We may earn commissions if you shop through the links below. After a long debate with our publishing partners, authors and advisors, we decided that PaddlingLight will shut down within a week and change our focus to biking. Our new domain name is PedalingLight. PedalingLight’s mission is to provide information on lightweight bicycle travel, touring and bikepacking while promoting the protection and preservation of our federal, state and local lands. It will continue PaddlingLight’s belief in the DIY culture by providing drawings and free plans for bike frames. Over the last five months, we’ve been working hard at converting all our articles from sea kayaking and canoeing to articles about biking. All the current content that was relevant to biking has been transferred to the new website and is ready to launch. Our original launch date was today on the first of the month, but we decided to give our readers a few days to say goodbye to PaddlingLight. We really hope that you enjoyed this website. Why? Join REI and Earn $30 towards your next gear purchase. PaddlingLight started its life as Nessmuking over a decade ago. We wanted to change the culture within paddling from one that believed that weight didn’t matter to one that understood that paddling lighter weight boats with lighter gear not only made it easier to paddle, but also simplified the experience. That simplification also made your trips more memorable and the experience was deeper and more refreshing. Ultimately, we argued: To reduce our gear choices by taking less, using lighter gear and reducing the gear’s reach to its primary function. Lighter means a better experience and an easier paddle. Simplicity allows us to connect to something greater such as joy, the journey, what’s truly important and mindfulness. We think we accomplished those goals. We also provided the digital versions of many historic canoe and kayak drawings. Many of those drawings were used to build boats. No one is providing a large number of bike frame drawings for free for the growing number of DIY bike welders out there. We think that by building a new website in part devoted to the DIY frame builders that we can increase the desire of cyclists to build their own bikes and feel the joy that we did when we built our own canoes and kayaks. With our goals hit, it seems like it’s time to move on. Biking has always been a passion for us — and myself, personally. Before I paddled, I biked. I’ve always loved biking and as the publisher, it’s time to move on to the recreational activity that I spend more time doing. We hope that you’ll join us on our transition. Until then, please, zen out and have a happy April! Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe First. Happy April Fools.