The New Year's weekend Cabin Camping trip is FULL.  We have no more room in the 2 cabins we reserved.  You are welcome to reserve another cabin at the park on your own, and join us on the ride, but our 2 cabins are now maxxed out.  Tent camping starts again the first weekend in May, and we have upcoming classes - stay tuned for details!

New Schedule for 2010

Why a new schedule?  I thought you'd already settled on a schedule for 2010 - look, it's right here on the back of the business card you gave me!
When the schedule was set, it was with the presumption that Cycle Wild would maintain a schedule of 12-14 trips per year.  That was a bit... optimistic.  So, we're throttling back a bit, to 10 annual trips.  8 of those trips will be the traditional weekend trips: six 2-day trips and two 3-day trips (the holiday weekends).  For simplicity's sake, we've decided to make the default camping weekend the first weekend of each month, from April to November.  So, there won't be any confusion about when the next camping trip will be - it'll always be the first weekend of the month.  Well, ok - Labor Day might actually fall on Sept. 1 or 2, in which case it'll be the last weekend of August, but 5 out of 7 years it'll be the first weekend of September.

The two remaining trips will be for those who don't work the traditional M-F work schedule.  We realize that you may have different days off than all those office workers, and might not want to burn a vacation day or two to come camping with us.  We'd still love to have you out, so we're dedicating a couple trips just for you - but we need your help.  Take the poll on the right side of the home page, and tell us which two weekdays are the best for you to come out camping with us.  We'll choose the two most popular answers and insert those days into the schedule. 

What is Cycle Wild?

Our mission: To reconnect people with nature via the bicycle

In today's busy urban world, it's easy to forget nature - even though it surrounds us wherever we go.  Our busy schedules make it difficult to slow down, breathe deep, and remember that we live in a natural world.  Cycle Wild aims to reconnect people with that world, and to help them understand the difficulties, challenges and opportunities in preserving it.  We do this by scheduling and leading free camping trips into nature - using the bicycle.  Simply by riding a bike, camping (and life) moves at a slower pace.  Riders relax, enjoy the sun and the wind (and sometimes the rain), and truly notice the trees, the mountains, the rivers, and the wildlife.

Cycle Wild provides people with the resources they need in order to explore the natural world by bike, through its website, through printed materials, and through hands-on classes covering subjects like basic camping, plant & animal identification, and navigation and route-finding.

Cycle Wild also provides a calendar of camping trips scheduled by local individuals and organizations within the Portland rideshed. 

Cycle Wild accomplishes its mission by:

• Encouraging the use of the bike as a means of recreational transportation
• Teaching people the basics of camping by bike
• Teaching people how to respect and enjoy nature
• Teaching people the basics of wilderness survival, route planning, land navigation and "Leave No Trace" principles
• Connecting people with those organizing bike camping trips to local campgrounds and state and federal forestland within our "rideshed"
• Providing people with links to additional information on bikes, nature

What is a Rideshed?

A rideshed is the area which can be traveled to within one summer day of loaded riding.  For the purpose of Cycle Wild, our rideshed is within 75 miles of Portland, Oregon.  Cycle Wild's rideshed actually extends further to the east and west due to Portland's light rail system, MAX, which allows us to get a "head start" of 25 miles in either of those two directions.  A few of Cycle Wild's rides take place in an "extended rideshed" equal to 2 days' travel - this can be extended greatly through the use of Amtrak Cascades to allow trips to start from as far north as Vancouver BC and as far south as Eugene.