Out Our Front Door Newsletter - May

Guide Eduardo setting up his tent on The Good Land Photo by Anson Moran

Welcome

June. Here we come! Goodness. May was so full of awesome bike adventures and events. From fun, educational day rides to a few bike camping trips to some next level adaptive events. And it was only May. June promises to be incredible, and it kicks off this weekend with 10 OOFD guides leading 70 folks out to bike camp at the Indiana Dunes National Park. We also have a new Vice President of our Board, Ashley Lyons, and Mika Yacobucci joined the board as well!

The 2023 Valhalla Crew on the ferry to camp on Washington Island Photo by Jordan Evangelista

Valhalla Riders getting their bikes ready on the ferry to the island Photo by Will Haley

​The Ride to Valhalla
4 Day Adult Bike Camping Trip in Door County, Wisconsin - September 13-16

This ride is entering its 5th year, and it just always is one of the best long weekends of the year. Imagine rolling the late summer country roads of Door County with the lake to your side and all the beautiful birch and cedar trees flowing past. Stay at one of the most popular state parks in the country (Peninsula SP) and then two nights on an island. In Lake Michigan! 
​
Visit a second island that has no cars, nor bikes, and the hall that gave this ride its name. Incredible history, and of course, natural beauty. One of the most pampered of our rides with a number of catered meals by excellent chefs on Washington Island. Oh, and freaking Jens Jensen’s The Clearing is on the peninsula! If you don’t know about this incredible human and what he did for native plants in Chicago and beyond, you will after this ride is over. 

Learn more about the ride here and read the write up from last year's lead guide, Maggie, here. You can register for this year's ride here. ​

OOFD guide Sara and an Adaptive Rider at KEEN's Any K Event Photo by KEEN Chicago

Recap: Adaptive Day Rides

We got that big ol’ grant of $50,000 from Laureus, and we spent about $43,000 of it on 4 brand new, top of the line adaptive bikes (Hase Pino tandems), one of which even has a handcrank for folks with spinal chord injuries. And our promise with that grant was to get 50 different youth with disabiltiies out on these bikes before June 30th. We knew that would be tough because our family and adaptive bike camping doesn’t start until mid-June. So we got creative and got collaborative and made a bunch of great new partnerships. 

And in one weekend alone, we got 55 kids on these bikes! Half of them were with students in the LADSE school system, in the western suburbs, who took their first “field trip” since Covid, over to one of their area schools and OOFD volunteers gave them short rides around the school property. And the next day, we had 30 more young folks get on the bikes at our favorite partner, KEEN Chicago’s, Any K event at the Rauner YMCA. 

For many of these kids, it was their first time on a bike, mainly because they don’t have access to a super expensive bike that can adapt to their needs. And as you can guess, these kids were stoked! So. Many. Smiles. Major props to all the OOFD volunteers that made those events happen, especially the volunteer Program Directors, Bradley Fisher and Miles Talty. ​

Bunch of pics from our two Adaptive Rides that got over 50 kids with disabilities riding bikes in 2 days

Upcoming Rides and Event

Battle the Dunes, June 1-2
Almost 80 of us are riding out tomorrow morning! 


Monthly Hang, Tuesday, June 4th at Meditation Point
Join us for one of the best monthly hangs of the year, what has become an annual tradition. A bonfire on the lakefront with a bunch of great bike loving folks. The fire ring is just south of Kathy Osterman Beach in Edgewater. Meet at 730pm. BYOB and snacks (even a piece of firewood or two if you can pull it off).


Field Days Ride at Northside Learning Center, June 4th 
We’ll be bringing a crew of OOFD volunteers and our full fleet of adaptive bikes to give rides to kids with disabilities that attend this stellar CPS school. We’ll likely get over 50 different kids riding bikes in one afternoon alone!


DuSable Museum: Day Ride, June 8
These day rides fill up before we can even promote them. But this one has to be highlighted, even though its free spots are “sold out.” This ride is a week early, but is in honor of Juneteenth. It will be leaving from Milton Lee Olive Park, which is named in honor of the first African American recipient of the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, and heading to DuSable Black History Museum, and will be ending at Burroughs Beach (formerly 31st Street Beach), which is named after the co-founder of the DuSable Museum: Margaret T. Burroughs.


Adaptive Day Ride with Keen Chicago, June 9 
One of our favorite panthers who has really helped us grow our Adaptive Program to what it is, KEEN Chicago. We will be doing a day ride with a bunch of their young athletes with disabilities and their families.


Family Bike Camping Trip to Camp Sullivan, June 14-16
Our first family overnight of the year! Most of our other family overnights are sold out but there are a couple spots still left on this one. Families with young ones with disabilities are welcome. We even got a small grant from Adventure Cycling Association that allows us to provide free spots for any riders with disabilities on all of our family rides this year. If you are interested, reach out to Bradley Fisher, [email protected]. 


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. Only three spots left on this one. The whole ride, camping, dinner, breakfast, guides are on OOFD. The awesome folks from All Bodies on Bikes also will be bike camping at this same spot this weekend, so we'll be able to hang with them around the fire. 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, frolicing in Lake Michigan, living outside for 5 days with a bunch of rad folks. Registration and more information here.


Another awesome organization’s bike event
Think Outside Da Block is hosting a Roll in Peace ride on June 14th, starting at Odgen Park (6500 S. Racine). It is an “eight-mile bike tour throughout Greater Englewood, intentionally passes important neighborhood landmarks and community hotspots. To create this route, CEO Pha’tal Perkins utilizes crime stats produced by the 7th District Police Department, to identify areas where criminal activity may be higher than others and purposefully uses active community engagement as an opportunity to deter violence." More details and registration here. ​

May Events Recap

Adult Overnights
Not one but two bike camping trips in May. One of our favorite, short distance overnights to Blackwell sold out with 14 participants and 4 guides riding out to this beaut of a camp right off the Prairie Path. If yer looking for a local bike camping adventure to do on your own, this is a great place to start. Props to lead guide Lauren Fihe for leading this crew for a second year in a row. 
And then. . . The Good Land. This ride of course sold out like a month in advance with 20 participants and 5 guides riding up to Racine, WI and camping. Then riding the 20 miles to Milwaukke to explore and enjoy some of Wisconsin’s best beverages, only to ride the 20 miles back to camp. And on day 3, they rode the 80 miles back to Chi, with some hopping the train at the midpoint in Waukegan. Props to lead guide Jordan for consistently making this ride better and better each year. 

Adaptive Day Rides
We did a small, short MS Ride on the 606 in partnership with UIC’s Lab of Neuroscience. And, you saw this above, but those LADSE and KEEN’s Any K events! Over 50 different kids with disabilities got up on our fleet of adaptive bikes, many of which were riding a bike for the first time in their lives! Bikes are out here, changing lives. You surprised? 

Adult Day Rides
As noted above, Ashley Lyons was at it again, working with a crew of OOFD volunteers to dream up something awesome for this new program. They combo train/rode out to the Fermilab and tried to spot the bison, yes bison, out there. They also got to check the famous lab out too.  Props to lead guide Claire Meyers for rocking that ride. 

Monthly Hang
We got to have our first outdoor (kinda) Monthly Hang at Palmisano Park in Bridgeport. Quite a scene. Not one but two crews of OOFD guides were gathered early to plan out some upcoming overnights. They were set against that gorgeous backdrop of the Chicago skyline from atop that park’s lovely hill. The rain came and a bunch of us booked over to Maria’s to close the hang out. 
​
Tabling
We got to set up our table and spread the good word about bike camping at this awesome annual event that Boxing Out Negativity puts on each year in North Lawndale. The OOFD crew was there, making s’mores with folks on Douglas Boulevard and then we got to ride with a huge crew of folks around the neighborhood. Props to Boxing Out Negativity and Equiticiy for such a stellar event. 

​Volunteer Spotlight: Ashely Lyons

OOFD has a new Vice President for its Board of Directors! And it is the one and only Ashley Lyons. Ashley is straight-up one of the kindest, most curious, welcoming and adventurous folks you can ever hope to meet. Since she started guiding overnight rides with OOFD on Sun Harvest 2021, she has brought nothing but great energy and ideas to OOFD. She just joined the board in November as a part of the Volunteer Committee and truly has been a force of nature, just making awesome stuff happen. 

 Oh, aannnd, she was like, “Y’all, we need to make this Adult Day Ride thing happen, for real.” And we did, because she did. along with a handful of other inspiring OOFD volunteers And now she is the Program Director of the Day Ride Program (with new Assistant Director Aly Meza - who you might remember from the last newsletter). Its hard to tell if we are so freaking lucky or just good to keep getting such stellar humans to join the OOFD crew and continue to step into leadership roles to help us make this org and our adventures more inclusive, more educational, and just more excellent. So next time you see Ashley, definitely give her a big congrats!
​
 In her own words, “Ashley is ecstatic about two-wheeled adventures, no matter how small or how grand. After researching, training for, and leading a ride for a group of friends from Chicago to Milwaukee, she started volunteering with Out Our Front Door in the Where the Wild Things Grow program (day rides to do environmental service in the parks and forest preserves). She now guides two rides a year while participating in many more, including bike-to-brewery rides and the annual, hilarious Chicago Naked Bike Ride. Ashley relishes in the joy and camaraderie of an adventure, just as much as the deep and quiet meditations that a long ride provides. Off the bike, Ashley is a lover of hatha and yin yoga, Italian submarine sandwiches, and Ethiopian jazz.”

Ashley's bike with the "Ferris Bueller" house in the background on The Sun Harvest Ride

Got a stack of 8 books, on the desk, always in front of me. I know I can open one of them up and instantly be inspired by their words as well as tortured trying to decide what to put as a little nugget to those of y'all that read this far. So often, its Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass. It is so elegant. 

"What else can you offer the earth, which has everything? What else can you give but something of yourself? A homemade ceremony, a ceremony that makes a home." 

Much love,

Glenn and the whole OOFD Crew