Preparation
- Adventure Planning 101
- Preliminary route planning and research:
- TraiLink by Rails To Trails Conservancy lets you search bike trails by location, length, and other criteria. For a small annual subscription fee you gain access to offline trail maps which you can download before you embark on your next journey.
- Alltrails is another good app for doing preliminary trails research and download maps for offline use.
- Real Maps! For imagining adventures, and getting the bird’s eye view of your planned destination, there’s no substitute for topographic maps. While they may be too bulky to carry along on a hike or bike ride, they are invaluable in the planning stages of the trip.
Sample Local Destinations
- Fall Bikepacking Adventure
- Great River Overnight
- Bullfrog Lake Overnight
- Kal-Haven to Covert Bike Camping Trip
- Harrington Beach Overnight
- Low -stress ways to leave Chicago
- More here….
Microcamping
Here are some ideas for tiny outings when you only have a few hours:
Bikes
- Folding Bike — the PERFECT microescape vehicle.
- Adventure Bike Guide
- Setting up Your Adventure Rig
- Common Sense Bike Fit Guide
- Setting up a Custom Bike for Adventures
GEAR
- Here’s some great basic advice on assembling your gear from the Intro To Bike Camping Workshop we did with the folks from Out Our Front Door.
- Gear for Microescapes (indispensable items for urban adventurers)
- 10 Essentials for outdoor adventures (don’t leave home without them!)
Packing Lists
Featuring our favorite outdoor gear for adventures of any size.
- Packing tiny: solo overnight Brompton trip
- Fall Overnight packing list
- Kal-Haven Packing