A Man, a Route, and a Dream Come True

Last month, while traveling around the U.S., we held a couple of gatherings in California to celebrate the release of Adventure Cycling's new Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route. While it was great to focus on the route, the best part for me was honoring the author of the route, Bil Paul, who drove long distances to attend both events.

Bil is too even-keeled to say this route is an obsession for him -- but it has been a major focus of his life. Many decades ago, he came up with the idea of charting a route along the Pacific Crest from the California-Oregon border to Lake Isabella, California. Ultimately, he created a little cut-and-paste booklet that, to his surprise, sold like crazy. It inspired him to develop a full book for a Pacific Crest Bicycle Route, from border to border. He spent a decade riding and researching this spectacular region. Nearly as arduous was finding a publisher. Bil finally found a small outfit in Livermore, California, named Bittersweet Publishing that was willing to take the plunge, printing 5,000 copies of the Pacific Crest Bicycle Trail.

As Bil told the gatherings in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, the book also sold "like hotcakes." The downside was that, while the book was selling, Bittersweet was suspending operations -- so only 5,000 copies were printed. (You can still find used copies -- the last time I looked at Amazon.com, four were available starting at $30.)

The upside is that the book came to my attention not long after becoming executive director at Adventure Cycling five years ago. (The title definitely hooked me -- I am an ardent Sierra-phile, having cycled, backpacked, and courted my wife throughout this incredible region.) Bil likes to tell the story of getting a call out of the blue -- from me -- asking if he'd be interested in having his route turned into an Adventure Cycling route and map set. I think he waited a nanosecond to answer.

Long story short, we hired Bil to do the updated research on the route, used that data to create the first Adventure Cycling route entirely using Geographic Information System (GIS) software, and published the map to major acclaim three weeks ago. Bil's route has opened new vistas to the traveling cyclist -- and will live on forever as part of the Adventure Cycling Route Network, now more than 40,000 miles.

As we wrapped up the Santa Cruz event, and I said farewell to Bil, he briefly had a faraway look in his eye. I didn't ask him what he was thinking, but I am guessing it was this: it was the look of a person who has devoted a large part of his life to an ambitious dream and sharing that dream with thousands of others. It may have dawned on him at that moment that he had truly succeeded and that, thanks to his commitment, people from around the world are going to experience the glories of the Pacific Crest under their own power, on a bicycle. How many other people can say they had a dream like that - and live to see it fulfilled?

Congratulations to Bil and the Adventure Cycling Routes & Mapping staff who brought the Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route to life -- and to all the riders who are going to tackle the Pacific Crest by bike, this summer and beyond.







Caption: Bil Paul (left) and Jim Sayer, executive director of Adventure Cycling Association. 
Photo courtesy of Bil Paul. Sierra Cascades graphic by Ed Jenne/Adventure Cycling Association


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JIM SAYER is the executive director of Adventure Cycling Association.