In an activity dominated with handlebar-mounted GPS computers, Gravel Adventure Field Guide offers an analog alternative for navigating gravel rides or bikepacking trips—one that doesn’t require batteries, chargers, or screen time. Admittedly old school, these pocket-sized, regional guidebooks are full of illustrated maps detailing what routes to ride along with insights into the relevant culture and history of a destination. As co-founder Juan A. DelaRoca puts it, all the “local information that matters."
Gravel Adventure Field Guide got its start in 2019, after a successful gravel bike tourism campaign promoting the emerging gravel bike scene in Trinidad, Colorado inspired DelaRoca and GAFG co-founder, designer, and illustrator Stephen Beneski to create their first guidebook covering the region. The project motivated them to seek out other underlooked, rural communities that would benefit from a one-of-a-kind guidebook of its own, leading to future iterations of the niche publication.
“We filled a void with this product. There was nobody creatively curating and promoting an outdoor recreation asset that many rural communities possess: unpaved roads,” says DelaRoca. “We thought there was an opportunity to create something that was a mashup of vintage National Geographic and DIY Zine.”