Annual Bike the Barns event brings attention to Adirondack agricultural heritage
By Holly Riddle
On Oct. 7, cyclists from around the country will take to the North Country’s backroads for the annual Bike the Barns event. The agriculture-focused cycling tour starts and ends in Keeseville, bringing attention to the area’s natural bounty and threatened resources as cyclists ride from farm to farm. The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) oversees the event, in partnership with BikeADK.
“The event raises awareness of not only the farms, but of the Adirondack landscape,” said Adam Dewbury, director of ANCA’s local food system program. The nonprofit helps connect farms and food producers with business assistance, ranging from financial to tech assistance. “This year’s ride particularly speaks to the long history of agriculture in the Adirondacks. I think that evades a lot of people. The narrative of the Adirondack Park is as America’s first wilderness. That obscures the fact that … people have been farming here for millennia. Long before Euro-American settlers came to the area, there were Indigenous people living and farming here.”
Each year’s event follows a different route and regularly sells out its 200 spots. This year’s route traverses 22 miles through the Adirondack Park and North Country, starting at Ausable Brewing Co. before heading into Peru, with stops at the Babbie Rural & Farm Learning Museum and Northern Orchard Co., before finally making its way back into Keeseville, to North Country Creamery and Mace Chasm Farm, and returning to Ausable Brewing.
Read the full article in the Adirondack Explorer.