Deadline Extended: Hurricane Helene—Let’s Help Together!
Editor’s note: Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage to Asheville and surrounding communities in western North Carolina in late September. More recent events have displaced the aftermath of this devastating storm in the news, but the rebuilding is only beginning. Buildings and roads are destroyed, more than 5,000 North Carolinians are still without power, and residents of Asheville still have to boil their drinking water. Wanting to help, we reached out to Hailey Moore, who knows this region by heart.
Hailey and her partner Anton Krupicka had already been working on an event in the area most affected by Hurricane Helene. They are now putting those efforts behind the Old Fort Endurance Strong Festival, a fundraising effort hosted by local organizations to rebuild the community. For the next 96 hours, we will donate 100% of the proceeds of Bicycle Quarterly subscriptions and sales of past editions to this fundraising effort. Read Hailey’s story below, or skip to the bottom of this post for information on how to donate.
In late September, Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina with what has been called a 1,000-year weather event. Record-breaking rainfall at the highest elevations sent tons of water cascading down the steep mountainsides, overrunning already flooded rivers. The water pulled land and trees and roads and debris down with it, destroying houses, businesses—entire towns. The damage has been unimaginable.
Although I was born in North Carolina, learned to ride a bike in North Carolina, and spent my university years in the western part of the state, I didn’t really start caring about cycling until I moved to Colorado. It’s just been in the last three years that I’ve rediscovered western North Carolina by bike. This region, home of the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachian Range, was the first place where I developed a relationship with the land—inarticulate as it may have been at that time—by taking up rock climbing in college. It is the first landscape I have known that sends an ache through my chest when I return after a long absence. Since moving out West, and with my family now gone from my childhood hometown, in many ways, returning to the Blue Ridge Mountains feels like my own version of a homecoming.
I’d been hoping to share this broader home with the cycling community in a non-competitive bikepacking rally that my partner, Anton, and I had been working to organize in the area. We had plans to announce the registration on November 1 of this year.
Since seeing the impact of Helene, I’ve been struck by the illusion of permanence. How we’re lucky when things—our childhood home, a cherished restaurant, a favorite trail—remain unchanged. And though change may be the natural order of the world, climate change is certainly accelerating the process unnaturally. I’m not sure when, or if, the original route we had envisioned for our event will be rideable again in the future, but I do know that this is the fourth event in two year’s time that I’ve personally witnessed to be severely impacted by an extreme weather phenomenon. It doesn’t seem like 100-year, or 1,000-year, events should be taking place this often.
Canceling a bikepacking rally is an inconsequential compromise when there are so many more pressing concerns—like running water and roofs on homes before winter—in western North Carolina. But, my spirits are bolstered that the cycling community is still coming together to support this region so worthy of our attention. On December 7th, I will be riding in the 12-hour MTB category at the impromptu Old Fort Endurance Strong Festival, a fundraising effort hosted by local WNC organizations to rebuild the community.
In support of my fundraising efforts leading up to the event, Bicycle Quarterly will be donating all proceeds from new subscriptions and sales of past editions to the event for the next 48 hours. If you aren’t on the BQ mailing list, or want to get a jump on holiday shopping for bike-minded friends, it’s a great publication for learning about new riding destinations, getting into the weeds about tire talk, and generally celebrating the places bikes can take us. And, in this instance, it’s a way to make a measurable contribution toward helping people who really need help and encouragement. I’d be grateful if you considered subscribing and paying it forward to a region that I hold dear.
Here is how it works: Subscribe of buy past editions in the next 96 hours, and Bicycle Quarterly will automatically donate the entire subscription price ($44) and proceeds from past editions to the Old Fort Endurance Strong Festival.
How it works:
- Subscriptions must be received by midnight on October 26, 2024.
- Click here to subscribe or buy past editions.
- New subscriptions only. If you’re an existing subscriber, please consider giving a gift subscription or buying past editions.
- Foreign subscriptions are welcome. The donation is the same $ 44. (Extra costs for international postage will not be donated.)
- Subscriptions begin with the current edition, which includes Hailey’s article about scouting a new bikepacking route in Colorado (left).
- The upcoming Winter 2024 edition is going to print soon. Subscribers will get theirs before the holidays (plus 2 more editions for a total of 4).
