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“Welcome to Timberline Adventures”

     One of the more provocative questions that we are called upon to answer is how we as an organization differ from the many others who offer bicycling and hiking vacation programs. Without a doubt, there are a bunch of us out there. Spend a little time on the web or check out the various travel directories in the leading outdoor print publications and you may well feel overwhelmed as you begin to gather ideas for an adventure vacation.                                                                                                                                     

     The question is important and deserves a thoughtful response. On the surface, as you sort through the snappy tone of our ads and endure the hyperbole of our brochures, you need to know more about who we are, what we really do, and where we perceive our niche to be in our industry. That knowledge hopefully will help you to make the right choice. So many of us cycle and hike in Glacier, Yellowstone, the Canadian Rockies and elsewhere. But, although we may share common destinations and even share the same lodging accommodations, our differences are more significant than our similarities.

     And so, as we prepare for our 17th year of doing this sort of thing, we’d like to share with any of you who haven’t as yet lost interest, at least our perception of who we are, what is important to us, what our focus is today and what our direction will be for the future. Seventeen years ago, more for fun than out of any sense of a future vocation, we put together a 5-day bicycle tour of Colorado’s northern Rockies, the centerpiece of which was the challenge of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park—a 22-mile climb of just under 5,000 feet of vertical to the way-beyond-timberline summit at Fall River pass on America’s highest continuos road, whatever that might mean. We weren’t the first to offer a supported bicycle tour. Butterfield & Robinson, VBT, Backroads—they were already out there doing their thing. But we were the first to articulate Adventure and to emphasize the extraordinary, or perhaps better stated, the "other-than-ordinary" cutting-edge type of adventure cycling experience.

    

     From that day forward through 17 years of growth, both real and metaphysical, we believe that we have remained focused and committed to a program that is distinguished always by its "other-than-ordinary" composition and content. Illustrations? So many if us do the Canadian Rockies; only Timberline joins the Golden Triangle with the entire length of the Icefields Parkway, and additionally offers an extended 10-day off-the-beaten- path adventure west of the Icefields that you would never find in any other program. Many of us tour Glacier, but only Timberline offers the extended opportunity to go beyond the parameters of the national park boundaries as we do in our Glacier Park Rambler and Glacier/Waterton Lakes Adventure. In Yellowstone our Beartooth/Big Horns program; in Colorado, our classic Colorado and San Juans Adventure; in Oregon, our Rogue River and Oregon Coast-to-Cascades Ramblers; in the southwest, our Canyon Country Classic, New Mexico Rambler and our Grand Canyon hikes; in California, our High Sierra Adventure—these are a few of the illustrations of our "other-than-ordinary" concept of adventure.

     In the season ahead, our course as we position ourselves for a new millennium remains clearly defined. Our new Odyssey Series and Kettle Valley mountain biker provide what we hope will be an eloquent statement of where we are headed as cyclists. Our five new hiking adventures in Yosemite, Big Bend, Capitol Reef, Volcanoes and Yoho National Parks define our direction as hikers.

     The content of our programs provides only a portion of our profile as an organization. From day one to the present, we always have been and always will be Carol and Dick, "ma and pa," and at times our kids, both real and presumptive (our family of tour leaders) until they outgrow us. It’s us you’re talking to on the phone during the off-season; and it’s us out there on the road and trail cycling and hiking with you—whining with you in the headwinds, the rain, and, yes, in the snow, and sharing the joy, exhilaration and utter sense of accomplishment that is a part of every aspect of our program. In other words, don’t ever look to us to crow about how many computers we have accumulated in our office, or how many reservationists and specialists we have added to our staff—it’s just not going to happen here and it never will be the means by which we measure our success. For us, we’ll only measure our success by the quality of your experience that you’ve shared with us.

     For better or worse, that's who we are. We're cyclists and hikers to the core. We're also westerners, first and last; the West today, as in the past and as it will be in the future, is our focus - our only focus. And we truly believe that you've never really experienced the West until you've experienced the joy and pride of doing so as the product of your own power and spirit. The cyclist and hiker alike, not only sees the breathtaking beauty of a region; each also feels the land, senses the crispness of the air, the sound of rushing waters, the scent of alpine flora.

     The West is our home and we feel that this land is special-its undulating terrain, its majestic grandeur, the challenge of its mountains and the incomparable peace and solitude of its isolated valleys. Accept our invitation to share with us the beauty of this land and the incomparable experiences and excitement in the season ahead.

 Carol & Dick Gottsegen

 Directors