Valley Report - 2024 in review
It’s been a year since we started this…
Credit: @nicolevanderwalphoto
365 days in 10 words or less
Mike:
Not what I thought but only because it was more
Sequioa:
connecting two identities: being an athlete and being Chinese American
Color The Valley takes home an award at the VOBA Economic Summit!
Credit: Dylan Woodrow
The VOBA Outdoor Economy Summit Pitch Fest was a wonderful opportunity for us to share about who we are with the larger Vermont outdoor business community. We will say that 5 minutes is quite a short amount of time to tell that story but it really made us focus on being as concise and clear as possible.
“What do y’all do?” This is a question that we get asked from time to time. We are a queer, women and BIPOC owned bikepacking company that specializes in creating inclusive bikepacking trips in Vermont.
What is our “why”? It should not come as a surprise to anyone that there is a lack of diversity in outdoor spaces especially in the bike community. We didn’t have to dig very hard to find data to back this up. Did you know that founders of color represent only an estimated 1% of outdoor entrepreneurs despite the fact that minority groups are the fastest growing demographic of outdoor recreationists? Did you also know that members of the LGBTQ+ community are the most active outdoor participants? As a BIPOC, women and queer owned company, we knew there was an opportunity here to change the narrative.
It was great to talk with folks who saw the value in what we are doing and thank you for encouraging us to keep telling our story. Bumping into friends and making new ones just validates our thoughts on changing narratives in the outdoor industry. We are all tackling it from different angles and this just proves there are BIPOC folks here in the Vermont outdoor community. We want to see it grow!
As we embark on this journey, we ask that you join us in helping more people see the freedom and joy that riding bikes can bring! We are looking for investors, brand partners, customers and businesses interested in supporting folks from marginalized communities enjoying the outdoors. If this describes you, reach out to us! Please help us get the word out about our company to all your friends and fam!
What’s up with the bikepacking gear library?!
Short answer, we are still working on it and hope to have something ready to go before bike season kicks into full gear (pun intended) in 2025.
Long answer, right now all of the gear lives in Mike’s house which is fine but having a place for people to access the gear that is more centrally located is preferred. We are glad to coordinate in case anyone wants to borrow gear earlier. We feel having it easily accessible for folks with a simple way to check it out will go a long way in terms of the gear getting used.
Full gear list to come but highlights for now are:
Two bikes that we can fully outfit folks (Small and Large bikes)
Plus additional gear including racks, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tents and anything else you might need
We are looking for a space right now and have a few promising leads. If you know of or have space that you would be open to gear storage then please let us know!
That’s a wrap on 2024
Credit: @nicolevanderwalphoto
We spent the bulk of this year building Color the Valley from an idea into a reality all while working full time jobs. Looking back, we are proud of what we’ve already accomplished! We created a brand and developed a website, launched our business at the Philly Bike Expo, hosted bikepacking trips, tabled at community events, helped fundraise for the @rar.champlainvalley inaugural Northeast Autumn Retreat, built brand partnerships and received our first grant from Bikepacking Roots.
Our plan for 2025
As we look to 2025, we want to continue our growth! Our main project carrying us into the winter months is building out a bikepacking gear library based in Burlington, VT. We cannot wait to dig our hands into a place-based project that will make bikepacking more accessible for our community.
We also are looking to hire our first full time guide for the 2025 season! This will allow us to run a full season of trips while letting Mike and Sequioa focus on community building and growing our network of partners. We firmly believe that 2025 is going to be a pivotal year for us so we want to make sure we are giving ourselves every opportunity to be successful.
A tentative schedule of things we are working on you can find below:
BIPOC specific hangs and rides! We know y’all have been asking and it’s something we want to be more consistent about in 2025. Right now we are thinking of a monthly ride but if people want it more frequently then we will figure out a group of organizers that want to lead to make sure we can keep that consistency.
We will be at Midsouth Expo in March and they’ve been super accommodating with us planning on being there. We are also planning on participating in the 100 Mile Bike so if you see us out there make sure to say hello!
We will also be making an appearance again at the Philly Bike Expo and are excited to meet folks again and see all of the hard work of the different people in the bike community. Hopefully we can share a booth with a bike builder again next year!
We are collaborating with Skida to start a gravel ride series that will start sometime once the weather starts to warm up which will likely be in May and continue through the Fall. Not sure quite on the frequency right now but plan for at least a monthly ride starting and ending back at the Skida shop off Pine Street. This series will be open to all so make sure to come ride and support our local friends at Skida.
The Be Right Back (BRB) rides will make their official debut in 2025 and will likely be a monthly ride taking place on Saturdays. These are the rides where you enter the bike time bubble in the early to late morning but we promise to get you back before dinner. It’s Vermont in the late Spring and we plan to run it up until the time changes. Bring your swim trunks, fly fishing gear and whatever else you might have an idea to do or if you want to lead something give us a shout.
We want to pay you to ride your bike! This is not clickbait. We promise.
That’s right! We want to pay you to ride your bike or put on an event that supports bikepacking in your community. All that we ask is that you take photos, host an event around bikepacking or bikepacking education then share a few words with us for our newsletter or tag us in social media. We are flexible on what this can be so just let us know what you are thinking. No wrong ideas!
We are able to do this thanks to the generosity of someone in our community that wants to support folks bikepacking. Here is a brief breakdown of what you can expect if you are selected. Think of it as a Vermont care package courtesy of us!
$500
Color The Valley merch including shirts, stickers, patches and anything else we might have to send your way
Color The Valley Hoodie from one of our local favorite outdoor companies
Maple Syrup straight from Vermont and you’re damn right we are shipping that sugary goodness across state lines
Merch from local companies but likely outdoor related
We will have a form for folks to fill out in January! We are workshopping some names but definitely don’t want to call it ambassadors…maybe Friends of Color The Valley?
Our picks for 2024!
Now is our favorite part of the report…telling you what made us happy in 2024!
Sequoia:
Sunshine. Being able to ski for the first time since tearing my ACL. Making new friends! Becoming a runner. Connecting to my Chinese heritage more, learning some Cantonese and Chinese cooking. Bikepacking Acadia to Burlington (over 500 miles!). Planning the first annual RAR NAR. Getting to know my dad better and getting him into gravel riding. Organizing the CTV X RAR Alley Cat. Going Paddleboarding. Nesting at home.
Mike:
The biggest thing that made me happy in 2024 was community. It’s what allowed us to take this idea and start to turn it into something real. I have always been someone who felt like you had to take on the world by yourself or that you need to be in control of your own destiny but over the last several years I have been slowly unlearning that. It’s not to say that I don’t have my opinion or view on things but I’ve also come to value feedback because it helps to shape my view. So thank you to everyone who helped with that in 2024 and will continue to do so. Apologies in advance ;)
Now I can get to the stuff you really came here for which is my excellent taste in movies and music.
Thanks for reading!
This is brought to you with love and care from Izzy Johnson, Sequoia Young and Mike Ripley. Make sure to subscribe below so you don't miss out on the Valley Report.
Valley Report - August 2024
What happened to normal group chat names?
Credit: @izdawggg
Hi y’all!
Here is the Valley Report for August 2024
Color The Alleycat
Credit: @caseygreenleaf
This weekend our local friends (@rarchamplainvalley) and regional RAR groups are going to be at RAR NAR in Topsham, VT. The theme for the event is Bike Liberation which is something we can always get behind. We hope the event goes great and we appreciate the effort of everyone involved to make something like this happen!
To help raise funds, we worked with the local RAR chapter to put on an alleycat. We are always glad to find chances to partner on things especially when it comes to raising money for causes we care about. Thanks to all volunteers and organizers!
Building out a gear library
A few months ago we applied for the Bikepacking Roots BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant to help build a gear library here in Burlington in partnership with RAR Champlain Valley. The program is working to reduce the barriers to bike adventure for BIPOC people so it seemed like a no brainer for us. We are excited to announce we were one of 13 recipients of the grant this year! Everyone in the cohort is doing amazing work already and we can’t wait to see all of the projects come together. We hope to reach out to anyone who is somewhat close to see if there is a way for us to collaborate or partner together!
Building out a gear library in the Burlington area is something we’ve wanted to do since the beginning! As of right now that is going to look like us being able to outfit folks with some combination of panniers, racks and bags that can be used to carry gear on their bikes. Luckily, the gear we received can be used with different types of bikes in different combinations which allows us to make it work with most bikes.
The next step for us is to continue growing our gear library by adding tents, sleeping bags, mats, bikes to help people get fully equipped for their adventures. If you know of any organizations, companies or folks looking to donate/support the gear library please let us know and we'd love to chat!
We are currently building out the website to allow people to check out gear, see pictures of what’s available and plan to make it available in the next month for people to start using. If you have any adventures planned before it’s available, don’t hesitate to let us know and we can get you taken care of.
Thanks again to Bikepacking Roots and all the below sponsors of the grant!
We only wanted sponsors who started with the letter O! :)
Color The Valley expanding to Boston…and adding carpentry to our skillset?
For those that know or don’t know, we’ve expanded to the Boston area and by expanded we mean Izzy has moved to Boston to pursue their passion for carpentry at one of the oldest trade schools in the United States. Izzy had an opportunity to attend prior to moving to Vermont and has always been interested in seeing where it could lead to. Please make sure to congratulate Izzy on the move and wish her the best of luck in the program for the next two years!
Izzy will continue to ride bikes (mountain biking when she can!), work on making the outdoors more inclusive and help with Color The Valley but in a reduced capacity. Izzy needs time to get settled, get in a groove and find space to focus on things other than school. We are figuring it out as we go and this is a large part of why we believe community is so important when it comes to building things!
What comes next?
Riding our damn bikes before winter!
Here is our current and most up to date list of what we plan to do before the end of the year. If you’d like to support, have ideas or any feedback then we would love to hear from you!
Bikepacking trips
Rescheduled BIPOC Bikepacking Trip!
October
Intro to Bikepacking Clinics
One open to all
One that is BIPOC specific
Group Bike rides (Themes)
BRB (Be Right Back) Rides (Hoping to get at least one if not two in before the end of the year)
Enter the bike time bubble
Bikees, swimees, creemees
Our picks
Now is our favorite part of the report…telling you what’s making us happy!
Izzy:
With the recent move I’m now officially a Boston bike commuter! That means waking up early, hitting the pavement and making my way to school. I’ve recently realized that the Midnight Special I built up for Burlington may need some adjustments to accommodate the Boston terrain. If anyone has any leads on a Steamroller, I’m all ears :)
Training for the trail running half marathon has started and we (my mom, my partner and myself) decided to do something a little closer to home called the TARC Stone Cat! If you’re in the area or want an accountability partner let us know!
Mike:
Ska and punk! I’ve recently refound my love for Reel Big Fish and my favorite punk cover artist Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Did you know that they performed at a quinceanera last year in Las Vegas? Did you also know that their last two records have been live albums including performing at a bar mitzvah? Me neither. I’ll leave you with their cover of Dancing Queen by ABBA.
Also watch grass grow online here. It updates every second!
Thanks for reading!
This is brought to you with love and care from Izzy Johnson and Mike Ripley. Make sure to subscribe below so you don't miss out on the Valley Report.
Valley Report - July 2024
Who photographs the photographer?
Hi y’all!
Here is the Valley Report for July 2024
Skidmarks Grand Opening at The Driving Range
Credit: A.Carter Clark
Our friends Phil Kmetz and Hailey Sarausky opened a one-of-a-kind, double-black adaptive mountain bike trail as part of The Driving Range network! For those that don’t know, The Driving Range is an adaptive-friendly network of mountain bike trails that are part of the Richmond Mountain Trails network. Make sure to give them a follow on social media or consider donating if you can here.
Swift Campout
Credit: Nicole van der Wal
Credit: Nicole van der Wal
The weather this summer has been a bit chaotic and extremely unpredictable. We had some recent rains including catastrophic flooding of over 8 inches that led to flash flooding, damage to infrastructure, farms and people’s homes. Unfortunately, it’s the new normal and the weather is what caused us to postpone our initial date. Thankfully we were able to take folks out a few weeks later to enjoy the Island Line trail that included a ride on the bike ferry! It was a bit warm but we made the best of it as we traveled over 50 miles round trip. Thanks again to Swift Industries for trusting us to be Navigators and for sending over all the fun goodies we shared with folks who came on the trip!
BIPOC Outdoor Festival
We love our friends Unlikely Riders so when they asked if we could table at the BIPOC Outdoor Festival they were hosting you know we couldn’t say no. This was the fourth year of the festival and we look forward to coming back again next year! This event was created to allow members of the BIPOC community to get together in community to mountain bike, kayak, canoe, swim in a welcoming and inclusive environment.
The food was incredible as well as the people. It was great talking to everyone and allowed us to make more connections with BIPOC folks in Vermont. Massive shout out to all the organizers, facilitators, volunteers and Craftsbury Outdoor Center who helped this all come together. We heard the festival continues to grow every year and would love to see this turn into a weekend summer camp vibe in the future. Who wants to see a beginner’s bikepacking overnighter next year? Let us or the organizers know! :)
BIPOC Bikepacking Trip with Unlikely Riders
Credit: isa demarco
Our lovely, wonderful and amazing friends Abby and Han asked us to collaborate on another BIPOC Bikepacking trip. We are doing one of our local favorites which is a route that takes us on the local bike ferry!
For those that don’t know Unlikely Riders, they work on encouraging all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in Vermont to get outside while reducing the barriers to do so. You can learn more here or if you can donate here
BTS (Behind the scenes) at Color The Valley
We’ve got some exciting news to share with you soon but we can’t quite reveal all the details yet unfortunately. We can say that it is a step in the right direction for building out an Outdoor Gear Library. Stay tuned and we look forward to working closer with some of our local friends on this journey.
What comes next?
Bikes. Ok, that is kind of a given BUT we are cooking up a way to raise funds for our friends and local RAR Champlain Valley chapter for their RARNAR event which you should check out / donate to if you can! We love them and they’ve always been supportive of us. Go and show them how much you love them too! @rarchamplainvalley
Here is our current and most up to date list of what we plan to do before the end of the year. If you’d like to support, have ideas or any feedback then we would love to hear from you!
Bikepacking trips
Additional overnighters in September and October
Details TBD!
Intro to Bikepacking Clinics
One open to all
One that is BIPOC specific
Group Bike rides (Themes)
Single Speed Sunday potentially as well (not required but highly recommended)
BIPOC specific ride (at least once a month unless there is demand for more often)
BRB (Be Right Back) Rides (hoping to start this in September!)
Enter the bike time bubble
Bikees, swimees, creemees
Our picks
Now is our favorite part of the report…telling you what’s making us happy!
Izzy:
Here are some things I've been happy about this summer! I've recently built my first bike from the frame up! It's a Surly Midnight Special. Mike is always making fun of me for switching my setup. I'm on a constant search for the perfect ride...but I say that as someone with five different bikes all for different purposes.
And on the topic of never settling on one thing, I'm taking a timber framing class that my friend Sophie is teaching in two weeks. I've been a bike mechanic for a long time and this is another way for me to work with my hands.
Last in my continual quest for more hobbies - my mom, my partner, and some of my friends have decided to try and run a trail half marathon in October. Wish these cycling legs luck!
Mike:
Olympics, Olympics, Women’s Sports. Unfortunately, I start to feel a little patriotic then I remember I’m actually here for the athletes and the teams who just happen to represent the United States. The USWNT Soccer team closed out the group stage last week and will be playing for the Gold medal. In the year of our hater, this is the anthem. The Gymnastics team also clinched Gold medals by an almost 6 point margin with incredible performances from the entire team. Simone Biles is a GOAT.
I really don’t recommend getting on X? Twitter? whatever it’s called now but this account has been so interesting to see all of the old photos that have been colorized and aptly described as the internet history museum.
Thanks for reading!
This is brought to you with love and care from Izzy Johnson and Mike Ripley. Make sure to subscribe below so you don't miss out on the Valley Report.
Valley Report - June 2024
You’ve probably been wondering what we’ve been up to the last few months huh?
Intro
Hi Y’all! Quick refresher, we are Color The Valley a Queer, BIPOC & Women-Owned outdoor guiding company based in Burlington, Vermont. We specialize in bikepacking, backpacking, and hiking trips with an emphasis on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and Queer communities. This all started as an idea between two friends who wanted to see change in the outdoors both in terms of those who participate but also in those who engage in entrepreneurship. Did you know that only 1% of outdoor entrepreneurs are folks of color?
Philly Bike Expo Recap
We had an amazing time at the Philly Bike Expo both in terms of networking but also seeing all of the amazing work that is being done by various organizations across the industry both small and large. It was important for us to talk with folks that were attendees who all told us that what we were doing was important and wanted to get involved or know how they could help.
Everyone we met was wonderful but we want to specifically highlight the following people:
Linette Martinez (https://www.instagram.com/messina_martinez/ | https://www.messinamartinez.com/) for letting us stay with her and believing in us from the start. Did we mention Linette takes amazing photos?
Zach Weiss (https://www.instagram.com/zabrinacycles/ | https://www.zabrinacycles.com/) for being a great booth partner and if you haven’t already seen their work then go check it out because he makes some incredibly well built bikes
Trader Joe (https://www.traderjoes.com/home) for being right next to the convention center and sustaining us through two days of the expo. I think we managed to go through several bags of trail mix, carrots and chili mangos.
BTS (Behind the scenes) at Color The Valley
The part you all haven’t seen is how we’ve been applying for grants, connecting with different organizations to create partnerships and continuing to build relationships across different communities. We are doing all of this on top of our regular jobs (one of us has recently started a new full time job)! Starting a business / organization takes time, money, labor and everything else that we’ve left out.
It’s important for us to share that we firmly believe in what we are doing with Color The Valley but it does require a full time commitment from the both of us to do it in the way we want. As of right now, we are not able to do this full time while feeling financially secure. This is why we have been doing everything we can to change that. From applying for grants or trying to secure funding sources. This is all done in an effort to make it possible to do full time and feel financially stable. We know it won’t happen overnight and are here for the journey. We are just full of ideas and want to start turning them into a reality!
What comes next?
We say all of this to provide transparency and share what’s been happening. Plus we want to give you an update about our plans for the rest of the year! Here is our current plan for what we hope to do from now until the end of 2024.
Bikepacking trips that are starting in June and running through the end of October.
June: Swift Campout - June 22-23 - Sign up here
August: Collaboration trip with our friends, Unlikely Riders! Details to come soon!
Community happenings:
Bikepacking Roots Beginners Community Campout - June 14-16 - Sign up here
Richmond Mountain Trails Grand Opening - June 16
Intro to Bikepacking Clinics
One open to all
One that is BIPOC specific
Group Bike rides (Current working themes)
BIPOC specific ride at least once a month
Single Speed Sundays (not required but highly recommended)
BRB (Be Right Back) Rides
Enter the bike time bubble
Bikees, swimees, creemees
Outdoor Gear Library
We applied for a grant through Bikepacking Roots and waiting to hear back!🤞
Our picks
Now that we have all the serious stuff out of the way, let’s talk about what is making us happy.
Izzy:
I’ve really been enjoying the Normal Gossip podcast! I would recommend you start with the foraging episode and/or the Bunco episode to jump in. Looking at Blue Lug bike builds has me dreaming about future bike dreams. I’ve also been listening to a few different audiobooks like To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins and Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner.
Mike:
For those that don’t know, I’m a big Women’s sports fan and particularly Soccer and Basketball. The US Women’s National Team just wrapped up a series against the Republic of Korea where Lily Yohannes scored her first international goal ten minutes into her debut. The US has two more friendlies before the Paris Olympics start at the end of July. Outside of sports, I recently watched I Saw the TV Glow by Jane Schoenbrun. Incredible movie and I can’t stop thinking about it. If you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 90s Nickelodeon shows like The Adventures of Pete & Pete or Are You Afraid of the Dark?, then I highly recommend.
Special shout-out from the both of us to Justin Oliver for opening Silver Birch Cycles. For those that don’t know Justin, he has been living in the Adirondacks for over 20 years and recently opened up his own shop. We are glad to call him a friend and community partner. Go give him a follow on Instagram and show him some love!
Thanks for reading!
This is brought to you with love and care from Izzy Johnson and Mike Ripley. Make sure to subscribe below so you don't miss out on the Valley Report.