Out Our Front Door Newsletter - March 2021

"The core function of any trial is to connect. The root of that word, from the latin Connectere, means to 'bind together or to unite." Robert Moor in On Trails book

Welcome back

Welcome to OOFD 2021! Goodness, we cannot wait to open that collective front door and start bike camping again with y’all. We patched together a ragtag year last year going from over 300 participants in 2019 to 62 in 2020. But not complaining at all. We had a lot of time to reflect and work on big, next level ideas. Two major things happened in 2020 for OOFD. 
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1. We beautifully executed  our first 3+ night ride which was an epic loop of Door Country
2. The board laid out a 5 year plan with calls for scaling up and even working towards getting a full-time paid Executive Director!

Ride Schedule 2021

And as we typically do in this first newsletter of the year, we are announcing that our rides are live and ​​available to register! This year, we are hoping for the best when it comes to COVID-19. All rides will meet the state standard for gathering sizes, and if we need to scale them down, we will. It's easier to scale a ride down than up. We got some good practice with safety procedures last year and feel good heading into this year. Folks are amped to get riding again, so don’t wait too long to sign up for your favorite rides or snag a spot in one of our new rides this year. 

The Adaptive Program

This year we will be leading a wide variety of bike camping rides as we always do. The Family Program will be back. And per our value of being “radically inclusive,” we are piloting our Adaptive Program which will engage people with disabilities, and their families, on day rides and eventually an overnight ride to Northerly Island! To learn more about our Adaptive Program, check it out here. 

More New Stuff 

Some other notable rides are the new Bike Camping in the City Family overnight that will spend a night at the North Park Nature Center as well as a night at Emily Oaks Nature Center in Skokie. We’ll also be rolling our first ride out of Milwaukee with the The Great Confluence Ride (which will unite Chgoans and MKEans for a night of camping at IL Beach SP). Not to mention Valhalla will be back this year as well as some bigger rides to the dunes and of course, the Autumn Sun Harvest. 

What You Should Do Now

1. Register to ride
2. Tell your friends
3. Sign up to guide 
4. Join a first Tuesday monthly hang 
5. Give money: donate or swag
6. Join the May 14 Anniversary party or April book club

And as we look forward to coming together again, in nature, on bikes, around the campfire, in adventure, we'll leave ya with some words of wisdom from the mystic of our prairie, Mr. Jens Jensen.
 
"Trees are much like human beings and enjoy each other's company. Only a few love to be alone"
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Much love and see ya on the trail. 

Glenn and the entire OOFD crew