What is bike touring anyways?
Bike – noun – colloquial, 1. A bicycle.
Tour – noun – 1. A journey for pleasure in which several different places are visited.
At its core, bike touring means embarking on a multi-day journey using a bicycle as your main mode of transportation. It’s not just about the ride — it’s also about exploration, adventure, and the freedom to discover something new. While there are variations like bikepacking (off-road or backcountry bike touring), all types of bike trips share the same essentials: you, a bike, some gear, and a destination waiting to be explored.
Apogee’s bike trips for middle- and high-school students focus on safe, scenic and thoroughly researched routes — primarily along secondary paved roads and bike paths — designed to promote discovery and inspire joy. We want to foster meaningful connections, too, so we intentionally keep our groups small.
Joining an Apogee Bike Trip? Here’s What You (or Your Teen) Will Need…
- A Sturdy Bike: For Apogee trips, we recommend well-maintained hybrid, touring, or mountain bikes suited for road travel. You can read more about the bikes we recommend on our Trip Pages and in our FAQs.
- Gear Storage: Panniers (saddlebags for bikes) attached to a sturdy rack are our go-to for carrying essentials like clothing, tools, and gear.
- Essentials for the Journey:
- Weather-appropriate clothing
- A sleeping bag and pad
- A lightweight tent
- Repair tools
- Cooking supplies and nutritious food
- A Sense of Adventure: Whether revisiting familiar trails or discovering somewhere new, purpose and enthusiasm make the journey meaningful.
How Does It All Fit?
The setup is simple yet efficient: panniers carry most of your belongings, while additional items are secured on top of the bike rack. On Apogee trips, we simplify packing by buying food and supplies as needed, making the journey lighter and more flexible.
For a step-by-step guide, check out our video: How to Pack a Bicycle and Panniers for Bicycle Touring – Apogee Adventures.
Why Bike Touring?
Bike touring offers more than just physical travel — it’s a lesson in simplicity, problem-solving, and discovery. With limited space, you focus on what truly matters and find creative solutions to challenges along the way. And often, the journey surprises you, revealing connections, experiences, and insights you never expected.
One of our recent trip leaders, Jordan Johnson, puts it so nicely:
For me, bike touring has brought a huge sense of empowerment – it teaches self-reliance while connecting you deeply to the places you travel through. There is something special about experiencing it all at the pace of a pedal stroke. You notice the small details: the smell of the trees, the way the light hits a hillside, or even a sculpture of a T-Rex on the Oregon coast. And then at the end of a tour, it’s an amazing feeling to reflect as your mindset shifts from ‘Can I do this?’ to ‘When can I do this again?’
The best way to understand “why?” Join us for one of our summer bike camps for middle and high schoolers. We’ll teach you all the skills you need to experience the true magic of a bicycle tour.
