I am honored and super excited to announce that Russ and Laura from Pathless Pedaled will be joining us at Southern Spokes before they head off to the Blue Ridge Breakaway.

Learn about touring, bike camping and so many awesome things from this pair!

Who is Pathless Pedaled?

Taken from their website..

In March 2009, we made a bold decision. The scene had been set after a week-long ramble through Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave Desert. Long, sunny days in the saddle; clear, starry skies at night. Expansive vistas, gravel roads, coyote calls. On the way back to our then-apartment, we looked at each other, knowingly, and wondered aloud… “what if we just kept riding?”

Four months later, we had sold everything we owned, said goodbye to our friends, relinquished our apartment… and pedaled off toward the horizon.

Our Surly Long Haul Truckers were loaded to the brim at the beginning. We didn’t know how much stuff we were going to need, because we didn’t know how long we would be gone. As we embraced simplicity and double-duty-ness, we whittled our loads down from 170 pounds each to 90. We also learned to embrace change and serendipity and the odd fact of running out of small talk between us.

We rode up and down the Pacific Coast, across the deserts of the Southwest, spent three months in Texas, survived the humidity of a Southern summer, and got all the way up to Boston before winter hit. 15 months, 10,000 miles, countless new friends. Pick an adjective and we probably experienced it… Inspiring, Challenging, Surprising… but the one experience we never expected was being at the forefront of the resurgence of bicycle travel.

From our blog to conversations with locals, from media interviews to presentations in cities along our route, we shared our story of simplicity and adventure. And we discovered how much we deeply want to inspire others to also explore the world on a bicycle.

In February 2011, we shocked everyone by swapping our Surlys for Brompton folding bikes. These are not bikes that instantly scream adventure, but we knew they’d be up to the task. If we were going to combine more transit connections with our cycling, and enable a different kind of bike travel, the Bromptons (and their amazingly small fold) were the only way to go. Plus, we had this crazy theory that, if we could travel for a long time on a loaded Brompton, it would show thatanyone can travel for any distance on any bike. We rode our Bromptons throughout the US West and around New Zealand, logging over 5,000 miles on the little wheels.

As our travels continue to evolve and change, our mission of democratizing bike travel has held fast. After three years, we know how enjoyable it is to travel by bike and we know that there’s no wrong way to do it – and we want the rest of the world to see what we see. Traveling by bike is fun, exciting, an opportunity to eat whatever you want – and a surprisingly easy way to bolster small economies. Join us as we show you all the many reasons why you want to hop on a bicycle!