AO's 2019 Year in Review
New Location
After working for three years toward a new location that would combine our outfitting operation and outdoors store, we finally moved into our forever home at 20 Clark Street, 30 hours before Memorial Day weekend. This move was huge for the AO Team, streamlining our operation, making us much more efficient and providing a better overall service to all of you! And although we are always a work in progress, watching the shop come to life was incredible!
A couple stunning views of the before and after.
With our new space came new services! We shared our Wilderness Trip Planning Space and the “big table” with folks from all over the world, helping them plan and tackle trips on the river and trails with our detailed topo maps! We also started offering bike maintenance for the first time ever in 2019, bringing on veteran bike extraordinaire Aaron Spencer!
We welcomed the build-out of new neighbors!
Goat Fort Indoor Climbing before
Goat Fort Indoor Climbing almost complete!
Bent Run Brewing Co before
Bent Run today!
AO Hiking Club
We’ve spent much time and effort building our paddling community over the years. One of our big goals in 2019 was to start building the hiking community as well. We brought Nate Harrington, who thru-hiked the AT with his wife in 2016, on board at AO to head up the group, and together tackled nearly 200 hiking miles in 2019 through all four seasons!
We held regular workshops throughout the winter to share more - sleep systems, cooking systems, water filtration, shelters, leave no trace, proper clothing, first aid kits and pack shakedowns. There is no cooler thing than watching 15+ people hiking through downtown Warren with packs on to test them out!
The most rewarding part of our AO Hiking Club has been watching folks grow and learn - us included - on the trail. Nate has brought an incredible amount of knowledge and humor to the trail and helped a number of hikers better prepare to reach their goals. The age of our hikers that come out has also been pretty incredible, and inspiring, spanning from children to folks in their 80’s. Some have goals of hiking a few miles leisurely a couple times a month, while others dream of section and thru-hiking the AT. No goal is too small, or big!
We rounded out our 2019 hiking season with an overnight backpacking trip on Tanbark Trail. A most excellent adventure!
Guided Trips on the Allegheny River
We were lazer focused on working the kinks out of our new location this summer, so admittedly, we weren’t able to offer as many guided trips as we would have liked. (That changes in 2020!) But beyond helping thousands of people plan and tackle self-guided trips on the Allegheny, we were able to squeeze in a few guided trips of our own. From early morning paddles to women on the water, to volunteer guided trips with refugees and camp groups, 2019 was a busy one!
2019 Allegheny River Clean-up
This week-long event always amazes us. Our eleventh year of Allegheny River Clean-up was no small task, but out volunteers took it head-on as usual! We are so grateful for our community of volunteers!
PA Wilds Outdoor Industry Series: High School Courses
We teamed up with the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship to offer two high school courses: Planning a River Expedition and Planning a Backpacking Expedition. These month-long, weekly courses were geared toward freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors (in Warren and McKean counties) interested in working in the region’s growing outdoor recreation industry, those interested in professional kayak instruction, or those interested in learning more about local history, geography, health and safety, and ecosystems through a hands-on experience preparing for a trip of their choice. Teaming up with folks from the US Army Corps of Engineers, Glade Water Rescue and the US geological Survey gave our students an in-depth look at different factors in the paddling and backpacking environment. Both of these courses exceeded our expectations and we’re excited to continue offering them in 2020!
The little things that made us smile along the way!
New AO products came to fruition!
Let’s not forget a few of those sunsets and rises…
What’s in store for 2020?
Glad you asked! We’ve got seven months under our belts, have streamlined our operation by working out the kinks, have a bunch of cool new neighbors opening their doors soon, and couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come!
If you’re new to hiking, you won’t want to miss our workshop series, it starts right from square one all over again, with a few new tweaks. If you’re looking to begin your hiking adventures, or meet new hikers, we’re getting right back at it after our “Summer Vacation”, with our first hike January 18th, 2020. We’ll be offering an overnight backpacking trip in early May as well as late October.
Our guided paddling trips are already scheduled for 2020, with several early morning paddles, women on the water, and workshops on safety and learning about the DNA of the river. We’re excited to say we’ve had more people that purchased kayaks from us take advantage of their free weekend shuttles in 2019 than any other year!
For those looking for a little winter inspiration, our “Winter Wednesday” cross country ski classes are back, as are our AO “Winter Movie Series” on Friday evenings. And it’s wild to say, but our 6th Annual Paddle Happy is only seven short winter weeks away!
Aaron has been busy with bike maintenance (both road and mountain bike) and we continue to build upon that with workshops to help you learn the ins and outs of your bike and how to properly maintain it throughout the year.
You’ll find our events on the calendar below. This list is not inclusive, and is updated weekly. If there are changes to events posted, we keep in touch on our social media events. If you have Facebook, we recommend following along on our page.
So what are we up to in 2020? We’re catching sunrises and sunsets, gazing at the stars, riding our bikes, watching the light peek through the canopy above, trying to catch a glimpse of otters, cozying up next to a campfire - and sharing those experiences to help all of you do the same. It’s incredible out there, folks. We appreciate that you’ve allowed us to play a small part in the adventures you’ve had along the river and in the forest. We could not do this without you.
Cheers to a new decade on the river and trail!
- The AO Team