Out Our Front Door Newsletter - June

Riders leaving Central Beach on Battle to the Dunes Photo by Glenn Schneider

Welcome

It’s July! And I’m a couple days late getting our June newsletter out. Been all sorts of busy with all sorts of awesome bike adventures with and without OOFD this month. June had 9 different events, 6 of which were bike camping including the huge Battle to the Dunes (70+ folks) and the first Family Overnight of the year. 8 more events are coming in July including the big 5 day SWMI ride, a Where the Wild Things Grow Ride on the lakefront, and our Adaptive Program overnight in partnership with KEEN at Camp Sullivan. And of course, we’re ramping up for the big Flock Off the Block (100+ riders) event in early August. 

Flock Off the Block - August 10-11

Our second annual bike camping festival, we’ll have start points from 4 different spots in the cityland (Evanston, West Town, Streeterville, and Beverly) with mileage options ranging from 20-100 miles. Families welcome. Live music. Truck to haul your gear. Cabins options available. 

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.

Checking out the wildlife on the Family Overnight at Sullivan Photo by Hope Williams

Upcoming Adventures

Monthly Hang at 12th Street Beach - Tuesday, July 2 
Join us for our beachy Monthly Hang at 12th Street Beach tonight. Come hang out with a bunch of great bike loving folks. Meet at 730pm. BYOB and snacks. Details here. 

 SWMI - July 11-15
In my personal opinion, one of the most fun 5 days of the year! Biking, frolicing 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. Craft beer and sparkling water ON TAP out the back of the van. Summer bike vacation. Registration and more information here.

 Where the Wild Things Grow - Patagonia Mag Mile to Bill Jarvis Saturday, July 13
The fourth annual WTWTG ride with these two loveliest of partners. Short 5 mile ride from Patagonia to Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary to do habitat restoration work. The stewards at this site are so awesome and welcoming. Always a gem of an afternoon. Only a couple spots left. More deets and free registration here. 

 Family Shabonna - July 19-21
The second family overnight of the year, one of the most beginner friendly routes from Chicago to Camp Shabbona in South Holland. This one is already sold out, but you can read about what yer missing here. 

 Great Confluence Adult Overnight to IL Beach State Park - July 20-21
Beauty of a ride that brings two of the greatest midwestern cities together to our gem of a state park, Illinois Beach, which is almost exactly the middle point between the two cities. The spots from Chi are sold out but still some from MKE, so if you have a friend up there, they can get the deets and register here. 

 Morton Arboretum Adult Day Ride - Friday, July 26
The Adult Day Ride Program is out of control! These free, educational rides fill up before we can even get them into a newsletter. But wanted to at least let ya know, this rad ride is happening and is filled up. It's the second annual ride to visit our lovely partners up at the Morton Arboretum who will give a tour of the grounds to the crew. Take notes so you make sure to get on this ride next year. 

 Adaptive Overnight - Camp Sullivan - July 27-28
The big one! We have been able to integrate at least 3-4 families with youth with adaptive needs into our Family Overnight Rides, but this one is just for families with adaptive needs in partnership with our beloved partner KEEN Chicago. We’ll have our 10+ adaptive bikes in motion as we ride the trails of Tinley Creek and camp at Camp Sullivan in Oak Forest. 

 Flock Off the Block - Camp Sullivan - August 10-11
As mentioned above, not to be missed. The Chicagoland bike camping party of the year that brings all sides of our great city together for an adventure outdoors. Registration here. 

 Weekday Ride to Camp Sullivan - September 9 - 10
There’s other rides before this, but they’re mostly sold out. 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. 

 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. 

Early Juneteenth day riders at the Caracol gathering space on the lakefront en route to The DuSable Museum of Black History Photo by Claire Meyers

Ride Recap: Day Ride to DuSable Museum

The Adult Day Ride Program has been a super hit this year, many thanks to its new Program Director Ashley Lyons and now Assistant Program Director Aly Meza. 

 In the third ride of the year for this program, the guide crew of Ashley Lyons, Max Anderson, and Claire Meyers led a crew of about 15 folks from Milton Lee Olive Park near Ohio Street Beach (which is named in honor of the first African American recipient of the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War) to DuSable Museum of Black History and Education in Hyde Park and ended at Margaret T. Burroughs Beach, named after the artist, educator, writer, civic leader, activist and co-founder of the DuSable Museum (31st Street). 
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 This was an early ride to honor Juneteenth and the crew was treated to an amazing tour of the museum by Mr. Anthony Cole. Keep an eye out for future Adult Day Rides which include the educational spiels like our overnights and are a good way to dip your toes into what an OOFD ride is like and get some practice to eventually join us on an overnight ride!

Family Riders gearing up to head out to Camp Sullivan Photo by Dan Lucas

What We Did In June

Adult Overnights
This month featured 5 Adult Overnights, including the huge 70+ riders on Battle to the Dunes. Huge props to lead guide Kat for leading a crew of 11 other guides and over 60 participants on this ride. We also had our second annual Free Essential Workers Overnight to Camp Shabonna where we give gratitude for our Essential Workers and all they did for us during, before and after Covid. Props to lead guide Maura Benson on leading that crew. 
 Then we did our first ever Train O’ Lakes up to Chain O’ Lakes with Rachel Shultz leading that crew to the same campground where OOFD led its first ever overnight to back on May 15, 2016. And folks hopped the Fox Lake Metra back to Chicago. Finally, we had two crews of guides go out and scout potential new rides for next year as suggested by our volunteers, one was a two night loop of the Cook County Forest Preserves per the route the folks at the Outerbelt put together and another down to Kankakee State Park. Stay tuned to see if either of those rides make the cut for next year’s ride line up. 

 Family Overnights
First one of the year saw over 20 folks ride bikes from Beverly Bike and Ski to the Cal-Sag Trail and eventually past Lake Katherine and into the Tinley Creek Trail System to camp at Camp Sullivan in Oak Forest. Spent the off day at the Tinley Park Water Park. Huge props to lead guide Colin!

 Adaptive Day Rides 
We continued to put our fleet of adaptive bikes to great use with 2 day rides. The first was a part of the Northside Learning Center’s Field Day and got nearly 40 kids with adaptive needs on bike rides around Peterson Park. We then did a day ride with families from KEEN Chicago on the North Branch Trail. Huge props to Adaptive Program Directors Bradley and Miles for all the hustling and logistics to make those rides happen and Joe Clark at Northside and Laura at KEEN too!

 Adult Day Rides
Mentioned this one above which saw a crew ride out in an early celebration of Juneteenth to the DuSable Museum. 



Monthly Hang at Meditation Point
The weather was iffy, but we love us a fire on the lake in June so we went for it. Got to enjoy the fire and a great educational spiel about Edgewater by volunteer Viktor before we ran from the rain and finished the hang in quite lovely fashion under the Bryn Mawr underpass of Lakeshore Drive, hiding from the storm.

Volunteer Spotlight: Eduardo Pliego

Eduardo Pliego came was one of two folks from Milwaukee that came out for the first Confluence Ride which has a start point in Milwaukee (his brother was the other one). Right away, we could tell he was all about adventure and had such incredible vibes. We figured we might see him again the next year on the same ride, but then he started coming down to Chicago for rides, or up to Door County for rides, and he even started volunteering as a guide, making the trek down to Chi to help lead fellow adventurers on awesome bike camping trips. He continues to be an utter delight on any ride he is on and a beloved member of the OOFD community. 
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 In his own words, he was originally born in Illinois, Eduardo grew up living in the north area of Milwaukee for all of their life. While studying for IT Cyber security, 2021 was the year they suddenly really wanted to buy a bike, followed by a spontaneous random opportunity for a certain OOFD ride that summer. Having that experience changed them, so now they’ve been on a mission to learn more about the great outdoors, enjoy the simple pleasures of pedaling a bike, and talk to those they meet along the way. Outside of biking and camping, they’re an Electric designer, PC building enthusiast, participant in Martial Arts, dog parent, and amateur IT nerd.

Another Org's Bike Event

So many things we could highlight. Working Bikes is almost too easy to note here because they have so many great events and initiatives. But we love them and wanted to highlight this which was in their newsletter. So awesome. 

“Working Bikes has been supporting asylum seekers and new arrivals in Chicago for years with Cycle of Power donation bicycles and free and at-cost mechanical support. While we’ve been working hard to meet the cycling needs of our new neighbors, we'll be elevating that work to new heights this summer . . . by repairing and donate hundreds more Cycle of Power bikes, taking our repair operations to places shelters and places New Arrivals are gathering, bring our new neighbors into Chicago's cycling community, and grow our volunteer ranks.

Starting this week, we'll be hosting RUEDAS (Reparaciones Unidas Enfocadas en el Desarrollo y Ayuda), an all Spanish-speaking volunteer session every Wednesday evening from 5pm-9pm through September which will focus on teaching bicycle mechanics (in Spanish) and cranking out bikes for new arrival families!" ​

Campsite at Shabonna on the Free Essential Workers Ride Photo by Ashley Lyons

"The first time I was able to cross the street with my bike, my sense of adventure and liberation was peaking. Before I even really knew what those words meant. I felt it in my bones. Adventure. I was seven years old, and I was just pedaling my gray Huffy with a cool splatter paint design across the street and around the corner to my friends house. And that attitude of adventure just kept growing from there."

Except from a story I'm working on about the role bikes played in nurturing my adventure spirit. Ya might catch it at a storytelling event around Chicago sometime in the next couple months:)

Much love,

Glenn and the whole OOFD Crew