THE DIRECTOR from Guidebooks to Guiding Hand, Gary Macfadden Led Bikecentennial on New Adventures

THE DIRECTOR From guidebooks to guiding hand, Gary MacFadden led Bikecentennial on new adventures BY MICHAEL MCCOY ’ve known Gary MacFadden for more than 40 years, having worked closely with him for much of that time. Yet when I sat down to interview him for the book America’s Bicycle Route, Gary — always full of surprises — told me some IBikecentennial-related stories I’d never heard until then. It was late fall of 1974. Gary, a recent University of Montana School of Journalism grad, saw a job notice posted for a guidebook-writing position in Missoula. He applied and received a call from Bikecentennial’s executive director, Dan Burden, in December. “I remember it clearly,” Gary said, “because that same day the sewer backed up in my apartment.” Was that reverse flushing prophetic of what lay ahead in Gary’s near future? “The notion was that all these people Dan and Lys Burden knew were going to send info to Missoula to be compiled,” Gary said. “The role I signed on for was that of editor of materials, not researcher.” That quickly changed though, which was a common theme at Bikecentennial — Dan would hire someone for one thing and then assign them to do something entirely different. Gary had no real cycling experience other than what he’d done to earn his cycling merit badge in the Boy Scouts. But as winter eased into spring, it was decided that, because he had been tapped to write the guidebook series for a major cross-country cycling route, Gary should get some road miles under his belt. A short bike adventure in June 1975 set him off on a multimodal road trip that would last the next five months. “We were still in the shakedown mode of the research,” Gary recalled. “John Briggs, Don Lovett, and I drove the Coachmen Industries motorhome to Astoria, Oregon, and parked it near the docks. There we started cycling.” John Briggs was Bikecentennial’s original media director (see “When Donna Met John,” July 2016), and Don Lovett was an artist hired to prepare the pen-and-ink plant drawings for the guidebooks. John and Don were riding the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail not only for guidebook purposes but 32 ADVENTURE CYCLIST OCTOBER /NOVEMBER 2016 also to take photos for a slide show up brochures and other printed Pittsburg who owned a bike shop,” Gary and printed marketing materials. Gary materials and taking photos of historic said. “This puppy wandering around joined them on just the first few days markers and other road signs,” Gary their house suffered from an eye of their ride and in the process broke said. He would then call on those ailment that’s fairly common in collies, in more than just his research skills. materials once back in Missoula, where where the retina doesn’t attach.” THE “I didn’t own a decent bike at the he found another invaluable tool at the When the owners contacted the dog time, so Dan lent me his expensive city library — the series of state guides breeder about the dog’s condition, they Raleigh,” Gary said. “It was the right created by the WPA Federal Writers’ were told to come out and get another size for me, but it had a brand- Project during the Great Depression. puppy, and that the first one would DIRECTOR spanking new Brooks Pro leather What did happen often at the be destroyed. “They were broken up saddle. He wanted me to break it in for campgrounds was this: “Here’s this about that,” Gary said, “so we came up him, but the saddle did the breaking. I young, long-haired guy in a pretty with the story that the dog had escaped learned what perch points are the hard fancy motorhome. It usually didn’t take from the house and gotten run over.” way. five minutes for some old fellow to In fact Charlie set off on a cross- “‘People do this for fun?’ I wondered. wander over and start kicking the tires country trip with Gary, who said the “They must be crazy.” and asking something like, ‘How’d you puppy was bouncing off the walls of However, about the time the trio hit get that?’” the motor home for two or three days McKenzie Pass, Gary finally started Gary said he came up with some until they saw a vet and acquired some getting it. “This really is fun,” he said. good tall tales about how he got the medication that calmed him down. “I just need to get in the right gear. motor home, but, in fact, Dan Burden (This soft-hearted animal lover kept From there to Prineville — or was it had talked Coachmen Industries into raccoons and skunks as pets when he John Day? — it really clicked.” lending it to the Bikecentennial effort. was a kid.) From central Oregon, Gary caught In Pittsburg, Kansas, Gary picked up Gary recalled having just two bad the bus back to Astoria to reclaim a companion that would stay with him experiences with the motor home, one the motorhome while the other two for many years to come — “Charlie,” while going downhill and the other up. pedaled on. the blind collie. “Descending Vesuvius Hill in “I then slowly started working “Dan and Lys had talked to people Virginia, the brakes were failing, my way along the route,” Gary said, along the route to help with trail smoking,” he said. “It was this big truck “gathering information and images development, like these folks in careening down the mountainside, like for the guidebook text and the in a movie. I was ready to open the illustrated maps that Bruce door and jump out. But I got to the Burgess was preparing. I caught up During Gary’s 18 years as executive director, bottom okay and counted myself with John and Don near Lolo Pass, he and his staff accomplished a great deal, lucky for it.” and they accepted a ride on into including: Later, in Colorado, while Missoula. ascending the TransAm Trail’s • Taking BikeReport from tabloid to maga- “For some reason, the powers zine format to Adventure Cyclist magazine apex of Hoosier Pass, something that be decided that the best plan • Shepherding the organization into the was apparently going wrong from there would be for me to computer age with the carburetor. “The rig drive from Missoula directly to • Raising funds and purchasing the current was just choking along,” Gary the eastern terminus of the route headquarters building said. “The engine was accessible in Yorktown, Virginia,” he said. • Changing the organization’s name from from between the driver’s seat He headed out with Don and Bikecentennial to Adventure Cycling and passenger seat. So I took the John aboard, dropping them off Association cover off and, thinking it might in Illinois so they could cycle and • Entering the world of mountain biking help, held my finger on the carb’s photograph the eastern portions of • Forging partnerships with several national butterfly choke valve. It worked! It forests the trail. just needed more air at that high • Growing the membership from around 15,000 to 35,000 elevation.” Wishing to be a “real • Establishing many new routes, including journalist,” Gary had visions the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route Upon his return to Missoula in of taking notes on note cards • Launching the organization’s first “event the fall of 1975, Gary said he felt and tape recording thoughts and tour,” Cycle Montana, and its first “light bizarre, disoriented. “The research interviews as he proceeded, which tour,” the Northwest Islander trip was the first time being on he would then transcribe every my own,” he said. “Day after day, night at a campground with power “I see my greatest success as setting things up traveling by myself for weeks on service on the electric typewriter so we could quickly take advantage of oppor- end. I might be in two or three he’d packed. tunities that came along,” Gary said. “And the libraries in one day.” Moreover, thing I feel I did right was trying to get people It didn’t happen. the Bikecentennial office above who would stay. For all the assets the organi- GREG SIPLE “It was much better just picking zation has, the most important ones walk out Eddy’s Club was now a maelstrom the door each day at 5:00 PM.” ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 33 of activity full of busy bees Gary had about detail. This was good; because in paper tape. They would run the never met. Bruce was involved, it gave a real paper strips through their machine at “But I had file folders from traveling structure to the guidebook process.” Artcraft. We spent immense amounts across the country, materials thrown And it wasn’t all Gary’s show at the of time creating these, and then Frank into boxes: museum brochures, office. Other people were keyboarding. Winkler would read through them. chamber of commerce fliers, a mass Don Lovett was working on the plant There were maybe 23 rolls of punched of everything. So I carved a niche up drawings. paper tape for one chapter. Strips were front away from the hustle and bustle “Later, after the ’76 ride, Dan asked thumbtacked to the walls. You could and started organizing stuff. Into the for summaries from staffers,” Gary said. write on the tape. ‘Where’s Chapter 6?’ spring, people would say they didn’t “In mine I said the guidebooks were someone would ask. ‘Oh, over there on see me much. I just stayed in the office not a successful project because we the east wall.’” and cranked out copy.” didn’t get them all done on time.

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