Photoblog:
Building Community through Connection to the Land and Access to the Outdoors
The Vamos Outdoors Project is a program aimed at giving Latinx youth access to all types of outdoor recreation pursuits, while being environmental stewards along the way. You'll see the kids & their trusty guides mountain biking, paddling, swimming, rock climbing and backpacking while also focusing on the environmental education aspect. They Vamos crew operates in Whatcom & Skagit County and do all of their weekly Wednesday mountain bike rides at Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, WA. It was a pleasure of mine to attend a couple of these group rides, with the task of capturing these kids in motion on the brand new donated Honzo bikes from Kona Bicycle Co. Huge thanks to the WMBC and to Kona for all that they do for the community and for our trails!
Ellie helping one of the Vamos kids put on his helmet. Safety first!
Brandon giving a pre-ride safety & etiquette talk before splitting up by skill level into two groups in Galbraith.
We had an epic sunset at the top of El Pollo Loco in Galbraith. It even started to lightly sprinkle on us!
The light was beautiful as the sun moved down in between the clouds.
We had to make it down to the Cedar Dust jumps before it got dark to finish up!
The boys group gathered on the Vamos bench at the top of the Cedar Dust jumps. This crew was stoked!
One of the Kona Honzo hardtails that was donated to the Program. These came at the perfect time, considering the WMBC had their fleet of kids' bikes stolen from the Waterfront storage area earlier this year.
Coach Ellie has a way with kids, and her superpower shines nicely in this photo!
On my second ride day with Vamos, we went out as one big crew.
Braking practice.
One of the coaches put out a stick to mark a line that each person was tasked to stop at using both brakes. Yanely (pictured) has laser focus on the task!
As the Fall season starts, the light starts to dwindle more and more each day. Get it while its good!
Kelsy (pictured in front) keeping the rubber side down across the bridge.
Snack time!
These are no-drop rides, there's always a leader & a sweep, and they stop at multiple points along the trail for everyone to catch up.
The kids & Ellie, stoked to drop Bandito!
