Know Your Radius

Our mission is to support those who seek new adventures. We hope folks also respect people and places while they do it. As an engineer-led team, we care about the materials, designs and production of every product we put out into the world. It’s also important what happens to those pieces of gear after they leave our hands. As all companies learn, this is a moving target. We are learning that our role as a company is to both create quality adventure products, as well as help our customers adventure responsibly.

We know the world is constantly changing, and it’s becoming easier and easier to learn more about the places we play in, both environmentally and culturally. We have an impact on these places and they have a long history. As a small team just getting started, our role and power to have impact is limited; however, we do what we can to ensure everyone has access to, and understanding of, the places we all enjoy. We do this in two ways - supporting sustainable economic growth in rural areas, and through honoring the original peoples of the lands we adventure in.

In 2021, we were excited to find an organization that cares about the same things - supporting adventures that benefit more people and communities. The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship is a non-profit organization dedicated to building community, strengthening economic resilience, and restoring public trails in the Lost Sierra. They are taking on a monumental challenge of connecting 15 mountain towns with 600+ miles of world class multi-use trails (including moto) through grants, donations and events such as the Lost & Found Gravel Grinder.

Learn more about SBTS and the Connected Communities project.

In 2022, our team is proud to promote the work of Native Land. They have created a digital space where non-Indigenous people can learn more about the lands we spend time on, the history of those lands, and how to adventure in these places respectfully. No one is perfect and we are constantly learning so we can be better.

In our own research we’ve learned more about the lands we are located on and the lands we visit regularly. In Monterey and the surrounding area, where our office is located, it was the Esselen and Rumsen who called it home. The Esselen Tribe inhabited the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Big Sur coast for over 6,000 years. Today, the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County (ETMC) continues cultural traditions, preserves the cultural heritage of the region’s historic tribes, and protects ancestral sacred sites. In 2020, the Tribe became the official stewards of a piece of their ancestral homeland.

Another place we spend a lot of time are the Plumas and Lassen National Forests near Quincy and Westwood, California. Before European-born disease and displacement from the Gold Rush, the Maidu Indians lived in this area. The Maidu Indians occupied many of the valleys of Plumas and Lassen County since the time of remembering; they used fire to manage their environment and encourage harvests from desired plants such as grasses and oaks. Today, the Maidu Summit Consortium aims to protect these areas for present and future generations, and envision re-acquired ancestral lands as a vast and unique park system dedicated to the purposes of education, healing, protection, and ecosystem management.

The loss of Tribal lands in both areas has made it difficult for the Esselen and Rumsen and Mountain Maidu peoples to rebuild their communities. History is complicated and full of questionable decisions. It’s important to constantly look back and ask ourselves how we can do better in the present.

Explore the map to see what traditional lands you play and explore in. These maps are a starting point and we encourage you to do your own research when engaging with these communities and history.