01

Ideation

In 2013, Adventure Cycling Association was looking to add a new off-pavement route to their growing national network of mapped bicycle routes. The goal was to create one that could be ridden in a couple of weeks. Or, something that was held the same characteristics as their Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, but wasn’t 2,700 miles long.

In the previous decade a small group of cyclists and adventurers had been pioneering a new way to bike tour off-pavement. It was called bikepacking—a convergence of bike touring and backpacking. The goal was to pack as minimally as possible to reach remote spots that a typical road bike tourist would never attempt to go.

One summer a friend and I plotted out every rentable forest fire lookout in the Northern Rockies and then executed a bikepacking-style trip where we stayed in 8 of them in 10 days. After that my thoughts drifted to what other remote destinations a similar trip could be based around. It did not take long for hot springs to cross my mind.

02

Research

The first goal was to judge if this route was possible. Were there enough hot springs to to call this a hot springs route? Could we connect the hot springs? Would casual bike tourists partake if the route included mandatory singletrack? Research was needed.

After the hot springs were plotted out—and there were enough, over 50 of them—rough corridors were drawn between them and towns where riders could resupply. After that it took over a month to research the roads, trails, hot springs, and services available to riders. Every detail had to be exhaustively checked to ensure a positive user experience. For instance, to create narrative directions I would stand in each intersection, take a gps point, and write down exactly what the riders would see from ether direction creating the most accurate description of what they would encounter. This was very important to ensure accurate navigation:

“The paper Adventure Cycling map said to go straight ahead, but the route I had mapped on ridewithgps.com, said to turn right, so we did, but the road got very steep and narrow, and it just didn’t seem like the obvious way to go. We backtracked and consulted the maps again, and eventually decided to follow the instructions on the paper map… I felt better now that we were back on the route.”

- Fatbike Brigade, 2017

We were also able to navigate around making singletrack mandatory. Instead, four backcountry singletrack options were created. A spur to the Boise airport was also designed to allow riders accessibility to the remote nature of Idaho. A paved section was designed to cut the 500-mile main-dirt-road routing in half. This all gave the users many options to design their own trip within the greater route.

03

Outcome

The first map set that Adventure Cycling Association had to print-run three times in a year. Business goals were exceeded. User feedback has been continuously positive for the majority of the final product.

The hardest lesson I learned had to do with the optional singletrack sections. Riders found them more difficult than advertised. Trails in Idaho are not as manicured as other parts of the country. I had to readjust their descriptions and warnings based on user feedback. I’ve honestly advocated for removing them from the product, but there are some who still enjoy them, and they do guide riders to some spectacular remote hot springs.