Adventure Cycling Association

What happens when you gather together cyclists, advocates, makers, and storytellers to share knowledge, meals, and, of course, ride bikes in Colorado’s Front Range? You get Bikepacking Roots’ Rocky Mountain Bikepacking Summit (September 12-15). And you better believe Adventure Cycling staff were there both as an expo and workshop hosts and fans. From maple-syrup-fueled mornings to campfire stories, the four-day-long Summit captured the best of bikepacking culture. Here are eight highlights from the weekend:

1. Pedal Power

Riders didn’t just show up in cars. They pedaled in from all over the Front Range. A group rolled in from Denver, another from Boulder, and one determined rider even rode from Colorado Springs to make it to camp just outside of Bailey, Colorado. Watching them roll in on Friday set the tone and gave the whole weekend a charge of stoke before things had even officially started.

2. Advocacy at Heart

Colorado Trail Foundation director Paul Talley spoke Friday night just steps away from the trail itself. In fact, a few attendees had just pedaled sections of the Colorado Trail to reach camp, and many more would ride it the next day, so his message landed hard: While other groups often take the lead in stewardship of the muli-use trail, bikepackers need to step up, too, if we want to keep enjoying the landscapes the route passes through.

3. The Most Important Meal of the Day

Embark Maple Energy hosted an oatmeal bar stacked with toppings and, of course, maple syrup straight from their farm in Wisconsin. But it was more than just fuel for the group rides that followed. It was knowledge. Company founder and chief mascot Eric the Fox (also known as Eric Weninger) shared how he uses maple syrup to power his own adventures, including completing the Colorado Trail race on his singlespeed.

4. Makers Mart Magic

The vendor expo was stacked, but the Tumbleweed Bicycle Co. demo fleet stole plenty of attention. Just as cool? Seeing a few riders at the event whose personal Tumbleweeds had already survived the Colorado Trail and the Great Divide. Alongside the Tumbleweeds were Colorado cycling community staples: handmade cycling bag maker Reroot Outdoors, bike shop Treehouse Cyclery, and gear maker Green Guru — which has upcycled more than 20 million bicycle tubes to make its bags and other softgoods — all repped the local scene.

5. Work It Out

Afternoon workshops went beyond gear and routes. Kyle Stone’s session on the mind-body connection, for example, dug into the mental side of bikepacking: how to stay grounded when the euphoria fades, how to lean into discomfort, and how transformative long-distance riding can be. It was refreshing to talk about the inner journey as much as the outer one.

Over in another tent, Reroot Outdoor’s Shan Wo drew a crowd to her gear repair session, where riders swapped stories while learning to patch, mend, and extend the life of their kit. And in Adventure Cycling’s session on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, riders shared their own stories of riding the epic trail along with tips and highlights from the Colorado section (such as using the state’s Bustang public transit service to shuttle the route).

6. Cook-Along Vibes

Bailey from bikepacking supper club Yeehaw Giddyup led a BYOI (bring-your-own-ingredients) cook-along that had everyone firing up camp stoves side by side. It felt like a backcountry potluck — the kind of simple meal that somehow tastes better when you cook it outside.

7. Story Time

After dinner came Swift Industries’ Stoked Spoke Storytelling Night where attendees shared tales from the trail, some hilarious, some raw, all inspiring. Hearing others’ highs and lows and realizing how much we all share in this sport is the kind of connection you only get in spaces like this.

8. The Soul of the Summit

But despite the previous days’ group rides, workshops, and shared meals, the four-day Summit’s biggest impact came Sunday, when many of the participants headed out on overnight rides ranging from mellow 18-mile spins to 50-mile pushes as friends instead of strangers. Camping under the stars, swapping stories, and pedaling with tired legs was the soul of the summit, plain and simple.