 Riders on the Great Confluence Ride at the Openlands/Lake Forest Lakeshore Preserve Photo by Ashley Lyons WelcomeIt’s August! And the adventures keep rolling. The epic and largest SWMI crew ever got all feral riding and living outside into SW Michigan a few weeks ago. The Great Confluence Ride was something magical as was the Family Overnight to Camp Shabonna. We mixed in 3 youth day rides in partnership with Greencorps Chicago, an Adult Day Ride to the Morton Arboretum, a Where the Wild Thing Grow Ride to Bill Jarvis Bird Sanctuary, tabled at Patagonia Mag Mile, and the ultimate cherry on top, our Adaptive bike camping trip in partnership with KEEN Chicago and the young athletes with disabilities that they serve. And summer ain’t over, but it won't last forever either. That's why August is jammed with so many great adventures such as Flock Off the Block (only 9 days away) and the sold out Waterways to the West ride to Starved Rock. There’s a couple of Family Overnight Rides this month as well as some day rides and of course a Monthly Hang, this month down on the far south side.  Flock Off the Block - August 10-11 Have you been on the fence on joining Flock Off the Block?! What are you waiting for? Sign-up for this super unique, not to be missed bike camping adventure and party. Yes. July is over. This is a chance to make the most of this summer before its gone. Here’s how:
Don’t miss what is one of the most fun bike camping weekends of the summer. Learn more about the route and registration options here.  The Family Overnight Crew at Camp Shabonna Photo by Steph Reid Upcoming Adventures Family Bike Camping in the City - Gompers Park and Emily Oaks Nature Center - August 2-4 Thanks to our awesome partners at the Chicago Park District and Emily Oaks Nature Center, we are able to do this super unique bike camping trip right here in the city! Another one that always sells out way in advance. Monthly Hang at Rainbow Beach - Tuesday, August 6 ***We moved this from the original location, Steelworkers Park, because there is a big event for the Chicago Police at Steelworkers Park this night.*** So instead, join us just up the lake from Steelworkers for a beachy Monthly Hang at Rainbow Beach. We’ll be near the beach house which is more or less at 79th Street. Come hang out with a bunch of great bike loving folks. Meet at 730pm. BYOB and snacks. Details here. Flock Off the Block - Sullivan - August 10 - 11 Sat/Sun Ya already know. Not to be missed. In addition to what’s noted above, we’ll have The Flesh Panthers playing live music at camp, a huge pile of Pipeworks beer and other NA beverages, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Vegan, and Meaty Mexican food from Los Comales. Registration here. Family Blackwell Campground Ride - August 16-18 Been doing this one for quite a few years and have an amazing crew of participants and guides that never miss it. They’ve seen each other's kids grow up and forge friendships over what for many of them is an annual family trip that’s going on 5 years in a row. Also, sold out a long time ago. Adult Day Ride: Crystal Lake to Chain ‘O Lakes: Day Ride (multimodal) - August 17 Working out the final details on this one and will have the Eventbrite up soon. These adult day rides fill up crazy fast so really keep an eye out on our Eventbrite for when it goes live. This will include some very cool Western trails and some Metra-ing as well. Adult Overnight: Waterways to the West 3 Day - Starved Rock - August 30 - Sept 2 One of our most challenging adventures. And one of the most beloved.. 110 miles in a day. Of course this one sold out. Adult Overnight: Weekday Ride to Camp Sullivan - September 9 - 10 There’s other rides before this, but they’re mostly sold out and there’s still tickets for this one. This weekday bike camping trip is set up to make us more radically inclusive and accommodate folks that usually have to work the weekends. More details and registration here. Adult Overnight: Valhalla - Door County Loop September 13 - 16 One of our most beloved rides, a 3 nighter up in Door County, WI with two nights spent on an island in Lake Michigan. Ask a group of OOFD veterans their favorite ride, and you’ll hear “Valhalla” a lot. Deets and registration here.  Adaptive riders and their families on the Adaptive Overnight Photo by Jeff Underwood Ride Recap: Adaptive Overnight with KEEN Chicago at Camp Sullivan My goodness. This event! A beauty and level of fun that is almost soul shaking. This is our second year in a row partnering with KEEN Chicago and their young athletes with disabilities and their families for a weekend of bike adventures in the great outdoors. We had 7 families with children with disabilities (over 20 participants total) out riding around the beautiful forest preserve trails near Camp Sullivan, putting our awesome fleet of adaptive bikes into immersive action! We are so lucky to have such an amazing partner in KEEN and these families were incredible. Some of them were camping for their first time ever, others riding a bike for the first time in over a decade. Overall, a truly magical weekend filled with adventure, bike rides, camp fire hangs, and tons of giggles. Major props to all the volunteers, from both KEEN and OOFD, that put countless hours in to make sure this adventure was accessible and fun for all of our participants. And big thanks to the folks at Camp Sullivan that are so good to us. Couldn't make this happen with out their CLIC camping gear library. Also a huge thank you to Adventure Cycling Association who provided grant funds to help cover some of the costs of this event as well as the Andrew and Alice Fischer Charitable Trust for providing some funding as well. And a brief teaser, this partnership with KEEN is so next level that we will be presenting at the Chicago Wilderness Alliance Congress 2024: Stronger Together, Building a Resilient Region Through Partnerships on Friday, November 15 at Purdue University Northwest.  Youth Day Ride with Greencorps Westinghouse Crew at Douglas Park Photo by Greencorps Satff What We Did in July Not sure if you remember reading the June newsletter a month ago and being like, “Holy Moly OOFD! You did all of that in just one month.” We did and then we followed up with a rocking July and all of these events. Monthly Hang at 12th Street Beach - July 2 A great crew of over 20 folks came out to the beach for this hang. Lots of us got in the lake. We had a number of new folks come through. Is there a better way to spend a July Tuesday night than with a bike ride to the beach to hang out with rad bike adventure folks? Tabling at Patagonia’s Mag Mile Store - July 6 Patagonia Mag Mile. They are so so good to us. We got to go out and table in their store to hype folks to join us on some bike adventures. Then, we did a WTWTG ride with them a week later. And now Patagonia Mag Mile is sponsoring Flock Off the Block by covering some of the cost of the band, helping secure the beer, and serving as our Central start point. And did I mention we earned a big ol’ grant from them the last two years?! Gina and Logan and that whole crew over there, y’all are just so dern awesome. SWMI Ride - Southwest MI - July 11 - 15 Five days, 250 miles, 24 participants, 8 guides. Living outside and in the lake. Riding bikes. Partying together. Swimming together. Peeling off for some solo reflection time at the lake. A surprise live band at camp. I could go on and on because it was just that goooood. Huge props to lead guide Maggie who made all the logistics come together all with her trademark great attitude, smile, and spirit of adventure. Where the Wild Things Grow Ride from Patagonia to The Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary - July 13 In its 4th year, this ride has become a staple to our WTWTG program. We couldn’t ask for a better partner in Patagonia Mag Mile, and this event is such a great way to annually engage both the OOFD and Patagonia community in environmental service. There even was a bonus lake jump to cool off after the service. The Great Confluence | Milwaukee Chicago Unite - IL Beach SP - July 20 - 21 A crew of 10 participants rode out of Chicago and 4 from Milwaukee at the same time on Saturday and met at Illinois Beach State Park and then rode to Chicago on Sunday. Got to even celebrate a Bday with some cake at camp! Shabbona Campground Family Ride - July 19 - 21 A lovely crew of 28 folks and 5 guides rode out to one of our favorite nearby campsites, Camp Shabonna in South Holland. Major props to lead guide and Family Program Assistant Director Steph for helping lead the crew. Milwaukee’s Riverwest 24 - July 27-28 Ok. This wasn’t an OOFD event, but we’ve heard so many great things about this 24 hour bike relay and party in our lovely neighbor to the north, so a crew of OOFD folks went up there and rode bikes relay team style around MKE for 24 hours straight. Major props to OOFD guide Dave W. for putting it together and our resident MKE guide, Eduardo, for the assist and inspiration too. Morton Arboretum: Day Ride (multi-modal option) - July 26 Back by hugely popular demand, this day ride out to our good pals at the Morton Arboretum was again a huge hit. The folks at the Arboretum showed the crew around and taught some cool things about what else but trees! The crew did a lot of biking and a bit of Metra-ing on this Friday adventure. Adaptive Overnight - Camp Sullivan July 27-28th See above. Whoa! So. Much. Fun. Youth Day Rides We were able to lead 3 different educational day rides with the high schoolers that are a part of Greencorps Chicago. First, we led a crew of 15 from Westinghouse in North Lawndale to Douglas Park and taught about the boulevards and park system. Then, we led 25 young folks from Chicago Vocational Academy and Bowen High School in South Chicago to Rainbow Beach. And finally, we led a group of 15 teenagers from Dyett High School in Washington Park to the Garden of the Phoenix Japanese Garden in Jackson Park and taught about the parks and the garden itself. We were really hoping to get our first youth bike camping trip in this month in partnership with Boxing Out Negativity but they were not able to attend. Though we are hoping to still make it happen later this summer or fall.  Volunteer Spotlight: Bradley Fisher Ok. Oftentimes with these shoutouts, we highlight some of the new, rad folks that have joined the OOFD crew. And sometimes, it's important to highlight the folks that have been here for years, that do the super next level work to push OOFD to be a better version of itself. And there’s not many folks in our ranks that better exemplify that than Bradley Fisher. Bradley Fisher. It's kinda overwhelming to try and write a blurb on what this man means to the OOFD team and what he has done since joining us back in 2020. He’s been on the board since 2021. He single handedly came up with the idea of our Adaptive Program and willed it into being with his incredible experience, network, passion, and hardwork. And has truly built a program that is a one of its kind in the country, one where young folks with adaptive needs get to experience the joy and freedom of a bike ride in nature along with their typically developing family members. He provides an unreal level of personalized support for all of our adaptive riders, and any event he leads turns out in incredibly fine fashion (see the Adaptive Overnight with KEEN this past weekend). And he's working to figure out how to make our adult rides more accessible for those with adaptive needs. He is a grant writing magician (the main person behind that big $50k Laureus grant we got this year not to mention a few other grants). He pushes the entire OOFD team to really consider what being welcoming and radically inclusive can mean across all of our programs. One of the hardest working dudes I know and a great friend to top it off! Ok. Could certainly go on for a couple more pages, but I’ll leave it there. In his own words, Bradley is a lifelong Chicagoan, teacher, husband, and father of two amazing daughters. He's determined to live a life infused with adventure, nature and discovery. Passionate about inclusive bicycle travel, he's never happier than riding with is special needs daughter, whether on a quick errand, a day ride, or a week long tour through the mountains of Idaho on their adaptive tandem, aptly named "Lilia's Wings".  Another Org's Bike Plug - GoodForUs.org GoodForUs partners with existing active mobility organizations to provide shared resources and encouragement to help people and communities live more actively and drive less. 100 Bike Solutions Campaign They are asking people to ask their friends and neighbors "What would help you use your bike more?" as a way to start developing a "help desk" for helping people figure out the issues that are keeping them from biking more. Simply fill out this brief form, and to encourage you to do so, they will be doing a weekly drawing for Bike The Drive.  SWMI Riders hiking at Grand Mere State Park in SW Michigan Photo by Glenn Schneider Phew. Another month, another newsletter. I used to feel bummed that I couldn’t make these any shorter. But now, I just lean into how long these are. The reason they are so long is cuz we are doing so much rad stuff. We've had 255 folks bike camp with us so far this year. Not to mention the over 200 folks that have ridden on our adult and adaptive day rides and Where the Wild Things Grow rides. And that has all happened mostly through the power of incredible awesome, adventurous, caring, and welcoming volunteers. How freaking impressive is that?! "Gifts from the earth or from each other establish a particular relationship, an obligation of sorts to give, to receive, and to reciprocate." Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass Thanks as always for reading. Now, go sign up for Flock Off the Block, then set this screen down and get outside on your bike! Much love, Glenn and the whole OOFD crew  Found my spot along the SWMI Ride, The Glenn Store, in Glenn, MI. Awesome pizza. Photo by Glenn Schneider
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A Bike Camping + Nature Community for Chicago and the Lake Michigan Area
Founded in 2015. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
www.oofd.org
Founded in 2015. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
www.oofd.org