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How I Built This with Guy Raz
How I Built This with Guy Raz

Backroads: Tom Hale. How a desk worker became a trailblazer in active travel

November 10, 2025 • 50m

Summary

⏱️ 7 min read

Overview

Tom Hale founded Backroads in 1979 after waking up in the middle of the night with an epiphany to lead bike tours while working an unfulfilling job in Las Vegas. Starting with just four guests on a camping trip through Death Valley, he built the company into one of the world's largest active travel companies, offering thousands of trips in over 60 countries annually. Despite facing setbacks including a van accident, bike theft, 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID-19, Tom grew Backroads organically without outside investors, maintaining it as a family-owned business with approximately 1,300 employees.

The Midnight Epiphany and Starting Backroads

While working as an environmental planner in Las Vegas, a job he didn't enjoy, Tom Hale woke up at 2 a.m. with an idea to take people on bike trips. Despite having almost no experience beyond one solo ride up the California coast, he quit his job at 26 to pursue this vision. He spent six months on a 5,000-mile solo bike journey across the western United States to scout routes and plan what would become Backroads.

  • Tom worked for the city of Las Vegas in environmental planning but was unhappy with the desk job
  • He woke up at 2 a.m. and wrote eight pages of notes on starting a bike tour company
  • Tom quit his job without keeping it as a backup, determined not to return to desk work
  • He embarked on a 5,000-mile solo bike trip around the western U.S. to scout locations
" I woke up about 2 in the morning, got out of bed, and took eight pages of notes on what it would take to do this. "
" I quit my job, you know, that I had gone to school, college for seven years. So I quit my job, had no income coming in, so I was going to make something out of this. "

The First Trips and Early Challenges

Tom's first trip in Death Valley had just four guests and was a camping experience where participants cycled over 50 miles per day. To fund the business, he worked nights washing dishes at Fondue Fred restaurant, chipping cheese out of fondue pots. He lived with six roommates (five of them Norwegian) in a shared house where Backroads had an office space for $135 per month, and bikes were stored in a dark basement.

  • The first trip to Death Valley had only four guests and was a camping trip
  • Participants cycled over 50 miles per day on early trips
  • Tom worked nights at Fondue Fred restaurant chipping cheese from pots to fund the business
  • Backroads office space cost $135 per month in a shared house with Norwegian roommates
  • Half the bikes were stolen from the warehouse, but Tom tracked them down and recovered them
" I worked on the side at night at Fondue Fred on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. I chipped the cheese out of fondue pots. "

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