What is Overland Base Camp?
Base Camp is not a longitude and latitude; it's the grounding for making special rides happen.
Unexpected. Memorable. Fun. Challenging. Exploratory. All-terrain. Varied.
Base Camp is where the great rides begin.
Base Camp is the launchpad, the home-base, the starting point for the most interesting mixed-terrain cycling in New England. Base Camp is where the plans are made, the groups congregate, the ride begins and the rides conclude. It is where we want to return after a long adventure. It's where memorable exploits begin.
Welcome to Overland Base Camp. Welcome to adventure.
Overland Base Camp Mission
Our mission is to find the most interesting cycling trails and roads in Massachusetts -- and neighboring areas -- and share these mixed-terrain routes with like-minded riders. We're interested in learning something new about ourselves. We ride safe and smart because we want to ride again tomorrow!
Base Camp is an ongoing project designed to search out the most interesting and unexpected cycling trails and roads within about 250 miles of Boston, Massachusetts.
We ride in the other direction.
One And Done
Some Overland projects have become annual traditions -- the Honey 100, for example. However, the majority of OBC projects are one-time events that never reoccur. We have no interest in doing what's been done before. Fortunately, the Honey 100 probably won't disappear soon because we keep changing it radically each season.
We're interested in doing new work, sharing new trails, and having new experiences. We like risk, chance, and preparedness. One-time projects help us with all of those needs and desires.
Creative Destruction
Many of the projects we create are intended to be experienced and then torn up, never to be seen again. We are learning fanatics; through experimentation we learn. If we're learning and riding, we're smiling.
Make no mistake, when we experiment, it won't feel that way to participants; we take every Overland project very seriously, including participant experience, safety, and value per dollar. Those that have joined us tend to attest to that statement.
The experimentation takes place behind the scenes. It takes place during the scouting and research phases. It takes place on private -- not public -- projects.
Overland Base Camp Philosophy and the Replevining of Nature
Each year that we ride, we see fewer trails. New housing developments eat more land every week. We are compelled to ride these trails before they're all gone. It's somewhat ironic that the trails people build in order to explore and commune with nature are often the very trails that become the underpinning of the next housing development.
On the positive side, ultimately nature will prevail. After all, we'll be here for a short frantic confusing moment, while nature is patient.
Our interest is to enjoy and share what nature offers, and see it all before the next house gets built.
We take a secret special joy when we find spots that nature has taken back - the broken pavement at the end of an abandoned road, the enormous hawk's nest on the ledge of a building, the tree that eats a sign, turkeys in the road, the plants that devour anything made by humans.
Nature replevins.