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Adventure

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Bicycle Travelers of Yesteryear

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is published nine times each year by the Adventure Cycling Association, a nonprofit service organization for recreational bicyclists. Individual membership costs $40 yearly to U.S. addresses and includes a subscrip-tion to Adventure Cyclist and dis-counts on Adventure Cycling maps. The entire contents of Adventure Cyclist are copyrighted by Adventure Cyclist and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from Adventure Cyclist. All rights reserved.

our CoverFred Birchmore and his bicycle Bucephalus aboard the S.S. Hanover in San Pedro, California, in October 1936, as they conclude their world tour.

(left) Long stretches of road with no services are not unusual in Alaska.

MissionThe mission of Adventure Cycling Association is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle. We help cyclists explore the landscapes and history of America for fitness, fun, and self-discovery.

CAMPAignsOur strategic plan includes three major campaigns: • Creating Bike Routes for America • Getting Americans Bicycling • Supporting Bicycling Communities

How to reach usTo join, change your address, or ask questions about membership, visit us online at www.adventurecycling.org or call (800) 755-2453 or (406) 721-1776

email: [email protected]

Subscription Address:Adventure Cycling Association P.O. Box 8308, Missoula, MT 59807

Headquarters:Adventure Cycling Association 150 E. Pine St.Missoula, MT 59802

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07 COMPANIONS WANTED

08 WAYPOINTS

38 LIFE MEMBER PROFILE

39 GEARED UP

42 CLASSIFIEDS/MARkETPLACE

47 OPEN ROAD GALLERY

l e t t e r s

04 LETTER from the EDITOR

05 LETTERS from the READERS

06 LETTER from the DIRECTOR

C o l u M n s

36 MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE / Jan Heine The importance of brake maintenance

40 FINE TUNED / Josh Tack The first installment by our newest columnist

10 THE CHANCE ENCOUNTER by David V. Herlihy Two young American men travel by bike in pre-World War II Europe and beyond.

16 AROUND THE UNITED STATES BY BICYCLE – 1904 by Bob Marr To win a wager, two young Michiganians attempt to cycle through the Continental U.S.

22 SHAkEDOWN IN ALASkA by June Siple In this segment, the Siples and Burdens put their plan into action and set off from Alaska.

32 THE WAY WE WHIRRR from the collection of bicycle historian John Weiss Stunning photographs from the past remind us of cycling’s glorious history.

May 2012 · Volume 39 Number 4 · www.adventurecycling.org

5:2012 contents

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Letter from the Editor

History beCkonsCycling’s past is full of adventure

researching images of Lenz, we came across an astounding amount of old photographs of people with their bicycles. Many were simply pos-ing proudly with their machines while others were perched, often precariously, atop penny- farthings or other strange looking contraptions. Seeing all of these photos got us to think-ing that maybe we should publish an annual issue based around these images, but it soon grew to more than that. Once we starting digging around, and the word got out that we were planning to do this, early cycling adventurers like Lenz started pouring out of the woodwork.

History is a funny thing. It never sits still so we can stare at it, probe it, fix it in stone (or documents). It doesn’t want to be be trapped like a mosquito encased in amber. And that’s how I feel about cycling history whenever we produce this issue. These characters from the past — these people — they want to scream out, “I’m still here. I’m still a force!” It’s almost like they’re still alive. In a sense, I guess they are because they’re still affect-ing people.

The stories we’ve published recent-ly are all extremely interesting but I somehow feel connected to Fred Birchmore and his cycling partner Harry Espenscheid more so than I have the others (see David Herliy’s article “The Chance Encounter” on page 10). Their reasons for cycling, their observations,

their very existences strike a chord in me that makes me want to fly from my seemingly ever-present desk and computer, hop on a bicycle, and ride toward places that still hold dear some shred of mys-tery. Ah, If only I could ride a bicycle into the deep oceans. It’s a heck

of a dream, and many have connected dreaming and cycling in the past. Maybe a submarine with pedals will emerge from the shadows one of these days.

The other interesting angle to all of this is that we, and by “we” I mostly mean Americans connected to Adventure Cycling, seem to mark bicycle-travel history from the exploits of those on Hemistour (another installment detailing the Alaska segment starts on page 24). Directly from the bosom of Hemistour came the summer of B76, the creation of Bikecentennial, and the continued growth and evolution of Adventure Cycling into what it is today, with many people contributing along the way. But when you start to peer back further, there they are. Thomas Stevens, Frank Lenz, William Sachtleben and Thomas Allen, Annie Londonderry, Clarence Darling and Claude Murphey, Annie kopchovsky, Darwin and Hattie McIlrath. And, hope-fully, many more of their stories to come.

Michael DemeEditor, Adventure Cyclist [email protected]

In the January 2009 issue, we published an article about Frank Lenz, an adventurous young man who, in 1892, attempted to cyclearound the world. (For those who would like to revisit this and other stories, visit adventurecycling.org/library.) While

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Who has the right away? I don’t understand Bruce Wright’s con-tention that bicyclists should have the right of way at multi-use trail crossings where they intersect with roads the way pedestrians do. First, on multi-use trails, pedestrian crosswalks are for pedestrians. If we dismount our bikes and walk them across, we should have the same rights as pedestrians, however, when we ride our bikes in the cross walk, we are acting like a motor vehicle and should obey motor-vehicle rules and laws. At intersections of roads where stop signs and yield signs are posted, we are obligated to obey them. When trail users reach an intersection where a stop sign is posted, all should stop, look, and listen before entering the crosswalk. When the way is clear and the crosswalk has been entered, that trail user should have the right of way until they have safely crossed the intersection by foot, horse, or bicycle.

Kyle MidkiffCovington, Virginia

Winners and losersMr. Wright’s letter published in the February issue caused me to write in. I live in an area fortunate enough to have a rail-trail that creates a (roughly) Y-shaped recreation and transportation artery

through the near middle of our twin cit-ies (Bloomington/Normal, Illinois) with a combined population of 125,000. The trail is heavily used, especially in warmer weather, and there are many road cross-ings. I have to admit that I do not know for certain to whom Illinois law gives the right of way, but I do know that the vast majority of drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists all act as though motor vehicles have the right of way, so it’s annoying to me when I’m slowing my pace in order to let a car or truck pass only to realize they are slowing for me, which then causes me to come to a complete stop and wave them on.

Here’s my logic. Many commuting cyclists are doing so with environmental issues as a prime motivator and they want to make as much of a positive impact (actually it’s a lack of a negative impact) as possible. An average midsize car weights about 3,500 pounds and is usually trav-eling at around 35 MPH, my bike and I weight under 200 pounds and travel at around 10 MPH on the rail trail. If we col-lide, I will clearly lose, regardless of who had the right of way! Second, accelerat-ing to regain momentum after stopping requires a car to burn much more gas. If multiple cars have to stop, the more gas is burned by a factor of x. Oppositely, while

cyclists and pedestrians burn calories to stop and accelerate, the fuel required costs next to nothing and calories are some-thing that most people using the trail are actively trying to burn anyway.

I don’t see how pedestrians having the right of way is any safer than vehicles having the right of way. What creates danger is confusion and inattentive users of either the roads or trails. If, as a cyclist, you are yielding anyway, that inattentive driver is not terribly dangerous to you. But if a cyclist has the right of way and assumes a motorist sees them but they don’t, that scenario can have terrible con-sequences. Yield to the big, fast, heavy things, it simply makes sense.

It is an interesting topic with many sides and viewpoints but I believe the arguments in favor of pedestrians/bicy-cles having the right of way is well mean-ing but misguided.

Randy TornquistNormal, Illinois

More about right of way at bike-path/crosswalk intersections

Your letters are welcome. Due to the volume of mail and email we receive, we cannot print every letter. We may edit letters for length and clarity. If you do not want your comments to be printed in Adventure Cyclist, please state so clearly. Please include your name and address with your correspondence. Email your comments, questions, or letters to [email protected] or mail to Editor, Adventure Cyclist, P.O. Box 8308, Missoula, MT 59807.

Letters from our Readers

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viCtoriesFrom Washington, DC, to the Rockies, important triumphs for bicycling

Letter from the Director

One of the positive things about being a member of Adventure Cycling is that the net income from your membership, donations, map purchases and tour participation goes into our advocacy and program work to support better conditions for cycling and bike travel in North America. As a member recently told me, “Not only do I get a great magazine and map discounts, I get a great organization standing up for me as a cyclist!” Well here’s some good news: your investments in

our program work bore fruit in the last few months.

This month, we’ll see approval of two new U.S. Bicycle Routes (USBRs) in Minnesota and Michigan, including USBR 35. Our special projects director, Ginny Sullivan, will be in Traverse City, Michigan, to celebrate this beautiful new addition, tracing the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Six years of hard work to cre-ate an official U.S. Bicycle Route System have now prompted 41 states to get involved in creating routes.

Closer to home in Montana and Idaho, we were part of a coalition that opposed turning several serene rural roads into an industrial shipment corridor for over-size loads (in this case, oil processing equipment). We argued that these roads (which make up hundreds of miles worth of key Adventure Cycling routes, like the TransAm, Great Parks North, and Lewis & Clark) should be preserved as scenic byways, conducive to outdoor recreation and tourism development, and that the “mega-loads” should be shipped on interstates. After a multi-year battle, the oil companies finally agreed and earlier this year began shipping their equip-ment on interstates, leaving intact some extraordinary cycling routes.

Finally, at the national level, we joined with other major cycling groups this winter and spring to urge Congress to sustain federal investment in the non-motorized and trail programs that have done so much over the last 22 years to

make America a more bike-friendly coun-try. We’ve halted efforts (so far) to gut these programs, and won a key provision in pending legislation that gives local governments more power to access fed-eral funding for bike and walk programs. This fight is not over yet, but all the calls we made and all the emails we sent have combined to remind officials that funding for bicycling is a popular and effective use of a small amount (1-1.5% annually) of federal transportation spending.

I was reminded of how effective when, last month, I rode with my friend karen Overton (former director of the non-profit Recycle-a-Bicycle) and my family around New York City on a glorious three-borough tour that included sepa-rated bike paths on the Brooklyn and Queensboro bridges, a car-free Central Park, and the Brooklyn and Hudson River greenways. Some of the facilities we rode on were made possible through national-local partnerships, including federal investment. By the thousands of smiles of other cyclists we saw (and this was on a weekday!), we could tell the investment was sound.

We’ll keep working to create a more bike-friendly North America — and with your growing support, we’ll be more effective than ever. Thanks and happy spring cycling!

Jim SayerExecutive [email protected]

Member support equals better cycling in North America.

Jim’s family and friend before a 30-mile bicycle excursion around New York City. From l to r: Samantha Sayer, Lucy Sayer, Karen Overton (past director of Recycle-a-Bicycle), Wendy Calvert, and Keilan Sayer.


Companions Wanted

Providing partners for tours, domestic and abroad, since 1978

ladakh region of the indian Himalayas September 2012. Join me for a great trip in the Indian Himalayas. A bit undecided on the exact route, perhaps Spiti or starting from Leh down to the Tso Moriri and Pangong Pso lakes before heading down to Manali, or riding out to khardung La and then on to Srinagar. The whole area is great so this will be an amazing trip. Mid forties female looking for others interested in getting out to the fantastic, rough, and high Himalayas. Camping a lot but staying at dhabas when available. Email [email protected].

australia 2012 — June-december I’m a 24-year-old male and I want to cycle Australia in 2012. 14,000 kilometers over a period of six months. I have done two months cycling Australia for fun but it was so awesome that it has turned into a bit of a dream to finish the ride from Darwin and on to Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Cairns. The more people the better, for safe-ty and fun. I’m on a budget so I estimate 4,000 AUS dollars for the whole trip (20 dollars a day). Email [email protected].

southern tier — West to east september 2012 Male (age 64) looking for fun companions on a southern route across the U.S. Mostly hotels/hostels and some camping, but I’m flexible. Looking to ride 60 to 70 miles a day with rest days at intervals we agree on. Come ride across a beautiful country with me. This will not be a race but a tour. Email [email protected].

100 day Coast to Coast ride on an elliptigo On March 23, 2012, I will start a 100-day trip, east to west, from Parris Island, South Carolina, to San Diego. This will be a self-supported trip and I’m looking for people along the way to host me and provide a place to sleep. This is both to

save money and to meet more “real” people than I would by staying in hotels. Website: 100days forthecorps.wordpress.com/my-route. Every city and date is listed. Email [email protected].

Filming a documentary San Francisco to Jackson, Mississippi. I intend to leave in early September but can be flexible. I’ll head through the Sierra Nevadas, past the Grand Canyon, and down through Austin, Baton Rouge, and up to Jackson. I would really appreciate a travel com-panion as a lot of the places on the trip will be quite isolated and for safety it’s probably best to have two people. Plenty of stops to adventure and film people. I’m 22 so a similar age is prefer-able. If you know anything about film, that’ll be a bonus! Email [email protected].

northern tier — West to east I’m planning to do this ride in June and I’m looking for one or two companions. Ideally you should be about the same age as me (67). I have done several long-distance trips, the most recent being in 2010 across the U.S. from San Francisco to Virginia Beach. Email [email protected].

transamerica — West to east in 2012 Male, 69, looking for companions, starting June 24 in Astoria, Oregon. Self contained, mostly camp-ing, bed & breakfasts, and some hotels. 60 to 70 miles per day, depending on terrain, weather, and motivation, with one rest day per week. I rode the Southern Tier in 2010 and I also have bike maintenance experience. You don’t have to have touring experience, but I would prefer you have some cycling experience. Email [email protected].

northern tier (Mostly) — West to east June 4th 2012. A couple spots have opened up on our

tour due to cancellations. We are currently at four riders, looking for up to six. Self contained, 65 to 75 miles per day. Mostly camping with a hotel once per week. We are starting June 4 from Seaside, Oregon, and finishing at Bar Harbor, Maine. If your group is losing numbers or if you’re spontaneous, send me an email for more details at [email protected].

Midwest to California — summer/Fall 2012 Is anyone interested in joining me for all/part of a ride from central Wisconsin to Yosemite National Park or San Francisco, leaving in early August? General idea is to drop down from Wisconsin to the TransAm Trail, then the Western Express. 45 to 70 miles per day, mostly camping with some motels. Route and schedule flexible (I can’t leave until August 3, but otherwise I’m very flexible). I’m a 55-year-old male, willing to do this alone, but think it would be more enjoyable with another rider. Email [email protected].

Maine Coast and Fancophone Canada Exploring the Maine coast and then franco-phone villages starting from Moncton, New Brunswick, where I’ll leave a car. Stay in hotels/motels. Perhaps to Quebec and Montreal after New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Mileage per day negotiable. Male, 68, speech-language pathologist and publisher friend and daughter from Lyon, France comprise the group so far. Email [email protected].

Adventure Cycling Association assumes, but can-not verify, that the persons above are truthfully representing themselves. Ads are free to Adventure Cycling members. You can see more ads and post new ones at www.adventurecycling.org/mag/comp anions.cfm or send your ad to Adventure Cyclist, P.O. Box 8308, Missoula, MT 59807.

Rockland, MaineSaturday, July 21st, 2012Maine’s most scenic and tasty bike rides16, 30, 50 and 100 mile rides to choose from plus a fresh lobster roll dinner

maine

lobsterBicycl e coal it ion of maine 207-623-4511 www.Bikemaine.org


News you can use from the world of bicycle travel by Michael McCoy

WayPointsbooks to biCyCle by“just this week an advance copy of my new book, Where to Bike, Washington, DC, arrived in the mail.” So begins an email waypoints received a few weeks ago from Matt wittmer, a past Adventure Cyclist contributor. “Part of a growing series of primarily urban guidebooks, mine details 55 adult rides and 39 kids’ rides in the greater Capital region. local though it was, I spun about 10,000 miles while researching, riding, pho-tographing, and mapping my 94 rides. I was on my bike like it was a day job.” learn more about Matt and his first book at http://ow.ly/9lhIt.

On the other side of the country, Boulder, Colorado-based Big Earth Publishing has released Road Biking Colorado — The Statewide Guide, by Michael Seeberg. The 2012 updated version includes 50 new routes for a total of 208, each with direc-tions, elevation profiles, dif-ficulty rankings, terrain details, mileages, and services infor-mation. Many of the rides are designed to work well on their own, while others are best rid-den as part of a longer route. Divided into nine regions, the book is aimed at all levels of experience, from the seasoned cyclist to the aspiring one. For more information, visit roadbikingcolorado.com.

The first-ever fat-bike sum-mit convened last january in west Yellowstone, Montana. Organized by Scott Fitzgerald, owner of Fitzgerald’s Bicycles in victor, Idaho, the summit

drew land-use planners, for-est rangers, fat-bike enthu-siasts, and representatives of Minnesota-based Quality Bicycle Products (QBP), producers of Salsa and Surly snow bikes. Endurance racer jay Petervary, who works at Fitzgerald’s shop, was another key participant. (Overall, attendance was lower than anticipated, because of — what else? — a snowstorm.)

The goal of the organizers was to introduce land manag-ers to this rather new winter sport, and to attempt to dispel some of the concerns that typi-

cally accompany the appear-ance of a new user group. Snow bikers would like to be permitted on some groomed snowmobile and/or ski trails in the region, including those

in Yellowstone National Park. when snow conditions are firm, the bicycles’ super-fat tires barely make an impact on groomed trails. In soft powder or wet snow, even on groomed trails, they can create a signifi-cant rut. And on snowmobile trails, there’s the added safety issue of mixing slow, non-motorized vehicles with fast, loud, motorized ones.

“Our intent was to get in a room with land managers and rangers to share success stories of where fat bikes are being used,” Fitzgerald said, “and to begin discussions of

how fat-bike use can add to economic success of trail sys-tems, including snow-machine trails and Nordic ski trails.” QBP’s director of advocacy, Gary Sjoquist, spoke about

plans for similar summits in the other regions where fat bikes are sold: Alaska, the upper Midwest, and the Northeast.

last winter Grand Targhee resort, close to Fitzgerald’s hometown, became the first ski resort in the country to permit fat bikes on its Nordic trails. Conversely, the rendezvous Trails in west Yellowstone, one of the premier Nordic venues in

the northern rockies, won’t be allowing the bikes anytime soon — not because the ski communi-ty is particularly opposed to the idea, said west Yellowstone Ski Education Foundation Executive Director Dan Cantrell, but because the Gallatin National Forest’s travel plan stipulates no wheeled vehicles on the trails between October 15 and june 15 — with the exception of spe-cial permitted events, like the Equinox Snow Challenge, which last March had both Nordic ski and snow-bike divisions.

S’NO JOKE: FAT BIKES ARE COMING!Newest trend in cycling seeks acceptance

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MISSISSIPPI TURNINGTours director Hall has life-changing experience in the Deep South

Early last February, a ter-rifically poignant and inspiring story appeared in the daily Missoulian newspaper about Adventure Cycling’s tours director Arlen Hall.

“Arlen Hall was pedaling alone in the Deep South,” begins the story, written by reporter Keila Szpaller, “when the driver of a big green pickup truck came up honking behind him. Hall, who is black, had tried to get some friends to join him on the Mississippi bicycle tour to be safe. Instead, he turned alone to face the driver blaring the horn of the truck, maybe an old Ford.”

The story explains that the honker turned out not to be an adversary but a little old white lady named Madge Noble, 84 years old. “You look like you’re a man on a mission,” she said to Arlen. “You’re having lunch

with me.”Arlen’s destination for

the night was Midnight, Mississippi, the home of his ancestors, including his great-great-great-grandfather, a slave who fought in the Civil war. Arlen had planned to be in Midnight by 3:00 PM but was still 60 miles away when he encountered the pickup. Because of Madge Noble’s love of storytelling — and because of the meal she made consisting of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, okra, and corn on the cob — Arlen didn’t get to Midnight until around 7:30 PM, but that was more than okay, it was providential. If he’d been on schedule, he would have missed an amazing experience.

That trip in 2009, and Arlen’s experiences in Midnight (and along the way), liter-

ally changed his life: “It really grounded me in realizing that the most important thing is not what I own, but what I have — the intangibles that I have,” like relationships, children, cycling, heritage. There’s not room to tell the entire story here, but you can read it by visiting http://ow.ly/9lftk.

TOUR DIVIDE EAST?

Another Adventure Cycling route to host bikepacking competition

we were surprised recently to run across a website devoted to an informal race slated for next October on our Allegheny Mountains loop. The event is clearly inspired by the Tour Divide, the annual “non-race” on the Great Divide Mountain Bike route. Non-race in that there are no entry fees, no prizes, and no support allowed.

“The Allegheny Mountains loop is a 400-mile fat-tire bicycle route that begins and ends at virginia Tech’s war Memorial Chapel in Blacksburg, virginia,” it is written at the site. “A ‘group start’ of self-supported bike-packers is proposed for the first Friday in October at 8:00 AM local time. This is NOT a race (in the traditional sense) ... this is a Bikepacking Adventure!”

The text goes on to explain that the Allegheny Mountains loop challenge is based on this guiding principle: “Cycle the 400-mile loop in the clockwise direction, follow-ing the ‘ridge Alternate’ and the ‘Mountain lake Cutoff’ southbound after Glady, west virginia, as fast as possible in a solo, self-supported fash-ion.” (But remember, it’s not a race!)

The man behind the event is an airline pilot from Danville, virginia, who calls himself The Bike Pedaler. He reminds potential participants that the adventure is planned for the peak fall foliage season, a time of year when almost any type of weather can be encoun-tered along the virginia/west virginia border. You can learn more by visiting http://ow.ly/9lkCY.

Auto rACer suPPorts CyClingBobby labonte, winner of the winston Cup championship (2000), the Busch Series championship (1991), and the IrOC title (2001) obviously likes to race cars, but he also supports bicycling. In conjunc-tion with Sportwing Bike rack, the Bobby labonte Foundation will organize and sponsor the second annual Archdale Drug “Share the road” Memorial Bike ride. The 50-, 70- and 100-kilometer ride will benefit the Bikes Belong Foundation as well as randolph County Schools through their Backpack Pals program.

“we’ve seen tragedy here in the Charlotte region, but as a cycling community, we know this happens everywhere,” said Bobby labonte, founder of the Foundation with his wife, Donna. “By partnering with a national organization like Bikes Belong, we’re not only going continue to bring aware-ness here, but also help those across the country.”

According to Donna lobonte, “we’re very thankful to have both the communities support and Bobby’s sponsors and partners get involved,” said Donna labonte. “This ride was something we felt like was important to do to help educate people on bike safety and also give back to our schools and children in need. without the support from our sponsors, we couldn’t make such an impact. They are really important in making this event grow.”

For more information or to get involved, visit http://ow.ly/a7Apu.

BIrCHMOrE - HErlIHY - 1

The ChanceEncounter

by David V. Herlihy

In the mid-1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression and rising global tensions, two idealistic American youths set off to cycle across central Europe. Their shared adventures would produce

lifelong memories and an enduring friendship.

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I began researching this story in spring 2011, knowing that one of these two cyclists, Fred A. Birchmore, was still alive and well as he approached his 100th birthday. To my astonishment, through the powers of the internet, I soon discovered that his old friend from three-quarters of a century ago, Harry F. Espenscheid, was also alive. I had hoped to engineer at least a virtual reunion. Sadly, Harry’s family informed me that he had been battling Alzheimer’s for the past few years and would therefore be unresponsive to Fred. A few months later, Harry died at the age of 98. Fred (who passed away on April 15, after this article was written, at 100 years old) was nonetheless elated to learn that his old travel companion had like-wise gone on to live a long and productive life. I would like to thank Fred’s wife Willa Deane, daughter Rebecca Campen, Harry’s daughter, Mary Ehrmann, and Barbara Krieger of the Dartmouth College Library for their assistance.

In September 1935, the Commercial-News of Danville, Illinois, announced that a local lad, Harry Espenscheid,

was about to embark on a “round-the-world jaunt of the vagabond type.” The 23-year-old Dartmouth graduate would travel as cheaply as possible, lodging pri-marily in youth hostels or modest inns. The paper promised to publish regular reports detailing his adventures and progress.

After working his way across the Atlantic aboard a freighter and touring the United kingdom, Harry reached Germany by steamer. He found the people neat and friendly and was struck by how affordable things were — he could get a room for the night or a hot meal for the equivalent of an American quarter. In Munich, a “capital of beer and music,” he purchased a used bicy-cle for a mere $8.75. It was a 40-plus-pound affair with balloon tires and a single speed.

In Europe, at least, Harry resolved to travel primarily by bicycle. As he explained to his readers: “Cycling is about the best way to travel if the roads are decent. There is so much to see in a given mile that much is missed when traveling by auto or motor-cycle. You can stop to investigate wine presses, see how peasants make cheese, watch men at work in the olive orchards. Many times you are invited to sample wine or delicious fresh sheep’s cheese.” Cycling also allowed Harry to bond with the locals.

“In reality, you become one of them,” he explained. “Wearing rough clothes helps. They feel no social barrier such as a suit would provoke.”

Harry pedaled his 6-foot 3-inch frame and 50 pounds of gear through picturesque medi-eval towns along the Rhine. He observed the townsfolk as they filed into church on Sunday, dressed in traditional garb. He took in the live-ly street celebrations. And he was especially amused by the town crier’s bizarre routine. “He rings cowbells with a great clang,” Harry told his readers, “then shouts out that Herr Steinberger’s horse died last night or Frau Schlossmacher gave birth to a baby. The only modern touch is that he rides a bicycle.”

Still, Harry detected a distinctly new chill in the air. Four years earlier, he had visited Germany, still impoverished by its disastrous defeat in the Great War. “Not once do I remember seeing troops,” he wrote home. “Now I see them every day.” It was obvious to him that the new Nazi regime was frantically rearming, and he was shocked that Europeans seemed to readily accept the inevitability of anoth-er war. “They know it will come just like birth and death,” he told his readers. “However, I have met no one who wants war. The masses surely want peace.”

Harry offered his own assessment of Germany’s troubling predicament. “I don’t want the reader to think that I am pro-Hitler,” he insisted, referring to the con-troversial German dictator Adolph Hitler. “I would not like der Fuhrer at the head of our government.” Still, he noted, the econ-omy had clearly improved under the Nazis despite severe rationing of eggs and butter and the overt persecution of Jews. “Hitler has given Germany law and order,” Harry declared in his column, “and for the work-ing class he has done much. It is true that those who do not like Hitler are afraid to speak openly, but the majority are strongly in favor of him.”

In early February 1936, Harry headed to the Bavarian resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen where throngs had gath-ered from around the world to watch the 1936 IV Olympic Winter Games, the first to include alpine skiing. He deemed the pageantry and organization far superior to what he had seen four years earlier at the previous games in Lake Placid, New York.

For Harry and his friends, however, the highlight was coming within 60 feet of the Fuhrer himself. “On the last day of the ski jumping, we were close to the balcony where Hitler watched the con-

testants,” Harry recounted in his column. “A splendid opportunity to gape. We watched Hitler more than the ski jump-ing. Der Fuhrer made a good impression. But Goering is a brutal, arrogant-looking man. Dr. Goebbels impresses one as being clever, shrewd, and unfeeling. [General] Von Blomberg appeared quite dignified.”

At the closing ceremonies that evening, Harry’s heart became almost unbearably heavy. Not because the games were over but because he had to say farewell to his pretty brown-eyed Swiss girlfriend, Lore Tschudin, whom he had been dating for several weeks. “I may never see her again,” he lamented in his diary, adding, “We have been in love.” Harry tried to be philosophical about his pain, explaining in his column, “In traveling, you make numerous friends who you may know for a few days, perhaps two or three weeks. Then you part, probably never to meet again. That is the rub in travel, but one has to become accustomed to it.”

Of course, on the positive side, the traveler is constantly making new friends. That very morning, while visiting the post office to mail his last batch of letters from Germany, Harry had met a fellow American tourist one year his senior, Fred Birchmore of Athens, Georgia. “He need not utter more than two words to know he came from way down south,” Harry observed in his column.

Harry found Fred’s appearance almost comical. “Fred is short, well built, and sports a feeble attempt at a moustache. Always he wears a black wool sweater with an enormous “G” emblazoned on the front, which he won in boxing at University of Georgia.” Still Harry sensed immediately that Fred was “easygoing and interesting.” And when the amiable Southerner pro-posed that they cycle together to Yugoslavia and down the Dalmatian coast toward Greece, Harry readily agreed.

They were, after all, kindred spirits. Despite their physical and geographical dif-ferences, both were highly athletic college graduates from solid middle-class families with a thirst for adventure. Since his arrival in Europe the previous summer, Fred had been conducting an extensive vagabond tour of his own, interrupted only by his post-graduate work at the University of Cologne where he was studying interna-tional law. He, too, rode a sturdy German bicycle, which he dubbed Bucephalus, after the horse of Alexander the Great (it is now preserved by the Smithsonian Institution). Fred too was corresponding

egyptian stop. Fred Birchmore on the Giza Plateau in April 1936.


with an American newspaper, the Atlanta Journal.

The previous July, immediately after purchasing his blue Reinhardt bicycle in the central German town of Gotha, Fred and a young German companion cycled north toward Scandinavia. Like Harry, Fred observed firsthand the Nazi’s frenetic mili-tary buildup. “I was constantly passing sol-

diers, tanks, giant air fleets, and artillery,” he wrote in his memoir, Around the World on a Bicycle. On that trip, Fred experienced a bit of heartache himself when he returned to Gotha three weeks later without his soulful, guitar-playing “bonnie Norwegian lassie.”

With several months to go before the start of his classes in Cologne, Fred embarked on yet another tour. This time he went alone, cycling extensively in France, Italy, and the United kingdom. Among the highlights of that adventure were climbing the Matterhorn alone and swimming in the Blue Grotto near Naples.

Shortly after he settled in Cologne, the previous November, Fred got even closer to Hitler than Harry and his friends would at the Olympic games. At the invitation

of his college mates, Fred attended a Nazi youth rally. Working up the crowd, Hitler demanded to know if any Americans were present. Birchmore’s friends pushed him forward. “He nearly hit me in the eye with his ‘Heil, Hitler,’ ”Fred recalled years later. “I thought, ‘Why, you little …’ Fortunately, Birchmore resisted the urge to strike back. “I looked over and there were about 25 or

30 brown-shirted guys with bayonets stuck on the end of their rifles,” he said.

And now that he was on winter break, Fred was on the road again. Like Harry, he was heading to Greece and then the Middle East. Although Harry planned to continue his global circuit, Fred intended to take a ship back to Germany that spring to resume his coursework in Cologne. For the next few weeks, however, the two were committed to traveling together.

On the morning of February 17, the day after the Olympic closing ceremonies, Fred and Harry left Garmisch on their bicycles, bound for Innsbruck, Austria, over the Tyrolean Alps. They covered the 40 miles in about eight hours. “Going uphill in the shadow of tall forests, the road would be

cold and ice-covered,” Fred recounted in his book, “whereas on the other side of the hills in the sunlight there would be thick mud and slushy snow.”

Harry described their second day out to his readers: “After leaving Innsbruck, it was a terrific uphill grind against a gale — up and up for 38 kilometers. Often we were compelled to walk, and when cycling we had to stand up and pump. Quite exhaust-ed, we reached the Brenner Pass with snow everywhere.” At the Italian frontier, they had to pay hefty deposits on their bicycles and wait almost three hours for clearance. Finally, rolling their bikes through a snow-storm, they found a hut where they col-lapsed for the night.

“Harry and I awakened early the next morning,” Fred wrote in his book, “to dis-cover that it was still snowing thick and fast while the wind wailed loudly. Our road was entirely obliterated.” They had to squeeze their brake levers so hard and often during the descents that their brake pads began to smoke. Still they managed to cover 100 kilometers that day.

“Almost in a stupor from the ordeal,” Harry recounted in his column, “we entered Padola only to have the fascisti pounce upon us. They considered us spies who had crossed the pass at night. Cyclists in February, that was unheard of. So we must be criminals of some sort. Into the fascist sanctuary they yanked us. Roman insignia and Mussolini’s portrait in his best scowl leered down at us from the walls.” At gunpoint they were commanded by the irate fascist chief to show their documents. Finally, satisfied that they were mere tour-ists after all, he released the terrified lads.

In Italy, too, the cyclists observed alarming evidence of growing militarism. “Everywhere we see a lot of soldiers loaf-ing about,” Harry wrote in his diary, add-ing, “They look sloppy compared to the Germans.” The fascists were also mount-ing a furious public brainwashing cam-paign. “Everywhere we saw propaganda to make the people believe that the war in Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) was a glorious struggle for a greater Italy,” Harry told his readers. “Flags, posters, newspa-per articles, the cinema were all cleverly exploited.”

Passing through Udine, they reached Trieste where they obtained visas to visit Yugoslavia and Greece free of charge, thanks to their international student iden-tity cards. They continued on to Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia). “We crossed a tiny

Fred the great. The smartly-dressed cyclist astride Bucephalus back in Georgia, fall 1936.

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bridge dividing Italy from Yugoslavia,” Harry reported. “At once you know you are in a differ-ent country. The alphabet is unrecognizable.”

The two quickly con-firmed that the Dalmatian coast fully lives up to its legendary beauty. “Mountains rise sharply above the blue Adriatic,” Harry informed his readers. “Off from the mainland, are islands appearing light blue in the haze.” Still the terrain was decep-tively hostile. “From a distance, the coast is lovely to the eye,” Harry continued, “but at close range you see nothing but slopes strewn with boulders. Somehow the work-ing peasants manage to survive — rais-ing their own vegetables, cultivating olive trees, and keeping goats or sheep.”

Indeed, their ride was far from the plea-surable romp that they had anticipated. “The road is third or fourth rate,” Harry lamented to his readers. “One moment it would border the sea. Then it would wind up and up over a pass spotted with snow. Far below in a warmer clime, we would see the olive orchards. To make cycling harder, we always had to buck headwinds.”

Still, they did not rue their itinerary. “Yugoslavia is a picturesque country,” Harry concluded in his column, “and the people are fairly clean and hospitable.”

Moreover, despite their abject poverty, the locals celebrated the pre-Lent carnival sea-son called “Masopust” with great gusto. “Every few kilometers, we met gay proces-sions,” Fred wrote in his report. Invariably, the leader carried the red, white, and blue Yugoslavian flag, followed by a clown, musicians, and hundreds of animated citi-zens dressed in traditional costumes.

At Novi the cyclists joined in the rev-elry. “Harry and I were almost danced to death,” Fred reported, “when it was whis-pered around that we were Americans.” For his part, Fred reported, “I had to cut fancy folk-dance steps with the buxom lassies until the old legs grew wobbly.”

Early the next morning, they resumed their southward ride. “After climbing until noon like Rocky Mountain goats up and down and around the jagged coastline, we stopped in Senj,” Fred reported. “While a barber was giving Harry a shampoo, I explored the town and sunned at the old fishing-boat docks. Unfortunately, a large passenger ship stopped that was headed for Split, and Harry could not resist the temptation to get on board. I declined to accompany him.”

A week later, the two would reunite in Split. “A fascinating town it is!,” Harry wrote in his diary. “It is a very old city with quaint, twisting streets.” Wrote Fred in his book: “Split has been the center of Dalmatian life and history for more than 2,000 years. Here is the great palace of Diocletian [a Roman Emperor], the slave’s son who became master of the world.”

Fred and Harry continued to ride down the coast, enjoying for a change a smooth beach road to Markarska. “Often saw women watching flocks of sheep by the sea and making yarn or knitting,” Harry wrote in his diary. “Beautiful day and marvelous

dear diary. Harry (Dartmouth yearbook photo above) comments about key Nazi figures and Fred Birchmore, whom he met in Germany during the IV Olympic Winter Games, 1936.

Book tour. Fred traveled the country in 1939 to promote Around the world on a Bicycle.

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sunset over the Adriatic. Spent the night in a peasant community on the sea. The man had worked in Oregon on the Alaskan Railroad. Others had worked as loggers in Oregon.”

The next day, however, the cyclists found themselves back on a narrow dirt road — winding up a mountain pass inhab-ited by intimidating sorts. “We bumped into bands of wild-looking men,” Fred recounted in his book “They wore short knee breeches, colored sashes about their waists, embroidered jackets and Turkish fezzes, turned-up-toed shoes, and long crooked knives gleaming under their belts.”

Harry’s accommodations that night were hardly more pleasant. “Spent the night with a young peasant couple for 10¢,” he wrote in his diary. “I slept in the same room as the man, his wife, and the grand-mother. All three of them in one bed, and I in another. The grandmother coughed and spat all night.”

Finally, on March 6, the cyclists reached the great port of Dubrovnik, which Harry described in his diary as “an old walled city that was once a tiny republic.” There they spent several hours searching for a cheap room. Noted Harry in his diary: “Dubrovnik is touristy and therefore expensive. We finally found a decent room.”

The next day, the cyclists boarded a steamer heading to Athens. “Magnificent scenery, great fjords, mountains with snow,” Harry recorded in his diary that evening. Over the next two days, the ship made several port calls. “From what we saw of the towns, Albania is about half-civilized,” Harry reported. “The people live in any kind of hovel with filth and dirt too abundant. Minarets remind you that this was formerly a Turkish province.”

When the ship reached Corfu, Fred and Harry again parted company. Harry debarked to spend a week cycling on the

isle. Fred elected to stay on board until the final destination. Somehow, they failed to reconnect in Athens. Not until nearly a month later did their paths cross again for one last time. Writing in Cairo, Egypt, Harry noted in his diary on April 4: “I saw Fred Birchmore today. Poor Fred! At the Syrian frontier, he lost $300 in cash and his pass-port. It’s a helluva job to get a new visa!”

In fact, about 10 days earlier, Fred had been robbed while sleeping on a beach by the Red Sea near Suez, about 80 miles east of Cairo. “I waked in the cold hours of darkness just before dawn,” Fred wrote in his book. “In reaching for an extra shirt in the knapsack under my head, I discov-ered that the knapsack had been neatly slit from end to end. Toothbrush, diary,

and maps lay scattered on the beach, and extra shirt and shorts were still intact. But my money belt containing cash, traveler’s checks, passport, and all other important documents had vanished!.”

Instead of crossing into the Sinai Peninsula as he had planned, Fred had to return to Cairo where he could apply for a new passport at the American embassy and await an influx of cash at the American Express office, courtesy of his parents. He sold off a few of his remaining possessions to pay for a third-class train ticket.

Fred’s shaken faith in humanity was nonetheless somewhat restored in the crowded railcar. “When word passed around that I was not really one of those brain-cracked millionaires, ‘roughing it’

radio, radio. Willa Deane and Fred at a radio broadcast for WSB, Atlanta, May 19, 1940.

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for the novelty but broke like the rest of them,” Fred recounted in his book, “I was immediately showered with sincere sympa-thies and offers of material gifts.”

Six weeks passed before Fred received a new passport. Having already missed the start of the new semester back in Cologne, he decided to renounce his German educa-tion. Instead he would make a global circuit of his own — by bicycle. He crossed the Sinai Peninsula to reach Palestine. After rolling through the scorching Syrian Desert, he entered Persia. Rugged Afghanistan proved nearly impenetrable, yet he made it to India, then Burma. He nearly died of malaria while traversing the dense jungles of Southeast Asia.

Finally, that September, Fred sailed back to the U.S. via the Philippines. Debarking at San Pedro, California, he found his anxious parents awaiting him. They drove him and his bicycle back to their home in Athens before he could head off on any more har-rowing adventures. There Fred reluctantly resumed his long-deferred legal career.

For his part, Harry sold his bicycle in Athens to a Londoner for $10 (“That was more than I paid for it,” he gloated in his diary). In Cairo he hitched an automobile

ride with a German friend. They drove all the way to kandahar, Afghanistan. Harry continued to travel east by foot and on horseback, exploring Tibet and Thailand. He eventually sailed to China and Japan where he enjoyed a prolonged visit before finally returning home to lecture about his travels.

By 1940, both Harry and Fred had set-tled down to family life. Harry met Dorothy Sharp, a fellow midwesterner, at his dude ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They were soon married. Fred proposed to a local girl, Willa Deane Stuckey. For their honey-moon, the couple cycled 4,500 miles on a tandem bicycle through Cuba, Jamaica, and Central and South America.

But their blissful personal lives would soon be disrupted by the outbreak of the catastrophic world war they had long anticipated. In 1942, Fred enlisted as a gun-nery officer on a Liberty Ship that sailed the North Atlantic. That same year, Harry likewise joined the navy to serve as a sec-ond lieutenant.

Through it all, they continued to exchange occasional letters. In January 1944, almost eight years after he had last seen Fred, Harry wrote to his old friend from the U.S.S. Ajax. “It was mighty fine

to get your card,” he opened. Noting that he had recently visited Washington, DC, for training, he added: “I went through the Smithsonian Institution and looked for your old steed. And, sure enough, Bucephalus was there, dusty but grand as ever. The last time I saw you riding the old bike was in Cairo, wasn’t it?”

Harry’s tone turned wistful. “It looks like I’ll do a lot more traveling before this fracas is over,” he wrote his old compan-ion, “but it won’t be anything like the way we traveled. I wouldn’t care to start over again, but those days we had in Europe and the Orient were great.” In words that no doubt expressed a mutual sentiment, Harry closed: ”I’ve often thought, Fred, that if anyone had lots of zip and zest for life, you sure have it. And I know darn well that you are going to get the most out of life.”

David V. Herlihy is the author of The Lost Cyclist (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), and Bicycle: The History (Yale University Press), and the winner of the 2004 Award for Excellence in the History of Science. He is responsible for the naming of a bicycle path in Boston after the French mechanic Pierre Lallement, a former resident and the original bicycle patentee, and for the installation of a plaque by the New Haven Green where Lallement introduced Americans to the art of cycling in the spring of 1866.

1904South Dakota, 1904. They ped-

aled slowly under a blazing prairie sun, their water long since used up. They no lon-ger had any clear idea if they were on the right trail or

not, nor did it matter. All that mattered was survival. Finally, overcome with weakness, they stacked the bicycles together for what little shade they could provide and lay down with no hope left.

How did a couple of young men, 19 and 20 years old, come to be in such a predicament in the first place? Blame it on the lure of adventure. Clarence M. Darling and Claude C. Murphey had fantasized for some time about making a trip around the U.S. but had not settled on a form of transportation. Bicycling would be the most flexible and daring method of travel, but the lack of good roads in the country in 1904 would have made such a journey a trial as well as an adventure. The choice was made when they got wind of a wager that it would be impos-sible for anyone to make a circuit of the United States by bicycle within a period of 18 months, touching on all 45 states, four territories (Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and the Indian Territory), and the District of Columbia. If successful, the prize would be $5,000, the equivalent of $125,000 in today’s money. Certain stipula-tions were made, the chief one being that

the challenger must start with no cash and earn traveling money only through the sale of a small souvenir. The boys chose to carry a supply of small aluminum pin trays inscribed with information about their trip.

May 2, 1904, found the two wheel-

men in front of the Otsego Hotel in their hometown of Jackson, Michigan, at 5:45 AM, being cheered on by a crowd of well-wishers. Their bikes had arrived from the factory only a few days before and were described as “heavy roadsters”, with 22-inch frames, coaster brakes, and gears of “84 2-3.” They weighed 28 pounds, but after loading repair tools, extra clothing, and a small portable typewriter, the total weight was 75 pounds each. The boys car-ried no camping gear, very little food, and only one canteen each as their plan was

to sleep in farmhouses, telegraph stations, barns and the like, and to purchase what they needed as they traveled. Darling also carried a kodak camera. Their gear was stowed mainly in canvas frame bags.

The wagon roads along the route were often so sandy or muddy that their only option was to fol-low the rail lines. Although they could often ride along-side them, they also spent a good deal of time walk-ing. Several times, especially in the South, the mud was so thick and sticky that they had to carry the bikes while slogging through the gumbo. Mechanical issues also plagued them as the bad roads caused a lot of wear and tear on the bikes, including a few broken frames that need-ed repair. Conflict with other vehicles was not unknown in 1904 as the duo found out when they received a stern

and loud lecture, mostly in German, from a farmer in a buggy who felt very strongly that bicycles should not be allowed on the roads.

The first part of their trip took them through Chicago to the Dakotas. The drink-ing water throughout western Minnesota and the Dakotas left a lot to be desired. It was either alkali water or rainwater, the wells being saline and bitter. The area around Minneapolis had provided par-ticularly easy cycling since the local wheel-men’s association had created bicycle paths

Around the United States by Bicycle

b y b o b M a r r

the start • May 2, 1904

the Finish • august 11, 1905


to all the towns in a 50-mile radius. The roads in South Dakota were very good as well, and Darling and Murphey made the longest daily ride of their entire trip, 112 miles, from Redfield to Mitchell, where they arrived in time for the Corn Festival.

Bonesteel, South Dakota, provided some entertainment in the form of a land rush. The government had just opened a part of

the Rosebud Reservation to homesteading, and thousands of prospective homestead-ers were lined up, waiting. The boys were told by several locals that the old Valentine Trail, which went through the reservation, would be easy to follow and would save them 100 miles of bad roads to Nebraska, so they set out in good spirits. Unfortunately, the reservation was less populated than they had been led to believe, and the trail was far from obvious. After a series of guesstimated turns, they ran out of food and water and ended up nearly passed out on the prairie, as I described at the begin-ning of this story. They were saved by a passing horseman who carried them back to his cabin, where he gave them food and water. They recovered enough to continue a day later, but without his assistance they might have died on the spot.

In Denver they had their bikes over-hauled and bought some camping gear for the trip over the Rockies. They followed what is probably now US 285 from Denver toward Leadville but was then a wagon road carved out of the mountains. The last pass before Leadville was Mosquito Pass, 13,700 feet high, which the boys found

to be in about the same condition as it is today. It took them five hours to travel the seven miles from the base of the pass to the summit on a path that was extremely steep and rocky. Toward the top of the pass, they were treated to a mile or so of sloppy hike-a-bike through the snow.

The ride from there to the Montana bor-der was relatively uneventful but does illus-

trate the changes that have been made in the landscape in 100 years. Leaving Pocatello (1904 population 6,000, 2010 population 54,000), they passed through the Snake River sagebrush desert, which they described as being 50 miles of desolate waste. Today an aerial photo shows extensive irrigated agri-culture throughout the area.

After some more cycling through moun-tain and desert, the adventurers arrived in Butte, Montana, “a city of 40,000 souls, an overgrown mining camp, in which gam-bling seemed to run riot.” Heading north, they passed through Goldcreek, a town

consisting of a railway station, general store, and saloon. Stopping in the saloon to get warm, the boys got a good look at typical Montana cowboys of 1904: bear-skin chaps with the hair on the outside; blue flannel shirts; low-crowned, broad-

brimmed felt hats; red bandanas; belts full of cartridges and Colt pistols. From Bearmouth the wagon road passed through Hell Gate Canyon to Missoula, a town of 6,000, where they learned that they would have to follow the Northern Pacific railroad tracks to Spokane, 272 miles away, as there were no through roads. In Idaho they had the novel experience of cycling around and through some forest fires, once hav-ing to dash down a 300-yard stretch where the road was still covered with smoking, smoldering debris. They suffered only a burned jacket and singed eyebrows. Along this stretch, they also had to pass over sev-eral high trestles, something that was often necessary along their route. Unfortunately there was no pedestrian walkway on the trestles. If they spotted a train coming, they sometimes had to climb down to a support beam and hold their bicycles over the edge until the train passed (and I thought riding a road with no shoulder was scary!)

The route past Spokane posed no par-ticular problems, but on the next leg, across the Cascades, they came to a two-mile-long railroad tunnel that was guarded by a watchman. The boys resolved to try the tunnel while the watchman was asleep and were caught by a fast freight. By plas-tering themselves to the side of the tunnel, they were able — by a margin of three inches, to keep from being run over, but the smoke and gas of the three coal-fired engines forced them back out of the tunnel. After consulting with the watchman, and for a small price, he agreed to guide them through, although it was “agin the rules.”

Leaving Tacoma, they had the pleasure of crossing “the longest, highest, and only exclusive bicycle bridge in the world.” Built in 1896 by the wheelmen of Tacoma, this bridge was in service for over 25 years. They traveled the rest of Washington most-ly on plank roads, which were laid down between towns due to the amount of rainfall

in that part of the state, and the splinters gave them many a flat to patch.

Crossing the Sierra Nevadas toward Susanville, California, they found them-selves in a bit of a predicament, having run out of food and water in a very sparsely

small souvenir. The boys sold 3½” x 5” aluminum “ash or card receiver” trays for 15 cents.

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Arriving in Detroit, they observed, “Without a doubt Detroit is one of the cleanest and best-paved cities in the United States.”


inhabited region. Fortunately, they came across a farm. Unfortunately, no one was at home, and after refilling their canteens from the pump, they decided to enter the house through an unlocked window to find food, intending, of course, to pay for it. The farm-er’s return put them in an awkward posi-tion, but he turned out to be a very pleas-ant Southern gentleman, originally from Tennessee. After they apologized profusely, he invited them to stay the night. His name was Shird Eldridge, and he was one of the local pioneers. An 1897 Sierra Club Bulletin mentions his dairy farm as a place “where good accommodations will be found.”

In Reno they stayed as guests of the Reno Wheelmen’s Club, membership 600. It had a clubhouse with reading rooms, a large gym-nasium, and a swimming pool. They passed through Truckee, “… truly a cesspool, and headquarters for gamblers and criminals,” and entered a continuous stretch of 35 miles of tunnels and snow sheds that covered the railroad tracks over the summit of the Sierras. This made for some of the most nervewracking riding of the trip because there was little room to move over and let the trains pass. In San Francisco, they admired the Golden Gate (sans bridge) and took in the sights. They were unimpressed with Los Angeles but noted that one section of the city was covered in oil rigs to tap the “most unlimited supply of oil.”

Their next task was to cross the Colorado Desert from Blanning, California, to Yuma, Arizona. They had been warned that there was nothing but uninhabited desert all the way to western Texas, nearly 1,000 miles, so they were forced to follow the rail line all that distance. Looking at this route in Google Earth, it is amazing to see the difference that irrigation has made in 100 years. Indio, California, current population over 76,000, was described by the boys as consisting of a telegraph station, depot, water tank, and coal sheds. The most difficult part of this leg of the trip was the lack of services. For hun-dreds of miles at a time, there was literally no place to buy supplies. The boys depended on the kindness of telegraph operators to either give or sell them food to augment what they could carry. Water at least, was no prob-lem as each telegraph station had a cistern. They stopped for a couple of days of rest in Tucson, which “with a population of 12,000, is the largest city in Arizona.”

The wheelmen enjoyed good weath-er crossing Texas, but heading north, the weather turned more typical for January, and they had to deal with snow and cold,

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including sub-zero temperatures in kansas. Most of the travel through this area was on the train tracks. They could be fairly certain of finding a warm place to stay at telegraph stations, depots, and other railroad build-ings. They fantasized that should they catch the poet who wrote “Beautiful, Beautiful Snow,” they would kill him on the spot. Missouri and Arkansas did not impress the travelers. They thought the whole region rather backward and primitive.

The Deep South was notable mostly for rain and mud and, farther to the east, sand. Most of the wagon roads were very primi-tive, and much of the land was swampy to begin with. At one point, in crossing over a bridge flooded to a depth of four feet or so, Darling inadvertently stepped off the edge and was rescued by Murphey, but he lost his jacket and soaked the wooden rims of his wheels, which subsequently warped and required replacement.

Turning north again, they went to Chattanooga and then on to Atlanta, Georgia, passing numerous Civil War bat-tlefields on the way. At Ringgold, Georgia, they spent the night with an ex-Confed-erate general who entertained them with accounts of the battles he had taken part in and gave them a bayonet and some bullets. They were impressed with Atlanta, “the Chicago of the South,” with its “skyscrap-

ers” of 14 to 17 stories.Traveling up the Atlantic seaboard

toward Washington, DC, proved to be fairly smooth riding, and although they were forced to ride the rail lines quite a bit on account of sand and rain, there were

many more rideable sections of road. From Washington to New York City, there were very good roads so the boys were able to ride at top speed. In New York, they were again impressed by the skyscrapers, the highest, Park Row, was 32 stories.

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life saver. On the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the boys lost their way. The last of their water gone, they came to an exhausted halt. A local Indian rescued them and brought them to his cabin where they recovered before riding south into Nebraska.

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The ride continued over mostly good roads, except for some hilly, sandy sections in Rhode Island. Once in Maine, the wet sand of the beach provided good riding for many miles until they arrived in Portland. Turning west toward home, they had only a dollar left and were getting worried about being able to fulfill the terms of the wager (their souvenir trays were not selling well at all in New England). Finally, after two days without food, they were forced to give up and work for their meal at a small restaurant in Burlington, Vermont. The wager having been lost, the dejected duo had money sent to them so that they could finish the trip.

After paying a visit to Niagara Falls, the boys traveled along Lake Erie on the Lake Shore Turnpike. Passing through Akron and Canton, Ohio, they eventually followed the Ohio River from Wellsville to Martin’s Ferry, which was across from their West Virginia checkpoint of Wheeling. They noted that there were many potteries along the river as well as some huge iron and steel plants. They found Wheeling to be “a most disgusting city, dirty, narrow streets which are poorly paved.” Crossing back over the Ohio River, they headed for Columbus

along the National Pike, now US 40. From Columbus they rode south through Cincinnati; Frankfort, “a town of but a few thousand inhabitants;” and Louisville, where they crossed over to Indiana.

Arriving in Detroit, they observed, “Without doubt Detroit is one of the clean-est and best-paved cities in the United States. An air of neatness hangs about

everything.” Two days later, after a delay caused by Darling’s coaster brake break-ing into several pieces, they arrived back in front of the Otsego Hotel in Jackson, having traveled 13,407 miles in one year, three months, nine days, six hours, and 45 minutes.

Although the bet was lost, there is no doubt that Murphey and Darling gained an incredible prize through their adven-ture. They got to see the country, meet people of all walks of life, experience new fantastic landscapes, and do it all at bicycle speed. Fortunately for us, 100 years later, this opportunity still exists in the form of bikepacking and adventure cycling. The boys had to watch for trains; we have to watch for cars. They had to find food and shelter on the trail, and so do we. They had the adventure of a lifetime, and that adven-ture still remains for all of us to share. As Freddie Mercury so elegantly put it, “Get on your bikes and ride!”

Bob Marr lives with his wife Janet and two cats in a log cabin in the woods of northern Michigan. One of his favorite pastimes is riding his mountain bike along the roads and trails near his home. This year, he hopes to complete the TourDivide along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

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pioneer mountain bikers. A shortcut taken in the mountains between Wenatchee and ellensburg, Washington, turned into a nightmare of thick forest, narrow trails, and steep climbs.

SHAKEDOWN IN ALASKA

I woke up as I had fallen sleep — fast. Our yellow nylon tent was being shaken so violently that I thought “Bear!” then “Earthquake!” During our first evening on the road, on

June 16, 1972, we had pedaled only 26 miles from Anchorage along the Glenn Highway. Exhausted, we had bedded down at Mirror Lake Wayside Park around 10:00 PM in spite of the “NO CAMPING” sign. I had slept soundly, even with nearly 23 hours of vis-ible light.

It had been a long, frustrating day of last-minute expedition chores. Larry and Sharon Ermold had bunked and fed our group for three days. I spent half our final

prep day bathing, packing, and writing letters; the other half found me at Sharon’s sewing machine making food bags and a nylon windbreaker undershirt for myself. Otherwise I would have had to stitch them by hand on the road. Although we had partial sponsorship from our first benefac-tor, Milton Morse of New Jersey, as well as the American Youth Hostels, Inc., money was tight.

I scribbled in my journal that night, “Hemistour began quietly, in subur-ban Anchorage, with the click of sever-al instamatic cameras.” We toted 60 rolls of kodachrome slide film from National Geographic magazine to be shot on a freelance

Double take, double duty. John Likins ducks as an airplane lands and taxies along the Denali Highway. Several sections of the road also function as landing strips.

Hemistour, the first bicycle expedition to travel the western Hemisphere from north to south, logged 18,272 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, to ushuaia, Argentina. Between june 16, 1972, and February 25, 1975, 29 cyclists rode varying distances. The core group of riders consisted of Dan and lys Burden (8,628 miles to Salina Cruz, Mexico) and Greg and june Siple (18,272 miles to ushuaia). Originated in 1966 as “Project 66” by Dan and dubbed “Hemistour” by Greg in 1968, the ride garnered financial support from sponsors, cyclists, family, and friends to promote American Youth Hostels, Inc. and bicycle tour-ing. To read more about Hemistour, check out National Geographic, May 1973, and National Geographic World, February 1976.

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basis, and would shoot another 40 plus rolls of our own hand-rolled Ektachrome and black and white film en route to Missoula. But not one of us photographed the start.

“June! Greg! Wake up!” I quickly real-ized it wasn’t a bear, a quake, or a dream — it was Dan. Finally conscious, I unzipped the tent flap, and peeked out. “We were robbed last night,” he stated gravely. “Ha, ha, Dan, very funny,” I giggled sleepily, but he quickly strode away. Hmm … Greg, my husband, and the funny bone of our Hemistour Expedition, usually set the stan-dard for humor, but Dan Burden, our self-appointed leader, was not above pulling pranks of his own.

Instead of packing up our sleeping bags first thing, we pulled on our riding clothes to head over to the shelter house. The previ-ous night, we had slung our food packs up onto the roof, theoretically out of reach for a bear. Dan and wife Lys, as well as John Likins, our fifth rider, looked very glum indeed as they studied tire tracks on the ground near the now empty eaves. I was simultaneously convinced and dumbfound-ed, “They even took our dirty dishes!” I blurted out. Who would steal dirty dishes?

But the used utensils were minor casual-ties — we had lost all our food and half our panniers. No breakfast for us. Half our film had been ripped off. All our tools and spare

parts were gone. Dan found a local phone up the road to call police and report the theft to the Anchorage newspaper. “It looks like a pickup truck backed up to the shelter house and raked your equipment into the bed,” an Alaska State Trooper observed, staring at the telltale lugged tracks.

With stomachs growling, we headed for Wasilla, population 883. We felt lopsided with our left-hand panniers missing, and the 18 miles to Wasilla gave us plenty of time to feel sorry for ourselves. According to The Milepost, Teeland’s Country Store awaited us, where we hoped to buy enough groceries to take us four riding days north.

Head down and feeling low, I trailed the

by June J. Siple


others, hindered as I would be for weeks by a strained knee and not enough prep miles. On the boardwalk at Teeland’s, I ruffled the fur of two local dogs and baby-talked them into wagging their tails, which cheered me up. The Burdens had purchased a breakfast picnic feast, and we sat on the ground together for a stress-free square meal. But just as we started eating, one of the same darn dogs I had been cuddling sidled over to us and urinated on Greg’s back. “Gaak!” I yelled, and we all recoiled in horror while Greg jumped up quickly to shuck his windbreaker. With a foolish grin on his face, he ran off to the restroom to immediately douse and wash the offensive garment. We laughed even harder when he sheepishly reappeared, and our gloom evaporated.

Spinning along northward on a newly paved section of the Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway, just opened in 1971 (now the George Parks Memorial Highway), we enjoyed the heat that radiated off the fresh blacktop, which took the chill off the typi-cally cool 50 to 60 degree day. With a gen-erous tailwind and our newly assembled bikes running smoothly, we settled into a state of grateful meditation. “The Last Frontier” state seemed to be apologizing for all our recent troubles with the promise of spectacular scenery ahead and we felt the worst was behind us. With new food stocks bungied chaotically onto our dimin-

ished rigs, equipment on order, and the Anchorage Daily Times busily working on the theft story for that evening’s paper, we had no worries. We had come to Alaska to ride to Argentina.

As we approached Mount Mckinley National Park (Denali National Park and Preserve since 1980), the Alaska Range rose on the horizon. Snow still chilled its flanks along gigantic ravines and clefts, and Mckinley’s summit was, as usual, hid-den in the clouds. But we would have a sunny rest day at the park’s edge to get a glimpse of the peak. Although we started riding in mid-June, the snow had

only recently melted off the flats around Anchorage. So it turned out to be fortunate that our start was delayed two weeks at our base in Missoula, Montana, where we had struggled and failed to get the expedition launched on time.

But anywhere snowmelt had pooled, mosquitoes (the unofficial state bird) had already proliferated and were ready and willing to make use of us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Head nets combined with our wide-brimmed Allagash hats, bandanas, long-sleeved shirts, windbreak-ers, “bug juice” on exposed skin, and socks pulled up over our pant legs in camp

into the wilderness. Still a pack short from the Mirror lake theft, lys rides north toward the magnificent Alaska Range.

incident at Wasilla. lys studies The Milepost on the boardwalk in front of Teeland’s Country Store while June befriends the Wasilla dogs. The mood would soon change.

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completed our defense against the insects. Riding was the best escape, and finding a campsite at the edge of a breezy lake was the best prevention. Each of us moved about with a personal entourage of insects

in camp. The final dive into our tent each night started with a run for it to shake off the beasts.

When we hit the road in Anchorage, we became drop outs from the politics, social strife, and struggle of the ongoing war in Vietnam — although Dan did his duty as Yeoman Second Class (Clerical) for four years in the U.S. Navy in Florida and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Greg, a conscien-tious objector, did alternative service for two years as a child-care worker at the Home for Crippled Children in Pittsburgh.

The war ruled the lives of all eligible young men at the time, and our husbands’ obliga-tions had to be fulfilled before we could all swing our legs over the top tubes.

Dan had dreamed up the challenge for our core group of four to conquer the Western Hemisphere by bicycle, something that had never been done. However, we had been corresponding with Ian Hibell from England who was northbound from Cape Horn with two New zealand cyclists.

alaska warm up. When the group crossed into the yukon, more than 17,000 miles of travel still lay ahead to ushuaia, Argentina, the ultimate goal.

Harmonica for company. With “Mademoiselle from Armentières” her most accomplished tune, June pedals north of Wasilla on Highway 3, still enjoying the luxury of pavement.

HemistourRouteTravel byPlane, Train, or Boat

Anchorage

Calgary

Dawson CityTok Junction

Watson Lake

New Hazelton

Florence

San Francisco

Panama City

Lima

Ushuaia

La Paz

Santa Cruz

Cordoba

Cartagena

Quito

El Paso

Salina Cruz

DurangoLa Paz

Missoula

Hemistour may have been the first cycling expedition with its own logo. Greg designed it to represent four basic ele-ments of the expedition.”

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We would be informal ambassadors as we traveled through other countries and we would live simply. Whenever our ride had some publicity, our purpose was to advo-cate for bicycle touring and hosteling. Most people had no idea what could be accom-plished on a bicycle, so we hoped to open their eyes — one community at a time — all the way to the tip of South America.

But we also realized that when Hemistour appeared in the news, it could make us a target. Thieves read the papers, too. Realizing how exposed we were to theft and other mayhem, and how hard the loss hit the group wallet, we had learned a vital lesson. We would have to be much smarter and more careful in the future. At least our National Geographic film had not been filched. Locals, many of them dyed-in-the-wool outdoorsmen, seemed to understand our crazy quest. They opened their hearts when news of the robbery was published. Motorists waved, stopped to chat, and gave us treats out of their coolers. Friends of Lys’ parents drove up from Anchorage to drop off steaks and canned goods for an evening feast.

On the road, our smooth highway quickly gave way to gravel. In Alaska all roads suffer from surface shifts caused by permafrost, and dirt roads have to be graded regularly or fall into washboarded, rutted, pot-holed disarray. Flogged every which way on neglected roads, cars and bikes alike constantly lose nuts and bolts. Shaken off and scattered like chicken feed, they turn into the flotsam and jetsam of the open road. In a penny-pinching mood, I stopped to pick up a discarded portable radio that hit the dirt, its parts scattered along the shoulder for 10 yards. I patiently gathered the trail of pieces, blew off the dust, and optimistically reassembled it in camp. Voila! I had a working radio. With minuscule towns usually more than 100 miles apart, radio stations were few and far between, but when I could catch some music, it helped me tune out headwinds and eased my feelings of isolation. Lys objected to the radio in camp, so I saved it for the road.

After the theft, we had to be even more careful with group money, and with every mile to Missoula that passed under our wheels, conserving our funds would become critical. Back in Montana, we had given up plans to backpack for six days in Mckinley because of underfunding. So that we could afford to replace our stolen equipment, we also had to forego a bus

tour into the park. With the theft and late start throwing us off schedule, the Burdens abruptly cut our ride north to Circle with-out any discussion. That irked Greg and me to no end because Circle was the northern-most point of the Pan-American Highway in 1972. (The North Slope Haul Road, now the Dalton Highway, wouldn’t be built until 1974.) But Dan and Lys had come to Alaska by car the previous fall to research the route, and had driven from Fairbanks up to visit Circle. They were lukewarm about doing it again by bike, and by chop-ping that out of our itinerary, they could almost get us back on schedule. As a practi-cal matter, it made sense.

But Greg and I had been determined to ride from “top to bottom” of the hemi-sphere, and we would have mutinied and headed north — except we had no money of our own, having pooled it with group funds. Nor did we have enough food for a side trip. Plus, we would have seri-ously fallen behind the others, who would have ridden on to the Yukon without us. This wasn’t our first disagreement with the Burdens — nor would it be our last. We had also objected strenuously the previous fall to the expense of their 6,000-mile car

research trip to Alaska from Montana.Particularly aware of our gradual

financial melt, I served as treasurer for “Hemistour, Inc.,” our corporation of four. My official duties were to collect receipts, record expenses, and write checks, but I had little say over how and where we

HEMISTOur - 3

photo op. looking for his next picture, Dan Burden scans the horizon.

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spent group funds. Mail stops always pro-vided relief with news of donations back in Missoula, and a little cash came our way on the road, mostly from tourists or locals who either pitied or admired us. Money also came from individuals who donated $10 to support us in exchange for a xeroxed copy of our report, “The Hemistour Concept Defined,” and the book we planned (unfor-tunately never written). But we were a fru-gal group, not buying souvenirs and usu-ally camping for free not far off the road.

While going through our mail in the lobby of Mckinley Park Hotel, which was close to our campground, we learned about a number of theft-generated donations. Duane Brant, Lys’s brother, who was han-dling expedition affairs in Montana, had airmailed a box of equipment including spare parts and tools from Braxton Bike Shop. All the food boxes we had shipped before leaving Montana had arrived. The Touring Cyclist Shop, a bike shop and pan-nier company in Boulder, Colorado, had dropped everything to get new red pan-niers to us only four days after the theft. At a time when the fastest communications for travelers were via telegram, phone booth calls, and airmail, we were in awe of how

quickly these friends had come to our aid. We had Christmas in Mckinley.

At the hotel lobby, we got an earful from the manager who said “Forget rid-ing the Denali Highway — it’s too rough, and motorists hate it!” We consulted other travelers who agreed. That actually sounded

good to us because we’d been choking on dust clouds kicked up by passing vehicles and we looked forward to a quieter road ahead. And with its legendary potholes, one set of well-marked ruts, and sharp grav-el the size of hen’s eggs at the road’s edge, the Denali would live up to its reputation.

north woods, heavy dust. Greg and John await another dose of vehicle-generated dust.

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HEMISTOur - 4

On our first Denali day, the group was ahead looking for the abandoned shack we knew we could use for a shelter overnight. “I was coming down a long, shallow hill,” my journal reads, “without using brakes, and hit a rock or pothole which threw me into the center gravel pile.” Having lost control at about 40 MPH, I was headed for a fall in deep, damaging gravel. My adrena-line spiked, which is not always helpful in keeping control, and a shiver-shock sensation ran up my spine while a goose-fleshy chill swept over my entire body. In my mind, I could see the crash. I flashed on a vision of myself in the hospital bed, multiple casts and pulleys employed to keep damaged limbs in traction. “Noooo!” I yelled, and with a death grip on the bars, not braking to avoid an inevitable slide, and fishtailing all over, I rode out my careening swoop downhill and made it safely to the bottom. “Ha-ha, ha-HA!” I yelled, raising my fist to the sky in defiance, “Not this time!” Stopped and straddling the bike, I trembled while leaning on the handlebars and panted to defeat the adrenaline rush. I then pedaled cautiously and steadily until the shack came into view. (I would not take a spill until Tierra del Fuego.)

To calm my nerves at our shack-camp near Twin Lakes, I went fishing while dinner, already in progress, was being prepared. But no one called me for dinner, even though I was hoping to supplement the meal. I returned without a catch to find the dinner pot nearly empty — an appar-ent punishment for having gone fishing. That night I crawled into my sleeping bag half-hungry, realizing that not even my spouse would be generous with the leav-ings. I learned then and there not to be late for dinner.

The group didn’t share my zeal for trout, I had learned the hard way, even though

our pre-packed meals were short on pro-tein. Fishing is a zen-like task I had always relished, and Alaska casting near nirvana. But the Burdens had refused to allow the purchase of a license in Anchorage, and I was so peeved about it that I had been fishing illegally at lunch stops and in camp. This clashed with my law-abiding nature, but fortunately, I didn’t even get a bite in Alaska, let alone a fish.

To make up for our delayed start and a few short riding days, we put in more miles per day and took fewer rest days. As a result, my tortoise-like pace became a bone of contention, so the group insisted I head out of camp first each morning. That meant no morning chores, which frustrated me

because I liked to cook. But it turned out to be a good strategy because I could get to the lunch stops and campsites earlier. Even so I would sift to the back of the group fairly quickly, but I had my own patch kit and pump in case of a flat.

For the first time in my life, I was physically the weakest member of a cycling group. Low man on the totem pole, I was humbled but could do nothing more than be patient with myself. Steadily I put in the miles, and my loneliness grew as we crossed the state. It seemed that I could do nothing right as far as the Burdens were concerned, even though we Siples had been more than equal partners in every aspect of planning and preparation. They tried to stop me from writing in my journal because it took time in camp and kept me up late, but I persisted. I sought out unbi-ased locals for friendly chats over coffee at the occasional café and to ease an ongoing dull headache from caffeine withdrawal. Lys, Dan, and John were already upset with me because of my sluggish riding, journal writing, walking hills, fishing, and using a radio. Stopping for coffee to get the energy boost I needed was one more burr under their saddles. But I was simply in survival mode, and I learned to stay out of range. On the 10th day, I wrote in my journal that Greg and I planned to take a break from the Burdens by living separately during our re-outfitting in September, but Missoula was more than 11 weeks and 2,700 miles away.

We laid the bikes down for lunch at Brushkana Creek, where a bearded man with a bike popped up like a ground squir-rel from the campground. Dave Sorenson hailed us happily as he walked his green three speed towards us, but we were taken aback by his bug-bitten, swollen eyelids and face. He had bought his second-hand bike in Anchorage, carried water in a

snowmelt and climbs aplenty. leaving remnants of seven-foot snowbanks behind, lys pushes her Hemistour bike up a tough grade on the Denali Highway.

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washed-out milk carton, hefted part of his gear in a backpack, and slept in a winter jacket rolled up in a tarp like a burrito. Having a wonderful time, he was headed west on the Denali without so much as a patch kit or spare tube. “We were all a bit aghast,” I wrote in my jour-nal. Connecticut-born Sorenson was the antithesis of our equipment-oriented, plan-the-heck-out-of-it selves. He greeted us as if he were our long-lost brother of the road, and as we shared our lunch with him, we felt almost guilty about our new bikes and fancy gear. Dave unwittingly taught us a lesson — “It’s not about the equipment, it’s about the riding,” Greg mused later. Our northern roads would prove lonely — we wouldn’t see another touring cyclist until Prince George, 1,851 miles later.

On the Denali, I began to find peace of mind at the back and away from group politics, playing my harmonica and radio, and thrilling at distant glaciers. killdeer called out as they swooped down on me to protect off-road nests among the rocks and pebbles. Colossal glaciated U-shaped val-leys with snowmelt waterfalls formed our roadside panorama. “Many wild roses and snowshoe rabbits,” my journal reported. Dozens of marmots scrambled this way and that in meadows just off the shoulder. A strange dark squiggle ahead on the road turned out to be a duck crossing with five ducklings, but she fluttered into the ditch to feign injury and draw me away from the brood. Wildlife typically feared us bike rid-ers but ignored cars churning past. On our 10th day, at Susitna Lodge, we heard that only two weeks before our arrival they still had seven feet of snow along the road. Greg and I shared a kiss and split a Halvah bar atop Maclaren Pass at 4,086 feet.

Hailing me to stop near the end of the Denali where gorgeous snowy mountains provided a magnificent photographic back-drop ahead, Dan asked, “Could you ride to that sign ahead, let your hair loose, take off your Allagash hat, and ride back past me again?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “No way!” I fumed at the idea. “Here I have a bad knee slowing me down and you want me to go backwards for a photo? The heck with that!” I rode off, thanking my lucky stars that our plan for a documentary film had gone unsponsored, otherwise, we wouldn’t have had a minute’s peace, even in the glorious midst of near-wilderness. Dan never asked me to repeat another mile — or pose. I considered myself a bicycle tourist — not a model.

HEMISTOur - 4

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HEMISTOur - 5

Spring is in the air.

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Meanwhile, with its moist, sticky grit, the Denali had been building up on our chains. Missoula-bicycle–builder Sam Braxton had prescribed proactive chain maintenance — wiping regularly with a rag and applying lubricant often. A sandy chain would grind down aluminum chainrings in nothing flat, and they were expensive to replace. But our bike oil had been part of the big theft booty. By the time we reached Tok Junction, against an unrelenting head-wind and downpour of cold rain, water had become the lubricant and quieted our squeaking chains and pulley wheels. I rum-maged around the general store set up in a Quonset hut for bike or machine oil in vain, but happily scooped up a can of boot water-proofing oil from a pile of dusty clutter. Pastor Duane king hosted us in the Faith Chapel basement, and we draped our half-drenched clothing and camping equipment everywhere to dry. When we packed up to ride east toward Canada two days later, our chains ran smoothly on boot oil. In the Yukon, I would switch to chainsaw oil to keep us going.

After listening to Dan cough all night in our basement hideaway, I awoke to the sound of Lys retching upstairs. Trip

stresses were finally having an effect on the Burdens, too, a surprise considering the pressure they had put on me to conform and buckle down. Only John had started

during national Bike Month (May 2012), Adventure Cycling is once again running its Build It. Bike It. Be a Part of It. campaign with the goal of raising $50,000 to support the creation of an official u.S Bicycle route System (uSBrS). we’re raising $50,000 to help connect all 50 states and create the largest bike network in the world!

U.s. Bike routes will help bring the transformative power of cycling to more Americans, connecting cyclists across the u.S. with cities, transpor-tation hubs, and scenic and historic destinations through existing (and new) infrastructure. These routes will be numbered, mapped, and officially recognized by state and federal gov-ernment agencies.

adventure Cycling is working in partnership with dozens of federal, state, and local agencies, other nonprofits, volunteers, and the u.S. Congress to build this visionary network. The momentum behind it is simply phenomenal — over 40 states are already working on u.S. Bicycle routes! To participate in the cam-paign or make a donation, visit ad-venturecycling.org/beapartofit or join the more than 20,000 fans on the uSBrS Facebook page at facebook.com/usbrs.

build it. bike it. be a Part of it.

adventurecycling.org/beapartofit facebook.com/usbrs

dave sorenson. The only other bicycle trav-eler the group met in Alaska impressed them with his casual approach to touring.

DA

N B

ur

DEN


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Effective CyclingSeventh EditionJohn Forester“I have used previous edi-tions of Effective Cycling as my go-to source for some 35 years. It is comprehensive, based on irrefutable logic and scientific data, and easily understandable.”

— Bill Hoffman, Former Director, League of American Bicyclists

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the expedition in shape, while the rest of us trained on the road. Due to the chilly and rainy weather, the daily push for extra miles, and perhaps sub-par nutrition, they had been dragging, too, unbeknownst to me. I rolled out of my bag, went upstairs, and knocked softly on the bathroom door. “Are you okay, Lys?” She let me in, then confessed, “I might be pregnant.” The evi-dence seemed strong. My thoughts raced. A pregnancy could mean the end of the expedition, or the plucky Lys might ride, have the baby, and keep on going. Who knew? I went to the clinic with her where the nurse said it was too soon for a preg-nancy blood test, but added, “I think you definitely have a virus.” She prescribed plenty of fluids and at least one rest day — but we left that afternoon anyway.

Although we would continue to come to each other’s aid when needed, after years of preparation, our core group of four barely got along. Previously unrealized dif-ferences in philosophy would continue to emerge. Long-distance bicycle travel by our particular group was certainly in question. At least our equipment functioned well, especially the bikes. But the sonic mosquito repelling device we were testing was a flop.

Despite our collective problems, we were gaining confidence individually. A couple of days later, several of us took a break to scramble all over the abandoned Jack Wade No. 1 gold dredge on the Taylor Highway near the town of Chicken. By the time we crossed our first international border into Yukon Territory, we had averaged 45 miles per day — not bad while hauling full packs, camping, toughing it out through cold rainy days and nights, not being in shape, pedaling in spite of illness and injury, and riding half the time on gravel.

Oddly enough, when we exited the Yukon near Watson Lake, we would only be 80 miles south of Anchorage in latitude. Hemistour would spend a month and near-ly 1,400 miles going north and east—close to eight percent of our entire ride to the tip of Argentina. At the British Columbia border, we could at last unleash our south-ward-driven souls, always with the end of the road near Cape Horn on our minds.

June J. Siple was the first woman to bicycle from

Alaska to Argentina (Hemistour Expedition, 1972-

1975), and is one of four Adventure Cycling co-found-

ers. Currently, she is working on energy-conservation

projects at home to reduce the Siple carbon footprint.

THE WAY WE WHIRRRHistoric photos from the collection of John Weiss“When i consented to the

plan of going around the world i intended to make the trip alone, but my

wife pleaded so hard to accompany me that i finally concluded to take her. she is a brave little girl, and rather than con-sidering her a burden, i now look upon her as having been of great help to me on our memorable voyage. aside from the fact that she is an expert wheel-woman, she is also an unerring shot.”

so wrote darwin Mcilrath of his wife Hattie in 1898 after their three and a half year round-the-world bicycle tour. they appear in the photo below as they neared the end of their journey.

sadly, the identities of the grand group of gentlemen at right are un-known to us. according to John Weiss, the photo was taken in the transitional period between highwheels and hard tire safeties in the late 1880s. soon after, pneumatic tires came into use and all of these shock absorbing hard-tired safetey bicycles became extinct.

THE WAY WE WHIRRRHistoric photos from the collection of John Weiss


HISTOrY PHOTOS - 2

N iagra Falls has long been a destination for honeymooners

and, judging from the photo at left, it has long been a draw for cyclists as well. As it was apparently the style of the period (before 1890) not to acknowlege the presence of a camera, this serious looking group seems to be gazing in six different directions. Soon the honeymoon will be over for their high-wheel bikes when the safeties make their appearance.

Along with the arrival of the safeties came the arrival of the ladies. The group at right nicely illustrates the new era in bicycling. The ladies’ attire would suggest that the day’s ride was short, more of a social event than an athletic one.

The young ladies below look like they might be ready for a more rigorous ride and don’t need any male assistance for basic maintenance.


HISTOrY PHOTOS - 2

EXPLORECABLE, WISCONSINKid soaks it all in on a three-night bike trip.Photo by KID

©20

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Vaya 3


Mechanical Advantage

stoP!Maintaining your bike’s brakes

by Jan Heine

Your bicycle’s brakes must be maintained in good working order to perform optimally. Poorly maintained brakes can be dangerous not only because they compromise your ability to stop, but also because they can lead to tire blowouts. Whether you have ridden your bike through the rain and grit of the winter months or you’re taking it out of hibernation, it’s a good idea to check your braking system every spring. This article explains how to check

your rim brakes. If your bike uses disc brakes and if you’re not sure how to check them, have your brakes inspected by a qualified bicycle mechanic.

Start the inspection by cleaning the bike thoroughly, especially in the often forgotten areas of the brake pads and rim sidewalls. This gets rid of the grime that accumulates there and makes the task of inspecting the brakes much more pleasant.

Check Rim WearYour brakes work by clamping the

rim. The resulting friction converts kinetic energy into heat. This friction causes the brake pads to wear out, but the rim also becomes abraded. On clinch-er rims (found on almost every modern bike), the rim is pressurized by the tire and tube. If the rim’s sidewalls get too thin, they can fracture suddenly, result-ing in a tire blowout.

Many modern rims have a line scribed into their sidewalls. That line is a wear indicator, and when it disappears, it is time to replace the rim. On rims without a wear indicator, it is difficult to measure the remaining sidewall thickness because of the bead hook that keeps the tire in place.

As a rule, if you have replaced your brake pads on a wheel twice, the rim is probably getting thin. You can use cali-pers to check whether the rim sidewalls are still parallel. With the tire inflated to maximum pressure, see if the walls are starting to bow outward at the outer

edge of the rim. If they are, the rim should be replaced immediately. The same thing applies if the rim shows stria-tions or has been scored by sharp rocks embedded in the brake pads.

Check Brake-Pad WearAfter you have ascertained that your

rim is still in fine shape, check the brake pads. If your pads slip into separate holders, it is easy to see how much pad material you have left. If your pads have mounting studs that are molded directly into the rubber pad material, don’t be tempted to get that last bit of use out of them. Inside the rubber is a steel stiffen-er, and if that gets exposed, it will score and ruin your rim. Usually, these pads have a step that shows how far you can use them. Brake pads are not that expen-sive. When in doubt, replace them.

If your pads have a lot of material left, check the surface that touches the rim.

Are there rocks or other debris embed-ded in the pads? If so, remove the debris before it ruins your rim. Does the pad surface look dark and/or shiny even after you have cleaned them? Brake pads can “glaze over,” which reduces their effectiveness. Remove the pad and use a coarse file to expose fresh rubber.

Check Brake-Pad AlignmentMost bicycle brakes move the brake

pads on an arc-shaped path. As the pads wear, they no longer touch the rim in the correct spot. When brakes have a pivot below the pad (cantilever or V-brakes), the pad moves lower on the rim as it wears. This can result in the pad diving under the rim when you brake very hard in an emergency, resulting in a total loss of brake power.

When brakes have a pivot above the pad (dual pivots, side-pulls, center-pulls), the pad hits the tire as it wears. This can cause the pad to rub through the tire, resulting in a blowout.

Check pad alignment by looking at the pad. The surface that touches the rim should be smooth. If your pad is show-ing a ridge at one edge, it means that it is not aligned with the rim. Before you realign the pad, file off the ridge (or use a new pad).

Also squeeze the brake lever hard and see where the pads touch the rim. The pads should be centered on the rim, and no part of the pad should extend beyond

MECHANICAl ADvANTAGE

Figure 1. New (left) vs. worn (right) rims: After a few seasons of braking, the rim side-walls have been abraded to half their origi-nal thickness, from 1.6 mm to 0.8 mm.


MECHANICAl ADvANTAGE

the rim surface. If your rim is narrow and your brake pads are too wide, get narrower pads!

While you are checking your brake-pad alignment, check that your pads are “toed-in” correctly. Squeeze the brake lever lightly until the pads barely touch the rim. Ideally, the leading edge of the pad should touch the rim first. If the trailing edge touches the rim first, your brakes will squeal and your braking power will not be optimal. Adjusting brake pad toe-in can be tricky on some brakes. If you cannot get it right, have a qualified mechanic do it for you.

Check Brake Cables and LeversVisually inspect the brake cables.

Quality brake cables usually do not wear out, but if the cable is frayed or has bro-ken strands, replace it. If the housing has kinks, replace it as well. Pull on the levers. They should be easy and smooth to pull until the brake pads hit the rim. If you feel resistance, you probably need new cables and housing.

To check the brake-lever travel, squeeze the brake levers very hard. They should not bottom out against the handlebars. If a lever does touch the handlebars, release it and check the distance between rim and pads. If this distance is larger than 2 mm, your pads should be moved closer to the rim to make up for the wear of the pads. (If the pads already are close to the rim, your brake levers and brakes may be mismatched. Ask your bike shop about brake levers with more cable pull.)

Brake levers, brakes, or both are usu-ally equipped with a barrel adjuster. On most models, you turn the entire adjuster to screw it out. This elongates the effec-

tive length of the cable housing, which in turn shortens the effective length of the cable, bringing the pads closer to the rim. The adjuster also features a nut that you screw down onto the body of the lever or brake to lock in the adjustment. If the adjuster is screwed out so far that only a few threads are engaged, screw it all the way back in and shorten the brake cable itself at its attachment point to the brake.

Brake levers also rarely wear out, but if they are obviously bent or don’t move smoothly, replace them.

Play It Safe!If you have any doubt about your

brakes, take the bike to a qualified mechanic who can inspect it for you. Your braking system is a crucial element in the safety of your bike.

After you have inspected your brakes, you can go for a ride, confident in your ability to slow down or stop when you need to. It’s a great feeling when you know you can rely on your bike.

Jan Heine is editor of Bicycle Quarterly, a magazine about the culture, technology, and history of cyclo-touring. His blog is at janheine.wordpress.com.

Figure 2. As the brake pads wear, they no longer touch the rim at the same spot. For each brake, the unworn pad is shown on the left, the worn pad on the right. On canti-lever and V-brakes, the pad can dive underneath the rim. On dual pivot, side-pull or center-pull brakes, the pad can abrade the tire and cause a blowout.

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has the scars to prove it. Frank has vis-ited all 50 states and eight foreign coun-tries. Even just a sampling of Frank’s exploits could inspire the shyest of cyclists — or compel them to cover their eyes. Over the course of his life, Frank has raced motorcycles and stock cars. He’s run marathons, rock climbed, and backpacked the Grand Canyon rim-to- rim. He has whitewater rafted and sport rappelled, spelunked, and wrecked his knee. He’s free fallen off the Stratosphere Hotel Tower in Las Vegas and off a buck-ing rodeo bull. He’s even learned to fly. Miraculously, he’s still in one piece! “I have broken a few bones and received more stitches than I can count,” Frank said, “but was only seriously injured once.” That’s not bad considering his remarkable myriad of adventures and memories to boot.

You’d think that after getting lost in wild cave basins and recovering sunken debris underwater in makeshift scuba gear, Frank’s thirst for action would be sated. But there was one adventure Frank was lacking — “crossing America by bicycle was my biggest and oldest dream. I first decided to do it when I was a Boy Scout, around 1957. I never expected it would be 54 years before I actually did it!” Frank wanted this bike tour. And even though it had been on his bucket

list since Boy Scouts, life got in the way of the epic cross-country tour.

When he isn’t out wrestling whitewater or piloting small aircraft, Frank lives in Nevada, Missouri, and owns a small bil-liards wholesale business, which his wife and nephew now manage and operate. In 2006, Frank discovered Adventure Cycling Association. “It was about that time when I decided to make my childhood dream of bicycling across America a reality. I learned about the organization’s maps and became a member.” Frank’s first tour was in June 2007 on the kATY Trail in Missouri, the longest rail-trail in the U.S. at 225 miles and counting. Frank was hooked.

To celebrate his 65th birthday, Frank finally crossed America by bicycle. From the upper northwest corner of the U.S.,

the San Juan Islands in Washington, to key West, Florida, Frank traveled a dis-tance of 6,343 miles in 126 days through 16 States. The best part? The people. “All across America, and around the world, I have literally met thousands of people since taking up bicycle touring, and not once was anyone mean-spirited. In fact, many have become my friends. The U.S. is not only geographically beautiful, the people are too.”

Frank has been a Life Member of Adventure Cycling Association for one year. When asked why, he said, “As I drove back from my ‘Crossing America’ adventure, I felt like a caged animal in my car, much like an animal must feel in a zoo. I missed that sensation of freedom I felt on my bike. I believe in the mis-sion of Adventure Cycling, it inspires people to get off the couch, to get out-side and see America and the world from a new and improved perspective. Being a beneficiary of that mission, it is only right to give back to the organization by becoming a Life Member. It is my dream to continue bicycle touring until this old body one day wears out.”

Frank left me with a Mark Frost quote that aptly sums up his own indiffer-ence to nagging injury — “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow ... What a ride!!’” Frank’s exploration-slate is as full and inspiring as ever and still includes bicycle touring. His next bicycle adventure will lead him from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico (or vise-versa) this fall.

Alison Riley is the Media/Publications Assistant at Adventure Cycling and a poetry editor for CutBank lit-erary magazine. She lives in Missoula, Montana, where she drinks coffee and rides her bike like it’s her job.

Life Member Profile

frAnk brisCoeAdventure is his middle name

by Alison Riley

lIFE MEMBEr PrOFIlE

Lifelong adventurer Frank Briscoe doesn’t scare easily. Take his first experience on a bicycle — seven years old, his feet nowhere near the pedals, “My cousins balanced me on it while running alongside me. They released me as I began rolling down a hill right into a clothesline. It immediately snapped me off my bike. It was an insane first ride!” Frank has always had a hunger for adventure and


CamelBak all Clear ($99, camelbak.com/sports-recreation/puri fication, 800-783-2947).

Water is the key to life and, therefore, bike travel as well. Depending on whose version of the facts you read, access to trustworthy potable water is less likely now than ever, yes, even the U.S., which is, perhaps, why Americans spend $15 bil-lion on bottled water each year. Staggering.

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell with the naked eye whether water is safe to drink or not — murky water is often potable while what looks like per-fectly clear water isn’t — and when you’re on a bike tour, suffering from a water-borne illness may be a deal breaker, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

CamelBak has recently introduced an interesting solution to the problem of iffy drinking water. The All Clear is a water purification system designed to destroy bacteria, viruses, and protozoan cysts (at least 99.9 percent of each) by blasting them with germicidal UV light, a process which disrupts the DNA within these tiny organisms rendering them unable to repro-duce, and, therefore, harmless to humans.

The All Clear system consists of three parts: a 750-milliliter bottle, a UV cap, and a standard cap. To work as planned, the UV cap needs to be charged and is done so via mini USB connected to a computer or block charger. (A cable is included but a power block is not, CamelBak is assuming that we all have iPods or cell phones that are charged this way. It would be better if they included one.) Once the UV cap is charged, which takes less than two hours, it’s ready to purify.

You fill up the bottle with clear water — muddy, murky, or cloudy water needs to be filtered first — and then press the power button quickly (but not longer than a second) on the UV cap, which sets off a 60-second cycle that purifies the water so you can safely drink it.

The All Clear is a neat system to be sure, however, it does have some drawbacks, which you may have already noticed: it requires power and clear water to work. Whether this system fits into your travel plans is for you to decide but, like I said, better safe than sorry. As one more arrow in your safe-water-drinking quiver, the All Clear could become a

valuable addition to your travel gear.

Club ride Vibe and drifter (clubridapparel.com). Some people like the feeling of a tight spandex shirt while cycling. Others prefer nothing more than a cotton T. If you’re not in either camp, you might be interested in Club Ride Apparel. According to their website, “Club Ride brings authentic cycling wear that is not only comfortable and breathable to bike in, but is also contempo-rary, casual life style fashion. Call it crossover, des-tination wear or just a jersey. Does it matter what you call it?” No. No it doesn’t. But I call it something anyway: comfort-able. Because when I’m comfy, I have a better time.

The Vibe ($84.99) is a solid-colored (indigo blue, charcoal grey, or maize yel-

low), collared, snap-down jersey con-structed of lightweight RideDryWear and stretch fabric that hangs nicely on the body instead of snugging up tight, so probably not the right garment for the racing set, except maybe cyclocrossers. It has two zippered pockets, one located horizontally on the left chest and the other at the right hip (this pocket has a media port so you can charge a device from an internal hub mechanism). The Vibe also features a 3/4-length zipper so you can zip it, snap it, or both.

The Drifter ($79.99) is also constructed of RideDryWear but with no stretch material incorporated into it. It’s a col-lared jersey as well but is striped (avail-able in indigo blue or maize yellow) and also has two zippered pockets, but in this case the chest pocket is situated verti-cally. The Drifter also offers a side vent

system, which the Vibe does not, and has no snaps up the front.

Both jerseys are extremely breathable and dry very quickly. If neither the Vibe nor

Drifter appeal to you, check their website for more styles, including women’s only. If you’re looking for technical cycling jerseys that feel comfortable on off the bike, I think you’ll find Club Ride right up your alley.

GEAr

Geared Up

neCessities for CyClingby Mike Deme

continued on page 41

the Vibe

the drifter


Gr

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IPlE

what I love about cycling. There’s always something new to learn, new boundaries to push, more places to explore, and dif-ferent ways of doing it.

Before we get rolling at full speed, though, a quick introduction is in order. I’m Josh Tack and I like bicycles. I like to ride them, work on them, look at them, and think about them. But I especially like to figure out ways to help people enjoy riding them. So now on to some-thing really important — shoes!

That’s right, I said shoes. There was once a day when I couldn’t believe how much my mother would spend on shoes. $200 for a pair of high heels that don’t appear comfortable to walk around in? Well, here I am now, with a shiny pair of shoes that go clickity clack as I walk awk-wardly around small-town convenience stores in search of soda and those two-for-one Salted Nut Rolls.

Why are we talking about shoes? Because shoes are a contact point between you and your bike, and shoes that fit poorly can cause a great deal of foot dis-comfort, ruining a perfectly good day in the saddle. Hot spots, foot numbness, and achilles-heel pain were three problems that plagued me early on in my cycling days, and I went through more pairs of shoes than I would like to admit until I could remedy my uncomfortable situation.

Street shoes didn’t offer enough sup-port, which caused me to drop my heel while pedaling. This caused pain in my achilles, and sometimes pain in the arch of my foot. Wide cycling shoes would allow my feet to move around too much, which would create friction that would eventually lead to hot spots on the balls of my feet. Narrow, tighter fitting shoes would be fine in cooler weather, but, come summer, when my feet would swell a bit, they’d go numb from the shoe cut-ting off circulation.

In the end, the answer for me was wav-ing goodbye to stock sizing and embracing the custom shoe. This was back in 2004, and there were a few small companies in the U.S. making full custom shoes. By full

custom, I mean custom to the very last detail. Length, width, foot bed, heel cup, cleat position, foot circumference, material, enclosure style, and color were all taken into consideration when building the shoe. I was basically Cinderella, and when I went out for group rides, I felt like the prettiest girl at the ball.

The only drawback to custom shoes back then was the price tag, and today this is still the case — the cost can esca-late to over $1,000. Fortunately, many major shoe companies were paying close attention to the growing demand for better fitting shoes and have created a middle ground between custom and stock-size shoes.

Semi-custom shoes are hot right now, and I mean that in a literal sense. With semi-custom shoes, you more or less place the shoes in an oven, and after a few minutes, put them on your feet for a heat molded fit. Different companies have different techniques on how to mold the shoe after it comes out of the oven, but in most cases, the shoe can be molded many times, so you don’t have to worry if you don’t get it just right the first time. Some outfits making semi-custom shoes include Shimano, Lake, Bont, and Louis Garneau, and shoes can be found in both road and mountain-bike styles.

The price tag on semi-custom shoes can still range from $200 to $400, so while they might be a steal when com-pared to full-custom shoes, they aren’t cheap. If you don’t have problems with your feet, by all means, keep going with what you’ve got. But if you’re not com-fortable in your pedals, you might want to check this option out.

For the past five years, Josh Tack has worked at Adventure Cycling in the memberships department. He is a self-taught bicycle mechanic who contributes weekly to the “Touring Gear and Tips” portion of the Adventure Cycling blog (blog.adventurecycling.org).

Welcome to the first edition of Fine Tuned, a column that will be acting as a heart-rate monitor on the bicycle industry. Each issue, we’ll be taking the pulse on current and future cycling trends, concepts, and technology. The general outline of the bicycle hasn’t changed in ages, but the beauty is in the details. The tweaks refinements, innovations, and even failures are

good sHoe MoldStarting off on the right foot

by Josh Tack

Fine Tuned

jOSH INTrO


GEAr juMP DEvElOPMENT AD

suMMer CyCling

AuCti nadventure Cycling association presents the first

This june, Adventure Cycling will offer our first ever Summer Cycling Auction through the charity auction website, Bidding for Good. whether you are looking for unique bicycle art, a handmade one-of-a-kind quilt, or an exciting and adventure-packed

bicycle tour, we have something for everyone. The auction will run june 18 - 22, but keep your eyes on our blog (blog.adventurecycling.org) and Facebook page in the weeks prior for sneak previews of featured items.

All items have been donated free of charge and all funds raised will support our nonprofit mission and programs. Look below to see just a few of the items we’ll be auctioning and all of our sponsors.

n Danube Bicycle Path Self-Guided Tour for TwoEnjoy nearly carefree cycling through lush farmland and picturesque towns and villages with a finale in the historic Austrian capital, vienna, with its count-less sights. Donated by BikeToursDirect, representing more than 60 local bicycle tour companies with nearly 300 tours in 40 countries worldwide.

Value: $3,000 starting bid: $1,000

n Tour Certificate from ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tourslaunched in Italy in 1972, the Colorado-based ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours offers global cycling tours immersed in local character to over 10 countries. Own-ers Maria Elena Price and Monica Price offer a tour certificate of $7,500 for you and a companion to select one of their award-winning tours.

Value: $7,500 starting bid: $2,500

n Custom Bicycle Jersey QuiltToo Cool T-shirt Quilts® was started by Andrea Funk in 1992 after an experiment with her sister’s triathalon T-shirts. Through experimentation and analysis, Andrea created a soft, durable T-shirt quilt, which led to the unique design of Too Cool T-shirt quilts. Andrea will make you a custom quilt from your jerseys or you can select jerseys from our Cyclosource catalog.

Value: $1,500 starting bid: $500

don’t forget to go to BiddingForgood.com before June 18 to register and bid, and visit between June 18 and 22 to get in on the action!

Thank you to all our auction donors and sponsors:

read more about these and all the auction items at

biddingforgood.com/AdventureCycling

LARRYDISKIN

continued from page 39

Headsweats (headsweats.com, 877-437-9328). Sometimes when I ride on hot days, my head feels like a lava bubble ready to burst, and that’s not good. In addition, sweat will pour off my head, streaking my sun-glasses and stinging my eyes, both of which impair my vision. keeping the old noggin cool and sweat above the brow line can be a challenge but Headsweats is here to help. They offer a number of styles but two in particular are my favorites: the Super Duty Shorty ($22) and the Spin Cycle ($20) classic cycling cap.

The Super Duty Shorty is a skull cap made of Coolmax with a thick headband liner that absorbs the sweat. When the Coolmax fabric absorbs moisture and the wind blows over and through it, it acts as a cooling mechanism which will decrease that lava-bubble feeling. Oh, the joy. There’s not much more to it than that. Simple and effective.

The Spin Cycle is quite similar in con-struction except that it features a standard liner, not the Super Duty one, and it has a brim with a cool racing stripe. Basically, it’s much like an old-school cycling cap but made of high-tech material. It works well under a helmet, especially when the sun is at a bothersome angle and your skid lid doesn’t

have a visor. An added benefit is that when you take your helmet off, you’ve already got a stylish cap on your head. If your head sweats (and don’t they all), you need Headsweats.

the spin Cycle

the super duty shorty


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CyCloCaMping.CoM — SAVE on Bicycle Touring Gear & Camping Equipment. 50+ Top Quality Brands - Ranked in the TOP 1% at ResellerRatings.com - FAST Shipping + FREE Shipping on orders >$120 - Enjoy our Forum, Daily Articles and our Experts Corner at www.cyclocamping.com.

Q-Caddy® BiCyCle CUe sHeet Holder — Holds a cue sheet or small map, sizes to fit standard and oversized handlebars, easily snaps on and off handlebars; Buy On-Line at: www.highwheelsolutions.com.

bike shopsreCUMBents, tandeMs, trikes — Rans, Easy Racer, Sun, Cycle Genius, Bacchetta Recumbents - kHS, Schwinn, Raleigh Tandems - Greenspeed, HP VeloTechnik Trikes - Electra Touring. Jay’s Pedal Power, 512 E. Girard Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19125; (215) 425-5111, Toll-free (888) 777-JAYS, Visit our website at: www.jayspedal power.com.

arriVing By Bike — Eugene, Oregon’s Urban Cycling Outfitters. Gear, guidance and enthusiasm to support your life-bik-ing. Basil, Ortlieb, Tubus, Detours, Showers Pass, Ibex and Endura plus loads of fenders, lights, reflectives, tools and Brooks saddles. xtracycles! 2705 Willamette St., 541.484.5410, [email protected].

tandeMs east — Road, Mountain and Travel Tandems. Over 60 in stock. Wheel build-ing, child conversions, repairs, parts catalog, test rides. Back-stocking Conti and Schwalbe touring tires. 86 Gwynwood Dr, Pittsgrove, NJ 08318. Phone: (856) 451-5104, Fax: (856) 453-8626. Email: [email protected] or visit our website at: www.tandemseast.com.

Help WantedJoin tHe CyCle aMeriCa sUMMer staFF — Spend an adventuresome summer travel-ing while sharing ride and work respon-sibilities. Positions include: Tour Support Volunteers, Bike Mechanics, Massage Therapists, Picnic and Route Coordinators. 800-716-4426. www.CycleAmerica.com.

international tourspedal and sea adVentUres — We’re a personable travel company offering creative cycling and multi-sport adventures in many of the world’s best places, including Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, P.E.I., Croatia, Italy, Greece, Norway, and Ireland. Guided and self-guided. Van-supported. Friendly guides. Charming inns. Custom groups anytime. Over 70% return cli-entele since 2005! Toll Free Phone: 877-777-5699. Please email us at [email protected] or visit our website: www.pedalandsea adventures.com.

experienCing Croatia By Bike and Boat is absolutely the only way to find the heart of this diverse and poetic country. We’ll experience the historic island of korcula with its picturesquely situated old town-ship, the wine growing peninsula of Peljesac and, to the south, the island of Mljet, with its impressive national park. We will tour through the towns of Split, Hvar, Stari Grad and korculal, towns that include two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, so named for their impeccable preservation, historic value, and stunning beauty. Each evening we make our way back to our private boat, which is outfitted with all the necessary comforts, and begin our journey to the next stunning vista, perhaps stopping enroute for a dip in the sparkling clear water. Toll Free Phone: 877-777-5699. Email us at dana@pedalandseaad ventures.com or visit our website: www.pedalandseaadventures.com.

CyCling adVentUres in soUtH east asia — Custom designed itineraries and small group adventures for people who care. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines. Uk licensed Asia specialist. Symbiosis Custom Travel www.symbiosis-travel.com [email protected]

BaVaria and nortHern italy — A blend of bicycling, culture and history. First Class hotels and fine regional cuisine. Individual pace, optional distances, support van. Our 39th year! GERHARD’S BICYCLE ODYSSEYS. (800) 966.2402. www.since1974.com.

eUrope — 200 roUtes in 30 CoUntries — Bike Tours Direct - Guided and self-guid-ed tours with European bike tour companies. Weekly and daily departures. Tours from $600. From familiar - Loire Valley, Provence, Danube, Tuscany, Bavaria, Ireland - to exotic - Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia, Adriatic island-hopping. 877-462-2423 www.bike toursdirect.com. [email protected].

Bike italy WitH siCiClando! — “To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.” – Goethe. We agree! Siciclando was born in Sicily. We know it best and we love to share it with our guests. Join us for the Taste of Sicily tour departing September 2, 2012. Explore Palermo. Savor the secrets of western Sicily. Discover the enchanting Aeolian Islands. Feast on the delights of Taormina. This is our most popular bike and hike tour. We’d love to share it with you. More info at www.siciclando.com or call 1-800-881-0484.

Create yoUr oWn CyCling toUr oF proVenCe — What a concept! You choose dates, type of accommodation, restaurants, routes, distances, sites to explore. All you need is help from LinksBikeTours.com.

topBiCyCle toUrs in Central eUrope — 7 to 10-day self-guided and guided cycling vacations. We are a specialist for bike tours in Central Europe since 1996. We concentrate only on the countries where we live: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Poland. Visit and ride between the beautiful cities of Vienna, Prague, Budapest, krakow, Salzburg, Dresden, and Passau. Carefully planned self-guided tours. Small guided groups with local knowledgeable guides. We can customize our tours according to your wishes. Quality bike rental available. www.topbicycle.com. info@top bicycle.com.

FreeWHeeling adVentUres. sMall groUp & priVate trips — Guided & Self-Guided for 25 years. Famous and unusu-al rides in Canada, Iceland, Europe, Israel, Central America. Go your own pace. Choose hills and distances or flat and relaxed. 800- 672-0775; www.freewheeling.ca; bicycle@ freewheeling.ca.

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north American tours & eventsCoast 2 Coast — Hassle free closely fol-lowing Southern Tier averaging 63 miles per day. Fully supported including freshly- pre-pared great-tasting meals, and a mechanic. You dip your rear wheel into the Pacific and your front wheel into the Atlantic, I will do everything in between. March 8 – April 29, 2013. BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or [email protected].

aMeriCa By BiCyCle, inC. — Your full service bicycle touring leader. Chose from 38 tours ranging from 5 to 52 days. Let us take you on your dream ride — Coast to Coast! abbike.com. 888-797-7057 FREE CATALOG.

tiMBerline adVentUres — Fully sup-ported bicycling & hiking adventure vaca-tions with an organization whose sole focus for 26 years is extraordinary adventure throughout western U.S. & Canada. Website: www.timbertours.com Email: timber@earth net.net Phone: 800-417-2453.

Crossroads CyCling adVentUres — Celebrating 16 years of excellence! Come ride with Tracy Leiner - owner, cyclist and tour director. Tracy travels with every group, everyday managing daily logistics, driving support vans and pedaling with her cyclists. Small groups, personal attention, superior accommodations and meals. Extensive pre-trip support including training plan and telephone consultations. Rider reference list available. (800) 971-2453 www.crossroadscycling.com.

Helping Make good riders Better sinCe 1981 — Join Transcontinental Record Holders Lon Haldeman & Susan Notorangelo for your cycling adventures from 7 to 30 days. Specializing in Training Camps, Historic Route 66, Rural Wisconsin, Eastern Mountains, Peru and over 80 cross country events. PAC Tour, www.pactour.com, 262-736-2453.

tHe great allegHeny passage and C&o Canal — 334.5 continuous trail miles from Pittsburgh to DC; custom or group tours; includes B&Bs, inns, excellent meals, luggage shuttle, full sag support, vehicle or people and gear shuttle; attractions including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwaer, Antietam battlefield plus so much more... Call Trail Gail at 301-722-4887 240-727-7039 or www.mountainsidebiketours.net You Pedal, We Pamper.”

ride tWo states - tWo CoUntries — Six day, 350-mile fully-supported Rotary ride September 17-22, 2012 on the International Selkirk Loop, incredible Scenic Byway through Washington, Canada, Idaho. www.WaCanId.org or 888-823-2626. Registration opens Mar. 1 – limited to 100 riders.

alaska BiCyCle toUrs — with Sockeye Cycle, since 1988. Offering guided trips throughout our breathtaking region. Experience the beauty of Alaska and the Yukon with local guides and gourmet cui-sine. 877-292-4154 www.cyclealaska.com.

Mass Bikepike toUr August 2-5, 2011 — This year it’s back to the Berkshires with 2 all new routes each day. Spectacular views, chal-lenging arrowed routes, quaint towns, muse-ums, history and local culture. Most meals, SAG, refreshment stops, maps & cue sheets. www.MassBikePike.org or 617-710-1832.

ride tWo states-tWo CoUntries — Bike the International Selkirk Loop, North America’s only two-nation Scenic Byway through Washington, Idaho, Canada. Pick your pace for 280 miles of incredible self-supported riding! www.selkirkloop.org.

HistoriCal trails CyCling — oregon trail toUr 2012 — Ride through the history of Ruts, Wagons, Forts, Cowboys and Indians on America’s Mother Road. Fully supported, affordable, camping tour. Friendly experienced staff and delicious meals. 402-499-0874, Website: www.histor icaltrailscycling.com.

Montana Bike Hostel & CaMping — Tour Glacier Park & Northern Tier, Continental Divide Routes. Lodging & Camping, Custom Cycling Tours Shuttle or sag service, Airport, Amtrak & Border PU. Explore Montana’s Spectacular Flathead Valley! 406-755.2204, Facebook, [email protected], www.montana bikehostel.com.

toUring ride in rUral indiana® (triri®) BiCyCle rallies — June 10-13, 2012. Loop rides with a theme from a sin-gle Indiana State Park, with camping or inn accommodations and six catered meals. Contact: 812-333-8176; [email protected]; or www.triri.org.

2012 VerMont Bike and BreWery CHallenge — Cycle through the Green Mountains and taste some of the best beer in the country, visiting half the breweries in the state. Coming this June. More at mountmajor.com.

sCeniC CyCle toUrs — Come cycle and explore the beauty that Canada’s landscape holds, The Great lakes, Niagara Region, mighty rivers. Supported cycle tours of beautiful southern Ontario, Quebec and feature loca-tions. www.sceniccycletours.com.

alaBaMa reCUMBent toUrs — Fully-supported, all-inclusive tours. We provide the recumbent bike and helmet. Our tours are in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida. 3 to 7-day tours. www.recum benttours.com.

WoMen only Bike toUrs — For all ages and abilities. Fully supported, inn-to-inn, bike path & road tours. Cross-country, National Parks, Europe & more. Bicycle work-shops, wine tasting, yoga. Call for free cata-log. 800-247-1444, www.womantours.com.

Bike tHe Florida keys — The ultimate Bicycle Vacation. Bike the entire key sys-tem, down and back. Fully-supported includ-ing breakfasts and most dinners. Beautiful sunsets. Swim with the dolphins. Snorkel. Dive. The Seven Mile Bridge just might be the most beautiful seven miles you will ever bike. November 3-10, 2012. Details from BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or [email protected]. It’s just not a bicycle tour, it’s a keys ExPERIENCE … It’s all GOOD !!

VaCation BiCyCling — “After taking more than 90 bicycle tours, Vacation Bicycling is one of our top 10 experiences!” We provide beautiful 7-day tours from $1099, includ-ing hotels, food & SAG through Martha’s Vineyard/Cape Cod, NC Outer Banks, Maui, Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, Florida keys and Canada’s Prince Edward Island. Come join us! 800-490-2173 www.VacationBicycling.com.

CyCle aMeriCa® Coast-to-Coast — Enjoy a Fully Supported Cycling Vacation this Summer. Explore North America’s treasures on an epic Coast-to-Coast tour from Seattle to Boston. Choose one or ride several Cross State segments. Good Friends, Great Routes and First-Rate Support! Let us help you plan your next fun and affordable cycling adventure. 800-245-3263. www.CycleAmerica.com.

BiCyCle ride aCross georgia (Brag) — 33rd Annual Bicycle Ride Across Georgia, June 2-9, 2012. Georgia BikeFest, October 12-14, 2012, Columbus, GA. Great fun for families and groups. Various mileage options. 770-498-5153, [email protected], www.brag.org.

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Carolina tailWinds BiCyCle VaCations — Easy, flat terrain tours include: South Carolina’s Lowcountry, North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. More challenging, mountainous tours include: Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. All tours include intimate group size, cozy coun-try inns, and outstanding cuisine. www.caro linatailwinds.com; 888-251-3206.

CyCle nortH Carolina Fall ride — 13th Annual “Mountains to the Coast” (September 29 – October 6) — Cycle 450 plus miles while experiencing the North Carolina countryside on scenic back roads amidst beau-tiful fall colors. Explore quaint towns, visit famous State Parks, Historic Sites, wineries, and more. Fully supported with SAG Support and rest stops. Various registration options avail-able. [email protected], www.ncsports.org.

all rides are not Created eQUal — Challenge yourself riding 400+ miles and climbing 30,000’ through the Scenic Byways and National Parks of the West. 714-267-4591 www.cyclingescapes.com.

aroUnd WisConsin BiCyCle toUrs — Flavors of Wisconsin July 9-14. Ride bike, eat cheese, taste microbrews. Northern Woods and Water. August 20-25. Cycle paved forest roads. Stay in historic lakefront lodges. Canoe and swim in quiet lakes. www.aroundwisbike.com 920-427-6086.

Colorado WildFloWers and riVers — Enjoy the mountain terrain of central Colorado, pedaling mostly on paved, car-free pathways that provide non-stop views of the spectacular Rockies in the summery, snow-free surroundings of ski areas such as Breckenridge and Vail on our Colorado Wildflowers and Rivers tour! Your gear will be carried for you, your meals catered, and the daily distances will be shorter than on many of our tours, allowing time for lingering in small towns, alongside rushing streams, or on a mountain pass. www.adven turecycling.org/tours; 800-755-2453.

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Open Road Gallery

BY OCTOBER 6, 2011, WHEN THIS TRIO STOPPED INTO THE ADVENTURE CYCLING OFFICE, it had already become a refrain, “Isn’t it a little late to be on tour?” Indeed, most people don’t set out on a cross-country venture from Seaside, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, in late September. But Carolyn Hricko, Erin Flynn, and Emily kern (pictured left to right) aren’t most people. Even though they’d never toured before, they decided they wanted to get home to visit their families on the East Coast for Thanksgiving without using planes, trains, or automobiles. With a whole lot of pluck and a pen-chant for neon spandex, they set out.

The going wasn’t always easy. Sometimes it rained steadily for days on end and the temperature hovered at around 40 degrees and nobody ever felt warm. Some days they doubted whether they’d make it to the next milepost, let alone to the East Coast. During those moments, Erin, Carolyn, and Emily reminded themselves to just keep pedaling.

Incredibly, on December 5, Emily and Carolyn dipped their wheels in the Atlantic Ocean in Portland, Maine. Erin peeled off on a different route and finished up in Massachusetts with another cyclist a week later. Emily recounts, “Only after finishing our trip did I find out that none of our friends and family honestly believed that we would reach Portland, Maine. Truth be told, I didn’t believe it either. I was convinced that at some point, a snowstorm would literally stop us in our tracks … but it never came. This journey helped me rediscover my own gumption and intuition. I feel empowered and it gives me hope for my future endeavors!”

“We were lucky enough to have each other, equally eager adventure-seekers,” remembers Carolyn. “We learned to appreciate things for what they are, while they last, and to take each moment and each day one at a time.”

From Adventure Cycling’s National Bicycle Touring Portrait Collection. © 2012 Adventure Cycling Association.

lAst one tHere gets frostbiteby Sarah Raz Photograph by Greg Siple

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CyCle through history on the Freedom Flyer

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