Memories From the Cardboard Box in My Closet: Tales and Photos from Alexandera’s First Winter Bike Tour
In the early years of my bike adventuring, I didn’t have a smartphone and chose to bring a 24-shot disposable camera with me on my adventures to document my trips. I’ve shared a selection of photos from that tour. I was supposed to ride the Tour Divide in the summer of 2014. I’d learned about…
Good Things Come in Threes: Jill Martindale Reflects on Her Unsupported Arrowhead 135 Win
I ripped dead branches off a pine tree just off the side of the Arrowhead Trail. I was trying to get a fire going inside a three-sided shelter so I could warm up a little bit. I wasn’t having great luck burning anything thicker than a pencil because the moisture in the branches was just…
Living the Dream: Positive People, Negative Temperatures
I went on my first expedition in 2002; I was a student on an Outward Bound course. Those 16 days opened my eyes to the world of the outdoors and expeditions. Over the past 20 years, I have been beyond lucky and privileged to take part in many expeditions into the mountains and deserts. In…
Conversations in Community: Miss Wendi
Kate, Alexandera, and Mary speaking about the Colorado Trail and bikepacking. Photo: Aaron Ehlers In early December, I traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to have a conversation with two other badass women at Freewheel Bike Shop. Mary Ehlers was the last woman standing in the 2022 Colorado Trail Race, and the evening’s emcee was Kate Coward.…
Faces Behind the Dots: Arrowhead 135
Every year, a group of winter die-hards line up for the Arrowhead 135. It’s a 135–mile winter ultra-marathon where people compete on foot, ski, or bicycle. Each winter, the race begins in International Falls, Minnesota, and finishes at the Fortune Bay (Bois Forte Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) Casino in Tower, Minnesota. It’s hard, very…
Living an Empowered and Adventurous Life
About one year ago, I crossed paths with Becky Jergenson. She was fresh off completing her very first Smoke ‘n’ Fire Race (SnF). I had made the decision to move to Indiana but had promised both her and our friend Cassidy that I would return to participate in the SnF bikepacking race. I had absolutely…
That Happened a Long Time Ago: Contemporary Indigenous Ceremony is Alive and Thriving
In 2018, in the throes of my undergraduate education, I read an article highlighting perspectives of Indigenous reflections on the 40th anniversary of the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA). I was dumbfounded. Even though I knew about the Federal Policies that unfolded in the 1970s, I’d barely quantified the years that had passed.…
Alexandera Houchin’s AZT Video
I gathered about an hour and a half of footage on my iPhone over the 12-day journey I had racing the 800 miles of the Arizona Trail Race this fall. I edited it down into a short video and I hope that you like it!
The Last Woman Standing: Misty Nielsen and the 2022 Smoke ‘n’ Fire
Misty Nielsen takes home the honor of being the 2022 Idaho Smoke ‘n’ Fire’s Last Woman Standing. As with every woman in this year’s amazingly large field, Misty has a fun story, getting into bikepacking with the Idaho Women’s Bikepacking group, learning the tricks of the trade, and putting together a determined ride that involved…
Geyaabi Nimbakade // I’m Still Hungry
Alexandera Houchin was the first woman to cross the finish line in the 2022 Colorado Trail Race and the sixth overall finisher, setting a new southbound/westbound women’s course record on her Chumba Sendero SS, with a time of 6 days, 2 hours, and 33 minutes. In her most recent essay, she reflects on her fifth…
