Sarah Swallow is a professional adventure cyclist who develops bike packing routes around the country. When she creates a route, she takes the history, geography, and the biodiversity of an area into account. Her routes are often hundreds of miles long and lead riders past historical sites, landmarks, and diverse landscapes. In 2019, Sarah took her route crafting to the next level when she created a cycling and conservation event called Ruta del Jefe.
Sarah Swallow is a professional adventure cyclist who develops bike packing routes around the country. When she creates a route, she takes the history, geography, and the biodiversity of an area into account. Her routes are often hundreds of miles long and lead riders past historical sites, landmarks, and diverse landscapes. In 2019, Sarah took her route crafting to the next level when she created a cycling and conservation event called Ruta del Jefe.
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Shelby Stanger:
Sarah Swallow is a professional adventure cyclist, but she doesn't compete in races and you won't see her name on the fastest known time list. Instead, Sarah is a full-time sponsored athlete who creates bikepacking routes around the country.
Sarah Swallow:
It's important for there to be people to develop these routes that makes riding bikes or going on hikes more accessible to people that just don't have the time to do the research or to develop their own route.
Shelby Stanger:
When Sarah goes out to create a route, she takes the history, geography, and the biodiversity of an area into account. She also avoids car traffic as much as possible by sending riders on dirt and gravel roads. Her routes are often hundreds of miles long, and lead riders pass historical sites landmarks and diverse landscapes.
In 2019, Sarah took her route crafting to the next level when she created a cycling and conservation event called Ruta del Jefe. Through all of her work, Sarah has been able to fuse together her most important values, to be good to the earth, its people, and of course, to have fun along the way.
I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production brought to you by Capital One.
Sarah Swallow, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Sarah Swallow:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Shelby Stanger:
Our producer, Jenny, found you and I was like, who is this girl? How did I not know about her? And you've been doing this kind of stuff since 2015, but how did you discover cycling? When was the first time you fell in love with it?
Sarah Swallow:
Yeah, so I had kind of a strange entry into cycling. I actually started working with bicycles before I started riding bicycles myself. My family moved to Ohio when I was 11 or 12, and around that time, I'm one of six kids, so my parents were like, if you want to buy anything that you want, you have to get a job and pay for it yourself. So I got a job with a family friend at the Loveland Bike and Skate Rental, and it was on the little Miami Bike Trail, which is like a paved bike path that goes from Cincinnati to Cleveland, Ohio.
So I started renting bikes at this bike rental when I was 12, and I actually ended up working there for eight years and started to manage the rental. And I got a job at the local bike shop after the rental job was done. And once I graduated from high school, my dad had started riding and he put me on my mom's bike one day and we went out for a 20 or 30 mile road ride and I was like, dang, I really like this. I like this form of fitness. It's low impact. You get to see places. And I kind of dove in headfirst after that, because for me, I always kind of resented moving from California to Ohio. There's not very many public lands, or parks, or wild spaces in Ohio that I had experienced in California. And so, the bicycle allowed me to see more of these wild spaces in Ohio, and it really helped me kind of appreciate Ohio and learn to love it. So that's kind of how I got into it.
Shelby Stanger:
Wait, so what number are you in terms of kid in your family? Are you middle?
Sarah Swallow:
I'm third. Yeah, I'm middle. Yeah, I'm classic middle child, even though there's three middle children in this family, but I'm your classic middle child. Confused and problematic in high school and middle school, but the bike really straightened me out for sure.
Shelby Stanger:
So how did you go from, I love cycling, this is my thing to then making it as a career?
Sarah Swallow:
Yeah, so I worked in bike shops. I was riding and the bike shop that I was working at, I worked there for another seven years, and they were closing and I was managing that shop at the time and my partner at the time and I were just like, we're going to open our own shop in this same spot. So that shop closed and we opened in a quarter of the space, so it was a smaller shop, but we were in a location that had existed, a bike shop had existed for 20 years, so we had an instant following.
But I don't own a bike shop anymore. So how did I make that transition? What happened was I was using early days Instagram to promote the custom bikes that we were building, the products that we were selling, and also hosting gravel rides kind of early days with gravel riding. And I was taking people out to Shawnee State Forest and we were doing group gravel rides with groups of people that had never ridden gravel. They're just like cycle cross, mountain bike, or road. Those are your only options at the time.
So I was just promoting through Instagram and somehow Specialized Bicycles got wind of me and they were building their adventure dispatch team at the time, which was a group of five or six of us, and I was one of them. And so, when they offered me that sponsorship, it was a significant sponsorship, and so I was like, I'm going to take this opportunity and do an adventure of a lifetime. And so, we closed the bike shop for three months with the full expectation that we would come back and open it, but we used that time and we rode our bikes from east to west the United States on dirt roads following a dual sport motorcycle route. And at the time, we were the first cyclists to do that. So that changed my life.
Shelby Stanger:
Before that cross country ride in 2015, Sarah had only bikepacked a handful of times and she'd never been on the road for more than seven days in a row. But on this trip, she rode 5,000 miles in less than three months. Along the way, she was exposed to so many different kinds of people living different lifestyles than her own. By the time she reached the West Coast, she just wanted to keep riding. Sarah realized she had spent so much time helping other people with their bike adventures, but she hadn't been feeding the adventure in herself. She decided to close her business and pursue the wild idea of cycling full time.
So in this world of gravel riding and just kind of being, I guess, because you don't compete, do you?
Sarah Swallow:
No, I don't. Nope. I'm a non-competitive.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, in surfing we'd call you a free rider. I don't know what they call that in cycling, but you seem like you're one of the first females to do this.
Sarah Swallow:
In cycling we don't really have a term for this kind of thing, I guess. I just kind of started calling myself an adventure cyclist because it seemed like it represented what I do, but I really feel like I ride for the love of it. I ride to see the world and experience life around me and get in touch with myself. And I like to explore routes, see new places, and kind of create my own path.
Shelby Stanger:
That's really cool. And something that we haven't really talked about on this podcast, so just going back to the shop. In 2011, you opened that bike shop in Ohio, and then did you eventually just kind of close it while you became this adventure cyclist?
Sarah Swallow:
Right, yeah. We came back to Ohio and ended up selling all the rest of the inventory and closing that shop and committing full-time to this dream. And yeah, there was a few times I almost got sucked back in to working at other shops because that's what I knew, but I kept coming back to the dream and being like, no, I'm going to make this happen. I started working towards diversifying my income through writing stories for magazines or just developing relationships with other brands. I just used the template that I had learned from with working with specialized and started applying that with other brands.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay, I want to touch briefly on this, because I think it's interesting, because I think a big obstacle that keeps a lot of people who listen to this podcast from pursuing their wild ideas, is like finances and how to make it work. And I cobbled together my career doing just that, writing for magazines, pitching people, doing PR, like a little this, that and that. But I went to school for journalism, but I looked at your content. It's really fun, it's irreverent, it's professional, but it's cool and unique and it's artsy, and it seems like you can do video, you can shoot. Are you self taught? Did you learn this in school? Talk to me about this.
Sarah Swallow:
Yeah, so I have a degree in history, so I learned how to write from that.
Shelby Stanger:
Amazing.
Sarah Swallow:
Yeah, and I loved it. I'm so grateful for that degree, because at the time I was like, I'm out of here. But it really was something that fundamentally impacted, I think, my ability to write and articulate, and also even articulating in emails as pitches and stuff like that. But in terms of photo and video, I'm all self-taught. And as a kid I hated getting my picture taken and I still kind of struggle with it a little bit. So it's like I don't necessarily like to be in the limelight. I like to document and do the videos, but over the years now, my brands want content of me, so I've got to put myself out there.
So it's all self-taught. I'm just learning. And I've had times in my life where I do struggle with social media, so when that happens, I have to just take a step back and just focus on, I'm just doing this for fun, whatever it is, just get it out. And I just don't force it because once you start forcing it, it's like it's never going to happen or it's just people can see through that kind of thing. So I just try to keep it fun and light for me in order to make it sustainable for me to keep doing.
Shelby Stanger:
Sarah's writing is authentic and relatable. It describes what it's like to be out there on the road in all of its glory and upsets. For example, one of her posts on Instagram is an itemized list of events from a recent ride she did in Baja, California. In it, she casually mentions some sketchy boat rides, tons of wildlife sightings, a fisherman she met on the way, and the fact that she ran out of water. It's comedic and lighthearted, while sharing the realities of adventure. Stuff goes wrong, but that's part of what makes it memorable.
When we come back, Sarah talks about how she started creating bikepacking routes, what the process is like, and her cycling event, Ruta del Jefe.
After closing her bike shop in 2015, adventure cyclist Sarah Swallow decided to hit the road and ride as much as she could. She made a living writing stories for cycling publications, as well as with sponsored social media posts. As she was building a career as a freelancer, Sarah started creating bikepacking routes for others to follow.
You develop routes, which is a fascinating wild idea, and I'm just curious how you got into creating this and what it entails.
Sarah Swallow:
Yeah, so I got into route making. I think the thing that started it all was just being led by other people on just ridiculous rides. And I'll be like, what are we doing out here? And I might be throwing my dad under the bus a little bit, but he was the first one for sure. And I'd just be like, why are we doing this? Why are we riding on this busy road? Or why are we riding this hill this way? And so, one year for Christmas, he gave me a atlas of Ohio and I was like, oh my gosh, there are so many roads. And this map shows like, okay, this road is this big, and this road is this big. And so, I just started tracing on a map and highlighting on a map and making my own cue sheets and going out and riding them.
And there's just something about going from the map to the real thing and being just surprised by every turn around the corner. So I just fell in love with making my own routes. And I also feel like it's kind of a art form. That might not be the proper word for it, but it is.
Shelby Stanger:
That's okay. It is.
Sarah Swallow:
It's cultivating an experience and the flow of a ride, and making it a certain level of difficulty, but allowing it to relent or to have an easy section after the difficulty section, and making sure that it's just not a total suffer fest and has the right kind of flow. I really enjoy making routes like that, because I think that more people would get into cycling if they were riding good routes and riding them the proper way. And so, that really helped me get out and ride more, is to just make my own routes. It does take a little bit more time, and I don't always just ride my routes. When I travel internationally, I like to ride other people's routes because there's a whole other level of language and culture that you have to navigate.
Shelby Stanger:
So what's your process like for making a brand new route?
Sarah Swallow:
Early days, it was just a total crap shoot. I would go out and ride this big long road and hit a dead end and you have to ride out or you come to a gate and it's private and ride backwards. So it takes a lot of time to really figure out what works and what doesn't.
My process is these days, I start with a satellite map so that I can see the ground, so I can kind of tell which roads are dirt and which roads are paved, and then I can kind of tell if they are connecting or not. And as I am drawing the lines of the route, I'm keeping an eye out for rivers, creeks, any stores or resupply points, towns, and I'll kind of mark all those places, as well as points of interest so that when I go out and do the route, I know the distance between water, resupply, or the distance between when I'm going to be able to get food resupplied, or where maybe the good spots look like for camping in terms of this segment is going to be private land, and then after this segment, it's going to be all public land. This is where the stores are, the town, or this is if I need to get a bus for some reason, like this town has a bus and an ATM, or a hotel in case of something happening.
So I try to build all that into my routes as well. And when I publish the routes, we include all that information. But once I have all that information, I kind of create a little cheat sheet for myself. So I download the route on my phone, I upload the route onto a GPS device. For developing routes, I usually ride a mountain bike with substantial tires, either 2.5 inch or 3 inch tires so that if I'm hitting sand, I'd be okay. If I'm hitting dirt roads, it's fine.
Shelby Stanger:
Sarah will often ride a route seven or eight times before publishing it on platforms like bikepacking.com, Ride with GPS, and Lonely Planet. She's published around 50 routes, and many of those are in the Southwest. Most recently, Sarah has worked on creating a series of routes in Mexico where she hosts a cycling and advocacy event called Ruta del Jefe. The event involves group bike rides and really cool workshops, like a bird walk, a mud sculpting class, and a legal immigration simulation.
You also have this event called Ruta del Jefe, and I speak a little Spanish, Jefe means boss, so route of the boss, who is the boss? What is this event?
Sarah Swallow:
El Jefe is the name of a jaguar that used to have an established habitat in the Santa Rita Mountains, and he was in the Santa Rita Mountains from 2011 to 2015. It was the first jaguar that had migrated into Arizona in over 20 or 30 years. Jaguars used to exist all the way up to the Grand Canyon, but they were threatened, because of habitat loss and urbanization, and also ranchers killing them for killing their cattle.
And so jaguars hadn't been seen in southern Arizona for quite a long time, but El Jefe showed up. He established habitat in the Santa Rita Mountains, and then he left, or no one knew where he went. After 2015, he was never spotted again. So I named my event after El Jefe, the Jaguar, and called it the Route of the Boss, because it is such a hard ride. It's 135 miles on dirt roads and rugged terrain, and it circumnavigates his former habitat.
What's really cool about the way this has all transpired is that just recently in 2022, I made the decision to move the event to Sonora Mexico to this other conservation area called Cuenca Los Ojos. And that same year, El Jefe was spotted in Sonora, Mexico alive and well, and he's now known to be the oldest living jaguar that they are aware of. So just like El Jefe kind of transcends and migrates through borders, Ruta del Jefe is doing that as well. So I feel very connected to the jaguar story, I think it's just very interesting
Shelby Stanger:
And jaguars, just as an animal, as just a symbol, they're really cool. I just watched a video on Instagram of a jaguar killing an alligator and leaping, I was just like, what? A caiman, but insane, which is the brother of an alligator or a crocodile.
Okay, so I'm guessing you created this new route when you moved it down to Mexico?
Sarah Swallow:
Yeah, so my big focus over the last year and a half has been the routes at Cuenca Los Ojos in Sonora Mexico. I had to develop those routes from scratch, and that place had not ever seen bicycles. Bicycles had never ridden there. It's always been closed to the public. And so, to develop those routes, the first time I went down there, it was after a huge monsoon season in 2022, and all the routes were covered in neck-length, grass, and cat claw. So I was pretty much hiking with my bike for most of these routes in early developmental stages. And once I establish like, oh, okay, these roads actually flow pretty nicely despite all this overgrown grass and cat claw. I told Cuenca Los Ojos, I advised them on which roads to invest in clearing, just mowing and making sure they're cleared.
Shelby Stanger:
So if I'm on the Ruta del Jefe ride, what are a few things I might see and what do I do if I see El Jefe?
Sarah Swallow:
You should just enjoy it, because that's amazing, and I'd be so jealous if you did see a jaguar at Ruta del Jefe. Super jealous. But yeah, you just stop, and witness, and just be in awe. They are not going after you. They're not interested in eating you or anything like that. You just cross paths. You just give them the space and let them be.
It is possible you could see a beaver at Ruta del Jefe. There are lots of beaver dams along this canyon that all the routes start on, so you actually are going to be riding through. The beaver dams have been built up so much that there's a lot of built up water in some spaces. So riders are going to be riding through 20 creek crossings right in the beginning of the route.
Ruta del Jefe is an experiment. So Cuenca Los Ojos right now are exploring whether or not they want to invest more in ecotourism through the form of adventure cycling and bikepacking. And so, Ruta del Jefe is the first test. So assuming all goes well, we'll continue to host Ruta del Jefe there, but also explore developing bikepacking routes in this region.
Shelby Stanger:
If you are interested in learning more about Sarah's Adventures, check her out on Instagram @sarahjswallow. That's S-A-R-A-H-J-S-W-A-L-L-O-W. If you want to learn more about Ruta del Jefe, check out their website at rutadeljefe.com. That's R-U-T-A-D-E-L-J-E-F-E dot com.
If you liked this episode, check out our episode with the bicycle nomad Erick Cedeño. We'll link to it in the show notes.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producers are Jenny Barber and Hannah Boyd. Our executive producers are Paolo Motila and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow the show, take time to rate it, and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.