A Takoma Park student spent a year biking from Vancouver to Guatemala and then back to Takoma Park.
Minck remembers the brutal final leg of the trip into Austin where they had the bad luck of biking straight into heavy winds on the last 22 miles into town.
"Even though it was flat as a table we were going maybe seven miles an hour," he said. "It was like climbing up a mountain."
In spite of such difficulties, long-range and even international bike journeys are becoming more and more common, or at least more widely known, according to Eric Gilliland, executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.
"It's sort of a result of an increase in biking in general, what we're seeing throughout the D.C. area is people are using bikes for a larger variety of things," he said. "Naturally, we're going to be seeing a few more people who are on the extreme."
And three Lutheran ministers from West Virginia spent 100 days riding cross country on a three person bicycle made of bamboo (sounds like the lead in to a joke, no?).
The goal of the ride is to encourage contributions to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's world hunger activities.
The tour, which began May 13 in Chicago and will end Aug. 20 in Minneapolis, will cover 13,000 miles and take them to 65 cities. The approximately 10-foot-long bamboo bicycle they are riding weighs 52 pounds and was custom made by Craig Calfee, a California bicycle designer.
If you're not already aware of it, check out http://www.goingslowly.com/, which chronicles the adventures of a couple biking around Europe (and points beyond). The journal is full of great pictures and stories, and there's great information on gear, money, preparation, etc.
Posted by: Nate | October 23, 2009 at 08:48 AM