*New Additions in Trip Reports*
Updated May 2008
Just what in the heck is a SPOC anyway?
The Self-Propelled Outdoors Club (SPOC) is a Vancouver based agglomeration of enthusiasts dedicated to fully self-propelled, wilderness adventures. They have climbed Rainier, Baker, Meslilloet, Alpha, and even mountain biked the heli-access-only Goat Ridge. We are disenchanted with the incongruencies between the use of fossil fuel combusting transportation and the pristine wilderness we seek. We are inspired to demonstrate actually self-propelled trips; you won't find us with a roof rack for our bikes (get the picture?). Our motto (constantly in debate): "By bike from town for fun" and often "Making it hard the easy way". We are a "less talk, more rock" kind of group. Our objective is to encourage, promote, and sustain fully self-propelled adventure through an economically and socially accesible manner. We have fun, not a lot of money, and a long to-do-list of self-propelled first accents, so if you can, we really need some help!
A Bit More...
Why self-propulsion...well bicycles facilitate many great adventures, transforming trips from the ordinary to the extraordinary. They can even make an adventure into an epic. The late Lars Olaf Goran Kropp biked from Sweden to Katmandu where he then proceeded to climb Mt. Everest before cycling home again. Alpha is definitely no Everest, but that's not the point; one could go on a trip to the corner store. Being self-propelled is about shedding off our learned automobile dependence, regardless of what activity you are engaging in. For hikers, climbers, and mountaineers, this means new challenges, new learning opportunities, and new ways of relating to our environment. Reinhold Messner, could have been describing self-propelled trips when he stated "it was a different mountain altogether- even though it had the same summit." (High Lonesome ed. J Long)