Category: Independent Challenges

Dennis Desmarais is taking on a new challenge for 2024. He’s already raised over $10,000 on multiple rides since 2020, despite challenges made worse by climate change. For 2024, his goal is to raise $20,000 on his fourteenth Climate Ride! He’s also going to ride 1,000 miles over six days from South Carolina back to […]

Sarah Weiffenbach is setting out on an epic 700+ miles bike-packing independent challenge on the Mountain-to-Sea Trail in North Carolina. Starting this month, Sarah will be section-biking through the three regions of North Carolina. She will experience the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, the plateau of gentle hills through Piedmont, and then finish in September […]

Meet Rocco, a 7th grader in West Marin who is combining his love for mountain biking with service work for his Bar Mitzvah project. Rocco is taking on an Independent Challenge with Climate Ride and planning to ride 36 miles, to support the fight against climate change. He’s already raised nearly $8,000 as of the […]

Brian Bramson and his 16-year-old son, John Bramson, are teaming up on a self-supported week-long group ride through North Carolina this March. This father-son team is fundraising for The Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC). TLC strives to create a healthier and more vibrant Triangle region by safeguarding clean water, protecting natural habitats, supporting local farms and […]

Victoria Benson set out recently to hike the Pacific Northwest Trail: a 1,200-mile journey from Glacier National Park, MT to Olympic National Park, WA. She decided to make her trip an Independent Challenge with us after bumping into a long time Climate Rider on the train ride to Glacier! We got that chance to chat […]

For their Independent Challenge through Climate Ride, Ethan Avey and Bobby Nyotta recently visited New Orleans as part of “Down by the River “with Louisiana Bucket Brigade. This is a group bike ride along River Road in St. Charles Parish that brings you face to face with two powerful forces in Louisiana: the environmental justice […]

When it comes to environmental advocacy, Climate Ride veteran, Stacey Rashti, knows a thing or two. With a background in environmental science and earth science and deep involvement in environmental philanthropy, Stacey dedicates her every day to climate action and saving our planet from climate change. If that isn’t enough, she also gathered a group […]

As part of our Independent Challenge program, Dave Morris toured from Missoula, Montana through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, California and Oregon ahead of the UN Climate Summit (COP26) last fall. He collected stories and thoughts on climate change from locals all along the way and learned a lot about climate change conversations. Dave offered to […]

Dave Morris is riding from Missoula, Montana to the United Nations Climate Conference of Parties in Glasgow, Scotland (COP26). He’s collecting stories and thoughts on climate change along the way so that he can share them with leaders at COP26. You can answer a set of questions to share your views on climate here and […]

Finn Kiesow is a Brooklyn high schooler who just completed a self-supported ride from New York to Acadia National Park, raising over $3,800 along the way. Finn said, “climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our times, and right now, it is more important than ever to work toward a sustainable future.” […]

Michael Bell commuted by bike for most of his career. During that time, his longest ride tended to be about 25 miles round trip. Then he took early retirement and became a caregiver for his wife who was progressively succumbing to Alzheimer’s. Riding became his ‘time for himself’. Soon, he was riding 5,000 to 8,000 […]

William Flagg signed up to do an epic cross country ride with Climate Ride in 2020 right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He wisely postponed that trip, but in the meantime he jumped into Climate Rise, raising funds for all three Rise events. In August 2021, he headed out on his long-awaited Independent Challenge which […]