Welcome

Happy Spring y’all. And officially welcome to bike camping season! We have our big Hootenanny fundraiser party happening on Thursday, April 11th. We have had huge turn outs to our Month of March Guide Trainings. With the first couple Adult Bike camping trips sold out, we are getting hyped for the big Battle to the Dunes in early June and the 5 day SWMI ride in mid-July. Tons of awesome adaptive rides, Where the Wild Things Grow, and Day Rides happening in the next couple months.

The Hootenanny Fundraiser Party: Thursday, April 11

Come out to one of the most fun fundraising events of the year. The Hootenanny Vol. 4 at an excellent space in West Town, Midwest Coast Brewery (2037 W. Walnut). We’ve rented out the entire venue!

Early bird tickets are on sale for $35 through March 31. Tickets generously include 2 beverage tickets, a raffle ticket and of course chili mac (meat, vegan and gluten free options). There will be live bluegrass music by The Wild Scallions and tons of awesome raffle prizes and a silent auction including not one but two bikes. Not to mention,  some of the loveliest dern bike and adventure loving folks you ever could hope to meet.

Tickets will only be available online in advance. This event has sold out in the past, and we expect it to sell out this year. So don’t wait to get your entry to the party that will kick off OOFD’s 9th and most epic season!

Get your tickets here

Do you know an organization that might be interested in sponsoring the Hootenanny? Yes, we are hitting that next level and have options for folks to sponsor us. More info on what that looks like and how to make it happen here. Major thanks to SRAM and Keating Law Offices for sponsoring the event!

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The SWMI Ride - 5 day bike camping vacation to/in Southwest Michigan

It is July in Chicago, and you are in that pure summer mode. All you want to do is be outside, on your bike, in the sun, near or in the lake, ideally sleeping outside. So you make a short work week even shorter, you take off Thursday and Friday (maybe even Monday too). Instead of making the commute to the office or over to your home desk this morning, you ride your loaded bike for likely the longest bike camping trip of your summer. OOFD’s SWMI ride to South West Michigan. Pronounced “Swimmy” because there will be plenty of swimming.

It’s a nice long day of riding on Day 1 as we pedal from Chicago’s 12th Street Beach to Indiana Dunes National Park. That’s the longest day of the trip. We then have a fun, slow roll ride along the lake for about 40 miles to Bridgman, Michigan where we camp for two nights, with an off day to check out the area’s hiking trails and breweries or just chill on the beach. Day 4 is up to Van Buren State Park near South Haven for the last night of camping and finally, bike to South Bend on Day 5 to catch the South Shore Train back to the city. Check out the full breakdown here and a reflection from lead guide Glenn after the first year of this ride in 2022 here.

And you can register for this year’s ride here. Almost half the slots are already full so sign-up sooner than later!

Upcoming Rides and Event

Monthly Hang at Smith Park in Ukrainian Village

Tuesday, April 2, 730pm-10ish

Come out and hang with OOFD crew and the OOFD curious to get hyped for the bike camping season. More details here.

The Creative Work Session in April is canceled due to the Hootenanny being the next day.

Hootenanny Fundraiser

Thursday, April 11 from 630-930pm at Midwest Coast Brewery in West Town.

Details here.

Where the Wild Things Grow Ride for Earth Day

April 20 to Major Taylor Trail

Celebrate Earth Day with Out Our Front Door on our long standing tradition of leading a bike ride to the help with a service day with the Major Taylor Trail Keepers. Meet at Palmisano Park at 745am. More details and free but limited registration here.

Adult Day Ride, North Branch + BBQ + Beer

April 21 to Skokie Lagoons

Back by very popular demand, the Adult Day Rides are kicking off like we did last year with a ride on the North Branch Trail. Start & end at Forest Glen Woods with a lunch stop at Une Année Brewery in Niles. Free/limited registration here.

Multiple Sclerosis Day Ride with UIC patients on The 606 Trail

Saturday, May 11

We are partnering with UIC’s Exercise Neuroscience Research Laboratory on this ride for folks with MS on the 606 Trail. Please help spread the word about this free ride with anyone you know with MS! Their families are welcome to join here. Registration and more information here.

Battle the Dunes

June 1-2

The next couple of months of adult overnights are already sold out so this is the next available overnight! This is the epically fun ride to camp at Dunewood Campground in the Indiana Dunes National Park. This ride will have about 70 folks, and we have a whole loop at the campground reserved for our crew of bike campers. Registration and more information here. This ride is already more than halfway filled up.

Family Bike Camping Trip to Camp Sullivan

June 14-16

Our first family overnight of the year! Load up the kids and camping gear and enjoy a weekend in the great outdoors with this very doable overnight at Camp Sullivan in Oak Forest, and ride some of the excellent trails of the Southwest burbs as well as the great system of forest preserves. Registration and more information here.

Free Essential Workers Bike Camping Trip to Shabonna

June 22-23

In alignment with our value of gratitude, we are giving back to our Essential Worker community with a free ride to appreciate the work they did for us during the pandemic and continue to do for us today. If you or someone you know is an essential worker, please consider bike camping with us. The whole ride, camping, dinner, breakfast, guides are being covered by OOFD. Registration and more information here.

SWMI 5 Day Bike Camping Trip

July 11-15

In my personal opinion, one of the most fun 5 days of the year! Biking, frolicking in Lake Michigan, living outside for 5 days with a bunch of rad folks. Last year I swam in 8 different beaches along the shore of Lake Michigan over the course of the ride. Registration and more information here.

Another awesome bike org’s event:
We Keep You Rolling 9th Annual Wellness Pop-up and 1st Night Bike Ride - July 27

Join We Keep You Rolling for this awesome event that includes a wellness pop-up, bike decorations and bike ride. Also raffling off 20 bikes. Loaner bikes and helmets will be available. Starts and ends at Golden Gate Park at 131st and Vernon. More details and RSVP info here.

​Sold Out Rides

• What Lies West, May 4-5 to Blackwell
• The Good Land - May 17-19 to Milwaukee with camping at Cliffside in Racine
• Train O’ Lakes - June 29-30 to Chain O’ Lakes State Park

Month of March Trainings Recap

OOFD’s Volunteer Committee has been rocking the Month of March Trainings this year! The Main Guide Training at the Hyde Park Art Center had 25 folks out. Then, we had the Family Program and ASAP virtual training with about 15 folks in attendance, and last weekend’s Meet the Fleet Training on the Adaptive Program at Cosmic Bikes had about 20 folks out as well, learning about the Adaptive Program and getting a feel for our rad fleet of adaptive tandem bikes, Hase Pinos. Not to mention, Alex Zhu led a very cool basics of bike maintenance training at the hang earlier this month.

We wrapped up this big month of trainings with another Main Guide Training, a “make-up” for the one we did in Hyde Park earlier in the month. Specialized Fulton Market lent us their space to host the training and we had about 25 more folks out to that!

And as if simply being a party of the OOFD crew wasn’t enough, as an OOFD volunteer, we have a solid budget for continuing education throughout the year for any/all of our volunteers whether you use it for online webinars, in person trainings, or even conferences, OOFD happily helps to pay for our volunteers to get trained on anything at least slightly related to our mission.

And another perk of being a volunteer with OOFD - the second annual volunteer appreciation ride. Last year we did Ragbrai. This year, OOFD will put some funds towards getting any of our volunteers on the Ride Across Wisconsin. If you are a volunteer, past or present, you can express interest in joining this ride in August here. ​

Volunteer Spotlight: Ashley Huerta

Ashley Huerta was one of the original guides on the crew. She started guiding back in 2019 and has been a key part to so many OOFD events and programs. She has always been integral to the Youth Program, serving as one of the first volunteers of that program. She has led numerous overnight rides including quite a few Battle to the Dunes and Decembergs, not to mention, she's been one of the first faces you see when you get to the Hootenanny every year, all the way back to The Hootenanny Vol. 1 in 2019 at Reed’s Local. She exudes the spirit of adventure, volunteerism, and education that are core to OOFD, always finding the ridiculousness in a situation and ready for a good laugh.

In her own words, Ashley is happiest when she is riding her bike. She is a believer in accessibility to biking and wants everyone to find the joy biking brings her. Many moons ago she brought this joy to her students by starting a bike club at the school she use to work at in Pilsen, and now you can find her spreading that joy leading rides of all sorts, be it overnight adventures, WTWTG service days, youth programming, adaptive rides, or the Workers Right ride she wrote for Labor Day. Ashley lives in Humboldt Park with her loving partner and fellow guide Jordan and her giant retired greyhound Finley.

​South Side St. Paddy's Day Parade and Bike Campout

We started the bike camping season earlier than ever this year and tried something totally new, we marched in a classic Chicago parade, The South Side Irish Parade. We marched/rode with about 30 folks repping OOFD down Western Ave from 103rd to 115th and of course talked about the history of the area and the parade. Afterwards, we headed to OOFD’s Executive Director/Co-Founder’s childhood home/mom’s house in Mt. Greenwood for a backyard party and even got to march in his neighbor’s 15th annual family parade around the 115th/116th blocks.

From there, 10 brave riders rode 12 miles to Camp Sullivan in Oak Forest. We had a great time around the campfire and survived the evening temps in the mid 20s. Rode back to Beverly Monday morning and closed out with a nice, warm lunch and beer at Horse Thief Hollow. We had 5 first time bike campers on the ride as well as two first time OOFD guides! Such a great way to start off the bike camping season!

Okay! Here we go! Soaring into what promises to be an amazing year of local adventures, exploring and getting to know and appreciate our local habitats and meeting new friends. Can't wait for that Hootenanny in a couple weeks! And just because, here is a quote from Robert Moor's book, On Trails: An Exploration, which we deep dive a lot of its concepts in the script for the SWMI ride.

"On wild land, wild thoughts can flourish. There, we can feel all the ragged edges of what we do not know, and we make room for other living things to live differently. [William] Cronon boldly concludes his essay on wilderness by asserting that we must learn to reinfuse this sense of the wild back into the human landscape-for instance, to see even the trees in our backyards as wild things-and to reframe our understanding of the wilderness so that it can contain us within it. The next great leap in our ecological consciousness, he argues, would be to “discover a common middle ground in which all of these things, from the city to the wilderness, can somehow be encompassed in the word “home.”

Goodness. Things like that make us know that what we're doing here at OOFD is so freaking beautiful!

Much love,
Glenn and the whole OOFD Crew