We had a cycling family growing up. Two adults, two kids, and a sense of adventure. My first long distance ride was in college, leading a tour from NY to Quebec. The next was with my girlfriend, now wife, cycling from Oregon to San Francisco.
As the kids grew, we went farther. From around the block to around the world. From days to weeks. From flat roads to climbs.
We were planning a multi-week trip and I couldn't find an app that had the routing and tracking features we needed, so I built an app for that. It got us from Prague to Budapest together, and FrontPack was born. Like many cycling apps at the time, it was a free web site to upload and download GPX files, and a free mobile app for offline navigation.
Having succesfully used FrontPack to navigate foreign lands, and with a small but growing online following, I approached Adventure Cycling Association about using it to distribute their iconic maps. It helped cyclists navigate the routes, helped the organization transition to the digital mapping, and help me fund my bike travel.
We evolved FrontPack into Bicycle Route Navigator and launched it in 2019. We updated the app early and often, and as cell phones and networks got better, people rode farther. By 2024, FrontPack was used to plan and navigate over 25,000,000 miles .
As Adventure Cycling was developing their 5-year plan, they knew they needed broader digital distribution to reach a larger, more diverse audience. They partnered with RideWithGPS and we worked together to transition the routes from Bicycle Route Navigator to the new platform. It was the right decision for the organization, a great ride for all.
So, what's next? I'm not sure, but I do know that it's a big world and the best way to experience it is traveling by bike. I recently joined the Board of Directors of Adventure Cycling to help people ride that way for another 50 years.
