Cyclists embark on cross country trek

Nick Patrone is flopped out across an air mattress draped with a simple Mexican sarape-style blanket on the front porch of the Alpine Community Church; a handful of personal items are placed on a long table and a pair of rubber slides are neatly laid next to his makeshift bed.

Patrone, along with about a dozen other bicycle riders who come from all over the country, is part of the southern tier Bike the U.S. for MS tour that will de­part from Alpine this week and end in St. Augustine, Florida. The southern ride is one of six planned routes that volunteer rid­ers can take as they bike across the country to raise funds and awareness for multiple sclerosis.

The team was resting before the next day’s ride. Dinner, donated and prepared by Pastor Ben Colman and Alpine Community Church staff, as well as volunteer help from the Kiwanis Club of Alpine, was just about to be served inside the church hall: warm lasagna and cold ice-cream, a solid meal before the riders hit the road for the 3,070 miles long Southern Tier trip.

The riders will spend 53 days biking through eight states, transitioning through 109,995 feet worth of elevation change along the way. The trip takes them through extremely different parts of the country, beginning with San Diego county’s relatively temperate climate and culminating in humid St. Augustine, Florida.

“The coldest I’ve ever ridden is the panhandle of Florida… I have warm clothes shipped to Loui­siana so I don’t freeze my fanny off,” says Patrone.

Before going in for dinner, Patrone, a retired physician from North Carolina, along with fellow rider Mike Tipton, who calls Illinois home, ask about the local scene in Alpine. They say that they pass through many small towns on their ride but rarely venture more than five miles or so off their course and are usually curious about the ar­eas that they visit. Often, they spend the night at churches or community centers, then hit the road again the next morning to continue their trip.

The riders typically have someone in mind when they choose to join the course. Some riders make the entire trip while others can only join for a segment of the course but are no less passionate about their reasons for participation: stories abound of a sister, a brother, a friend who slowly succumbed to the debilitating disease.

Route Leader Kelly Wolf has made the trip three times in honor of her aunt, logging more than 9,000 miles on her bike along the way.

“I biked the Pac coast in 2017, so that was my first ride and someone who was route leading had bailed out at the last minute… they’d heard that I was interested in continuing…they asked if I wanted to route lead,” Wolf says.

She jokes that she put off answering, saying she needed time to think about the decision, but immediately called a friend in excitement and said that her answer was of course going to be a resounding ‘yes’.

Wolf says that with each tour, the group takes a day off from their ride to take part in a service project for someone who has multiple sclerosis in one of the towns they pass through on their trek. Often, the project is simple but requires more mobility than the person has at that stage of the disease. She claims that what feels like al­most no work at all to the group can make a world of difference to someone with multiple sclero­sis who can no longer mow their lawn, wash their car, or repair a broken step.

Wolf says that the few riders who are hesitant to attempt a service project are often the ones who insist on doing more as a project unfolds, ultimately the last ones to put away bor­rowed tools or finish raking up the last leaf in a person’s yard before getting on the road to the next town.

“It’s a great experience, it’s more than just riding your bike, which I never anticipated. As you can see, we’re from all dif­ferent walks of life, different age ranges, but we’re like a weird family,” Wolf said.

She mentions a virtual rider, Angela Shaw, who has MS and is no longer physically able to ride her own bike with her for­mer team but puts together I-spy suggestions for the group currently biking across the country.

The group is about $29,000 into their $100,000 fundraising goal.

Anyone interested in track­ing their itinerary, or following one of the other five regional trips can do so at biketheus.com.

 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here