A national movement is underway to inspire exploration of parks and public lands by bicycle on Sept. 24, 2016.

The Trail & Town Alliance of Harpers Ferry-Bolivar and volunteer ambassadors from the Adventure Cycling Association are participating in Bike Your Park Day by organizing four free bicycle rides to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park on Saturday, Sept. 24. Bike Your Park Day encourages people throughout the United States to explore national parks, state parks and other public lands by bicycle. This first annual event will introduce people of all ages and backgrounds to the joy of bicycling in the great outdoors in celebration of the National Park Service’s Centennial and Adventure Cycling’s 40th anniversary. Bike Your Park Day takes place on National Public Lands Day, which is a free entrance day for all National Parks across the country.

“Your park is only a pedal away on Sept. 24,” said Jim Sayer, executive director of Adventure Cycling Association. “Thousands of people across the country will be exploring their parks by bicycle on the same day-whether they ride one mile or 100 miles.”

The Trail & Town Alliance of Harpers Ferry-Bolivar has worked with several volunteers to organize four different bicycle rides, from 14 miles round-trip to 30 miles round-trip, and from easy to moderate to strenuous. The Brunswick to Harpers Ferry ride is 14 miles round-trip from Brunswick, Maryland along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. The Ferry Hill Plantation to Harpers Ferry ride is 24 miles round-trip from historic Ferry Hill across the Potomac River from Shepherdstown, also following the C&O Canal towpath. A third bicycle ride, Charles Town Courthouse to Harpers Ferry, is 25 miles round-trip, starting in Charles Town, at the historic courthouse where abolitionist John Brown was tried and convicted of treason in 1859.

The Antietam Battlefield to Harpers Ferry ride is the fourth-and most strenuous-bicycle ride.

Bicyclists begin this 30-mile round-trip ride at the historic battlefield visitor center near Sharpsburg, Maryland, climbing several steep hills along the western edge of Maryland Heights.

“These four bicycle rides traverse some of the most scenic and historic landscapes along the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers,” says Bike Your Park Day volunteer ambassador David Gilbert. “Harpers Ferry is just the icing on the cake. These rides also travel through three other national park sites: Antietam National Battlefield, Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, and the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.”

Adventure Cycling’s website, www.BikeYourParkDay. org, has do-it-yourself resources and an interactive map to bicycle rides featured on Bike Your Park Day. For more information about the four free bicycle rides to Harpers Ferry NHP, and to register to participate, visit the Harpers Ferry Bike Your Park Day event website at BikeYourParkDay_ HarpersFerry.eventbrite.com.

The inaugural Bike to Your Park Day is being launched as part of Adventure Cycling’s 40th anniversary celebration. Adventure Cycling was founded as Bikecentennial and started as a 4,250-mile TransAmerica Trail bicycle ride with over 4,100 participants in the summer of 1976.