Projects
As a representative for the sport, event organizer, route developer, storyteller, advocate, and consultant, I share the knowledge I gain from my experiences with others through various projects. I use abstract, critical, and creative thinking, writing, and communication, to conceptualize and execute new projects that align with my passion to promote cycling as a tool for well-being, community-connection and relating to the natural landscapes we travel through. The breadth of my experience, contributions, and influence makes me an adaptable visionary leader within the ever-changing cycling industry. If you are interested in working with me, e-mail me at sarahjean.swallow@gmail.com
Artwork by Mary Lytle
Sky Islands Adventure Ride Series (2021 - ongoing)
A series of community group adventure rides for all skill levels and distances. Highlighting routes and communities in Southern Arizona and Sonora Mexico. Many of the roads we ride are segments from the Sky Islands Odyssey Bikepacking loops and Ruta del Jefe. The rides are limited to 35 people and include a mix of Tucson locals, snowbirds, and folks just visiting from out of town.
Outdoor Ambassador Collective (2023 - ongoing)
A professional community space dedicated to bringing outdoor creatives, brand ambassadors, and sponsored athletes together to foster a stronger, more connected community. We believe that the collective power of all members in the field will contribute positively to the growth and development of our work and, ultimately, the outdoor industry. At the OAC, we strive to provide resources and support to help strengthen, improve, and protect our work as ambassadors for outdoor brands. We also provide a platform for members to network and collaborate with each other.
Artwork by Mary Lytle
Ruta del Jefe (2019 - ongoing)
In 2019 Sarah created Ruta Del Jefe; a self supported adventure ride following dirt roads around the Santa Rita Mountains, the lair of one of the only North American Jaguars to live in the U.S., El Jefe. Rural Del Jefe takes place in the Sky Islands region of the Sonoran Desert and the US/Mexico borderlands in Southern Arizona. Through this informal ride Sarah seeks to raise awareness among cyclists of the environmental threats and humanitarian crisis affecting this beautiful region by inviting representatives of Indivisible Tohono, No More Deaths, Center of Biological Diversity, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, and the Arizona Trail Association to speak to participants the night before the ride. Since RDJ was founded, its inclusive and educational format has inspired the cycling community to rethink the future of gravel events. Some of the initiatives Sarah has adopted in RDJ is priority registration for BIPOC and WTF folks, participation and travel grants for up to 8 BIPOC cyclists, sharing and upholding guiding principles throughout the event, land acknowledgment, no gendered categories, multiple distances from 12-125 offered, and affordable on-site camping, lodging, and food. In its first year the event attracted 60 cyclists from around the U.S. and Canada. With a limited capacity of 100 people, the event for 2020 sold out to the general public in under five minutes. In 2022, the event added a community fundraiser component which raised over $46,000 that was equally distributed among the following local organizations: Indivisible Tohono, No More Deathes, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, Cuenca Los Ojos, Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch, The Arizona Trail Association.
Logo by Logan Watts
Sky Islands Odyssey Route Project (2017 - ongoing)
The Sky Islands Odyssey is a route project that includes three routes through the Sky Islands region of the Sonoran desert of southeastern Arizona. There are three routes available; an east loop (135 miles), west loop (170 miles), and a full loop (230 miles) making it an accessible ride for all levels of bikepackers/bike tourists. Sarah uses the guide to not only highlight the significance of the biodiversity and beauty that exists but also the environmental and humanitarian crises that are occurring throughout the region these routes travel through. Sarah’s route guides for the Sky Islands Odyssey are published in Bikepacking.com and Lonely Planet’s Epic Rides of the Americas book. During 2017 Sarah traveled to southeast Arizona on seven different occasions to test ride various different portions of the routes as well as the full route. She finished the route guide in 2018 and maintains the route guides every winter by submitting updates to Bikepacking.com. In 2021 she intends to rewrite the Sky Islands Odyssey route guides to encompass more detail of the region having learned significantly more during her residence there in the winter of 2020/2021.
Artwork by Mary Lytle
Establishing Environmental Recreation at the Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch (2018 - 2022)
Sarah first started working with the Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch (AWRR) in 2018 when she was developing the Sky Islands Odyssey Route Project. The AWRR is a conservation research station that maintains and protects 8,000 acres of southern Arizona’s native grassland habitat from human impacts such as cattle grazing. At the time, in 2018, AWRR was closed to the public but Sarah worked with the new director at AWRR to create a system to allow cyclists permitted access to the ranch in order to create a mutually beneficial relationship between conservation and recreation. Since 2018, Sarah has collaborated with AWRR to host Ruta del Jefe and the WTF Bikexplorers Gravel Camp. Between bikepackers passing through during their ride on the Sky Islands Odyssey routes, Ruta del Jefe attendees, and groups of cyclists who have started to come for overnight stays and day rides from the ranch, AWRR has seen 1,000 cyclists earning them an income of over $40,000. The ranch earned more revenue from cyclists in February 2020 than they typically do throughout their season hosting researchers. During an otherwise slow winter season at the ranch, cyclists have added a new source of energy, exposure, and income to the ranch. While a lot of those funds are needed for maintaining the facilities of a historic ranch, the AWRR will be using a portion of the funds they earn from cyclists by investing in making the ranch more accommodating and educational for cyclists. In November 2020, Sarah moved to the ranch to stay throughout winter and early spring to develop AWRR’s cycling outreach program and will be writing content for educational signage, grants for trail networks, cycling maps and scholarships.
Logo by Molly Sugar
Radical Adventure Riders (formally WTF Bikexplorers) (2017-2020)
In 2017 Sarah, along with Jocelyn Gaudi-Quarrell, Mary Lytle, Molly Sugar, Tenzin Namdol, and Everett Ford-Terry co-founded WTF Bikexplorers; an organization that promotes gender and racial inclusivty and representation within the cycling industry through the community connection and support of cyclists who identify as non-binary, trans, femme, and woman. In its first two years, WTF Bikexplorers hosted a series of rides and an annual summit with over 400 attendees. During these years Sarah’s roles included visionary planning for the ride series program and the summit, hosting two ride series rides in southern Arizona and Montana, managing venue logistics and event tickets, and teaching a Routing and Navigation clinic. In 2019 WTF Bikexplorers moved away from the summit toward more community connection opportunities. During this time Sarah founded the WTF BX gravel program. The program includes a Gravel Squad; an online network of nearly 400 WTFN-B identifying gravel cyclists who connect over rides and share the burden of planning and travel for gravel events, and a Gravel Team; a group of 11 riders of all skill levels who act as ambassadors of the gravel squad to promote and inspire inclusivity and community connection at gravel race events publicly. As part of developing the WTF BX Gravel Program, Sarah hosted a 5-day gravel camp in southern Arizona with 30 attendees. In 2020 Sarah managed and expanded the SJ Brooks Scholarship from $3,000 and five recipients to $20,000 and sixteen recipients while also managing a scholarship selection committee of five individuals. Sarah co-managed the transition to new leadership at WTF Bikexplorers in the fall of 2020. Throughout her 4 years with WTF Bikexplorers Sarah contributed to the organization through visionary planning and copywriting, managing the business finances through budgets and accounting, and sponsorship outreach. Sarah will be stepping down from her leadership role on December 31, 2020 to give space for new energy and growth for WTF BX and for herself.
Logo by Adam Lytle
Swallow Bicycle Works (2011-2015)
In 2011 Sarah opened Swallow Bicycle Works with her partner at the time, Tom Swallow. Swallow Bicycle Works was a 1,500 square foot specialty bicycle shop that focused on serving the greater Cincinnati cycling community through bicycle repairs, custom builds, bike fitting, and outfitting. Sarah’s roles at SBW were managing the business and daily operations, financial planning and accounting, community building through hosting 4-5 organized gravel rides a year (for example; Highlands Passage, Ridgetop Ramble, 7 Caves Dirty Road Ride) and hosting pop-up shops at OVCX Cyclocross events; marketing through instagram and sharing stories on the SBW website. Sarah and Tom closed Swallow Bicycle Works in the summer of 2015 to pursue a once in a lifetime opportunity to ride 5,000 miles along the TAT, a dirt road cycling route across the United States.