Cabot Roamers On Tour will take bikes across Vermont

Chris Hrenko Correspondent

04.13.08

Representatives from a newly formed cycling group in central Vermont will be speaking to students at the Cabot School next Friday, drumming up interest in Cabot Roamers On Tour, a grassroots organization devoted to promoting cycling and bike touring among kids.

Though dates are still being firmed up, the group’s activities will begin with mandatory safety training, and riding will kick off with a Marshfield railroad bed to Boulder Beach ride/swim/picnic. Local rides and a trip to the Stowe bike path will follow. These activities build towards the late-summer goal of a two-night tour in August: a Montreal/Quebec Route Verte ride and a Vermont East/West traverse are being considered. Though touring is the primary focus, Mark Bromley anticipates an interest in mountain biking and plans to meet a demand for offroad events as well.

“Philosophically, we don’t want it to be the kind of thing where kids necessarily have to travel somewhere to bike,” said the group’s founder, Bromley. “I don’t think most kids ever really consider that they can go long distances on a bike. They might not have the self-confidence that they can do longer tours, or bike up Vermont hills for that matter. I was talking with a friend the other day, and when we were kids, we would think nothing of getting on a bike and just cruising over to the next town. You don’t see a lot of that going on in Vermont right now.”

Cabot Roamers On Tour targets kids ages 9 to 17. Safety workshops will be conducted by Ed Lewis, an instructor for the Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition’s and a teacher at Cabot School.

Last year Lewis received a grant independently to purchase tools and other support materials that will be used by the group. In addition to other private funding, the group has also applied for a grant to purchase used bikes at local swaps for kids who don’t have their own. The plan is to expand this into an “earn a bike” program, which would allow kids who take the initiative to ride and maintain a bike eventually make it their own. Inexpensive helmets will be available through the state’s SAFE KIDS program.

“We want to make it available to kids whether or not they have the resources, or the support at home,” said Bromley, citing the first of the organization’s main goals. According to its mission statement, the group also aims to “extend learning beyond the classroom, to foster a sense of empowerment in the physical and mental challenges met on the road and trail, and to promote fun, friendship, fitness, and self-discovery.”

Cabot Roamers On Tour was formed through a partnership between Cabot Connects (a local mentoring organization) and Cabot Roamers with the support of the Cabot Recreation Committee. After Bromley started Cabot Roamers, an informal adult riding group, he was approached by Kathleen Hoyne of Cabot Connects about mentoring. Bromley had told Hoyne about his interest in getting kids involved with cycling, and Hoyne pushed him to make that idea a reality. Now that he has, a member of the Cabot Recreation Committee has been attending meetings of Cabot Roamers On Tour, and while the details of a formal partnership are still in the air, the committee is interested and willing to assist.

But for Bromley, it really all started in the summer of 2006, when he and his daughter Anna Bromley toured on recumbents from Maine to Oregon. Anna went into the trip with virtually no preparation, and Mark with little. The opening weeks through the hills of upper New England were tough, but once they got into the groove, Bromley was amazed at the positive effects of the trip for him and his daughter. The goal of Cabot Roamers On Tour is to try to instill that sense of freedom and confidence into kids from a young age.

“It was what I’d hoped for, but I think it taught both of us the power of bicycling and especially the power of bicycling long distance. It was a life-changing event for both of us,” Mark Bromley said.

Now that she’s in college, Anna still rides frequently. “It’s giving her a lot of confidence and it’s giving her an escape from all kinds of stresses of college.”