I have always been the adventurous type; never satisfied with the road most traveled or the easiest and quickest way to get there. I am a person who like the journey and the surprise of not knowing where you’ll sleep or who you’ll meet around the next corner. That is why I love to travel by bicycle to new places. You get to see parts of the world you would miss if you traveled by car or airplane. You feel a connection to the earth and the people you meet and interact with. That is why I am biking the 30,000 km from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina which I started in the summer of 2017.
I spent the first eight years of my life in Saint Paul, MN. It was there that I rode my first bicycle. It was my older brother’s birthday (if I recall correctly, I was quite young) and he got his first bike without training wheels and our father asked if I wanted to try and of course I did! I hopped on the bike and pedaled away with dad trying to catch up to me and I turned into the neighbors driveway and headed back to mom and dad. I was hooked from then on.
I spent most of my youth growing up in Hudson, Wisconsin and was always the one to climb a little higher up in the trees or scramble on big boulders. I joined a backpacking and climbing club in high school which fueled my love of the wilderness and the outdoors. I found peace and serenity in the mountains and deserts of the American west. After coming home from a US bike tour I worked in the climbing gym industry for three years before moving on to other jobs that I could find until I decided that I had had enough of living a “normal” life and decided to hit the road again.
The decision to ride Pan America comes from my desire to see and explore South America. So many of my friends are from that continent and I want to experience the diverse cultures, food, music, dance, and language that I will find along the way.
So wish me luck, and I am excited to see what the journey will lead me to!