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!
Fixing Bikes – To Learn, It’s Best to Teach
When Eszter first got invited to teach a bikepacking field maintenance class, she balked at the idea. She’d spent her 30+ years of riding bikes being intimidated by working on them and avoiding it at all costs. But in the end, that’s why she agreed to teach. They say that to learn, it’s best to teach, and learn she did. Read more about Eszter’s complete panic after agreeing, her realization that clinics like this are very much needed, and her hopes for the ladies that showed up to learn.
Touring the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route vs. Racing the Tour Divide
Racing or touring a bikepacking route, is one choice more fun, more fulfilling, or more challenging than the other? Katie has done both, touring the route with her husband Andrew in 2018 and racing Tour Divide in 2022 (finishing second woman and first singlespeed woman). In this piece, Katie reflects on both experiences, weighing the pros and cons of each approach. The takeaway? There is no right answer, and we should do our best to be honest with our motivations.
Laura Heiner: Boise’s Bikepacking Powerhouse
There are a lot of theories on what inspires women to get into bikepacking. What Laura did was invite them, creating the Idaho Women’s Bikepacking group to provide a supportive pathway to racing the Idaho Smoke ‘n’ Fire for any level of rider. She answered countless questions, set up training rides, put together overnighters to check out the course, and created a strong sense of community. The IWBP group is a huge success story of getting more women into the sport, and the beauty of it is, it can be replicated pretty much anywhere. We had a chat with Laura about her history with the sport, why she felt the need to start the IWBP, and how she made it such a success.
Q & A with Annie Evans: Making of The Longest Night
This past winter, Annie Evans became the first person to complete the Highlands Trail 550 in the winter, documenting the effort in her new film The Longest Night. We at the Townie wanted to know more about the making of the film, and Annie was kind enough to answer some of our questions. Check out the film and more about Annie in this article.
