The Self-Propelled Outdoor Club

Photography: Jason Addy, Jesse Jackson, and Karl Manzer

In October 1996, the late Swedish mountaineer Goran Kropp left home and cycled over 8,000 miles, arriving at Everest base camp four months later. Following a short rest he set out to summit Mount Everest, succeeding on his third attempt. Then he got back on his bicycle and returned to Sweden.

Jesse Jackson rappelling from Viennese peakPhotograph by Jason Addy

Closer to home, the Self-Propelled Outdoor Club (SPOC) has been keeping this style of adventure alive – on a slightly different scale and always with a healthy level of self- deprecation. The Vancouver-based members of SPOC have summitted Mount Baker; Meslilloet Mountain; Mount Judge Howay; and Alpha Mountain, to name just a few. And they have done this all completely self-propelled, beginning and ending on bicycles from Vancouver. Intrigued, I set out to meet Jason Addy, a founding member of SPOC, for a coffee and some insight into how it all began.

Addy explained that the idea for these kinds of trips started in 1998, among a few close friends, as a way to experience familiar landscapes in a new way. In 2001, motivated by increasing interest in their mode of adventure, they transformed the loose collaboration into a club, now known as SPOC. He says that most club members are committed urban cyclists looking to extend their self-propelled city lifestyle into other areas of life, such as travel and outdoor adventures. He points to an inherent contradiction in the life of the typical outdoor enthusiast and cycling advocate saying, “We choose cycling and other self-propelled means to go to work, go to the gym, buy groceries, and all these daily activities but then we get in our cars on the weekend to head out of the city.” Therein, he explains, emerged a desire to bridge the practices of everyday life in the city with outdoor pursuits.

Jason Addy heading towards the Squamish Chief.Photograph by Jesse Jackson

Addy works in a Vancouver bike store and says he has witnessed a growing awareness of this contradiction, and a corresponding shift in what motivates people to come into the store. He says historically new customers expressed the desire to “get back on their bikes” or “get in shape.” However, in the last year or so Addy notes that more and more people are coming into the shop because they are concerned: from climate change to dwindling oil supplies, people are embracing the idea of cycling as a way to independently fuel trips within and beyond the city.

A key message on the “global oil predicament” from author and public speaker James Howard Kunstler, is the need to start reconsidering the way we travel, and in general our “relationship” to how we get around. He suggests we are entering into the end of the era of spontaneously driving or flying to whatever weekend destination we fancy, and suggests “other arrangements will need to be made.”

The concept of making the journey to the trailhead or summit part of the overall trip might be catching on. Beyond the obvious environmental benefits and perhaps impending necessity, the independence and challenge of this kind of adventure might be motivation enough to inspire more and more self-propelled “trekkies.”

Addy explains that self-propelled adventures make for a unique experience every time, and while it may not be the quickest way to the top of the mountain, he suggests there is an underlying and powerful philosophy behind these kind of trips that embraces the “quality, not quantity” of adventure.

Currently SPOC has about 25 members and many upcoming trips, in both the dreaming and planning stage. For those in Vancouver wanting an introduction to this kind of weekend adventure, Addy suggests the following self-propelled starter trips:

Day trip to Lighthouse Park by bike – take the climbing gear and a picnic
Go for a weekend camping trip at Seymour, Grouse, or the Lions; take camping gear with a trailer or pannier/backpack combo
Hook your portage trailer to your bike and take your canoe overnight to Deep Cove, Bowen Island, or for a day up False Creek rental.