

Officially our last overnight of the year, about 45 miles out to Camp Reinberg in Palatine, where we will stay in heated cabins (though tenting is welcome). There are only about 10 spots left on this one. We even will be partnering with Golden Hour Forest Therapy who will be providing an optional guided forest walk/meditation upon arrival to camp. Deets and sign-up here.

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Other Awesome Upcoming Events

Critical Mass

Friday, October 30

Join one of the most fun group rides each month on the last Friday. The Halloween one is always one of our favs, seeing all the awesome costumes out on bikes. Meet at Daley Plaza round 6pm. Happy Friday.

Southside Critical Mass

Friday, November 6th

The last one of the year! Get out to Hyde Park, Nichols Park, round 545pm for this delightful ride with a bunch of awesome bike riders. OOFD guide, Danielle, helps organize these rides, and loves to see all types of riders join in. Deets and sign-up here.

Chicago Wilderness Alliance - Congress

Friday, November 26th

One of the premier nature focused gatherings in Chicagoland. Deets and sign-up here. Happening at The College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL. OOFD's ED, Glenn, will be attending and OOFD will pay for any of our volunteers to attend as well.

Donating to OOFD

If you have had an amazing time on an OOFD adventure this year or you simply want to support the incredible immersive and educational bike trips that we provide, please consider donating here.

It is the last week of our Fiscal Year, so every little bit helps bump us closer to closing out this year not only on a high note programmatically but financially as well.

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Closing

Well, sheesh. I for real could go on for many more pages. So many countless beautiful moments over these last couple of months. It feels so dang good to be wrapping up year 10 as an org and to be flying so high. Our crew of volunteers have never been more stellar, our rides always have room for improvement, but have no doubt improved each and every year, and our community is vibrant and growing. We are closing out Year One of our 5 Year Plan which is focused on Reciprocity. We have taken great strides in giving back to nature, our volunteers, participants, and partners, but we still are receiving so much more from y’all than we can possibly give back. And that is the abundance of this world and of this work.

“It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”

• Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Here’s to all the artists of the moment out there, in OOFD and beyond. Keep carving and painting the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. How lucky are we to be able to affect the quality of not just our own days but the days of those we get to adventure with! The highest of arts indeed.

High fives and hugs for everything we have done together this year and for ten years now. I know I'm more in love with this work and this org than I’ve ever been.

Much love,

Glenn and the whole OOFD crew

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