Ride your bicycle across the country learning about sustainable living, food security, social justice and Permaculture. This is a supported cross-country tour (meals and lodging included) to farms and sustainability sites, integrated with the award-winning Common Circle Education Urban Permaculture Design [2] and Regenerative Leadership Certification and much more.
This program is about sustainable community living -- through the extensive training and preparation, the group will form a self-contained community on wheels that will cycle across the nation learning and promoting sustainable living. We will teach you how to fix your own flats, fundamentals of bicycle mechanics, wilderness first aid, many safe bicycle-touring skills, and provide you with the best possible routes. The Permaculture training at the start of the course will give you a very thorough foundation in sustainable community design. Our experienced program co-facilitators will help facilitate the entire program, holding the community container and sharing their experience and guidance along the way — but otherwise serving primarily as members of the community.
Aside from the amazing places you will visit on this course, the most inspiring and transformational aspect of this program is undoubtedly the incredible community that will form throughout the course. The depth and richness of dialogue of each of our programs naturally leads to friendships and relationships that last well past the expedition itself.
Throughout this three month-long program you will have the opportunity to take part in a wide range of educational hands-on activities. You'll visit family organic farms, learning how your food is grown, what it means for something to be organic, and why it's absolutely critical to support organic farmers. You will also cycle to model eco-villages and intentional communities where you will learn all about the challenges and gifts of choosing to live in community. Along the way, we will make stops at green businesses and cooperatives, demonstrating the power of community economics.
If you would like to receive more info and the itinerary please click here [3].
- Permaculture principles for smart, sustainable design
- Pattern observation and site analysis
- Reading the land and natural cycles
- Soil regeneration and land restoration
- Food forests, trees and garden design
- Rainwater harvesting and conservation
- Graywater considerations and system design
- Renewable energy and appropriate technology
- Passive and active solar design
- Natural building construction
- Waste recycling and treatment
- Aquaculture and animals
- Agroforestry and forest gardening
- Useful plants and herbs
- Cooperative economics and financial permaculture
- Scale -- designing sustainable, thriving cities
- Includes our Urban Permaculture Design and Regenerative Leadership Certification training
- Includes our Oregon Sustainability in Motion Bike Tour
- Includes a Wilderness First Aid certification training!
- We will be following the TransAM route -- roughly 4000 miles.
- Average of 60 miles per day (~4-8 hours per day) with rest/service days roughly once per week
- This is a supported tour -- a vehicle carries all the gear.
- Meals are included -- organic and vegan ingredients and menu will be provided, group members take turns cooking
- Experienced and knowledgeable tour support staff team will cycle with the group.
- Camping accommodations for most of the program
We must receive your application and a non-refundable deposit of $400 two months before departure. Payments by Mastercard, Visa and Discover are welcome.
This trip will be as diverse as possible in terms of race, age and life experiences. In some cases, a limited number of partial scholarships are available for low-income applicants.