CAPE MAY – Fifteen Boy Scouts and their adult support staff dipped their bicycle’s front tire into the Atlantic Ocean Aug. 19, 63 days and nearly 4,200 miles after starting a cross-country trek in Seattle, Wash.
In Seattle, they dipped their back tire in the Puget Sound.
“It’s symbolic,” explained Samuel Arndt, 17, of Mount Dora, Fla., “of going from coast to coast.” Living in Florida, biking the mountains was a new experience for Arndt, who injured his wrist on the trip.
The group was part of Eagle Scouts Cycling Across America (ESCAA). It started June 17 on a tour of the U.S. that took them across the plains and Badlands in the Midwest, where they saw Yellowstone National Park, Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial and a rodeo in Wyoming, to the shores of Lake Michigan to the lights of New York City and the New Jersey shore. They ended their trip in Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial.
“It’s a great way to see and experience the country doing something I love (biking),” said Phillip Bolick, 15, of Fredericksburg, Va.
He and his brother “accidentally” met Bruce White, the tour director, and Katharyn Poplin, another Fredericksburg biker, on the trail behind his house last year when they yelled out, “Do you two boys want to bike across the country?”
“I’m excited to share the experience with my brother,” he added.
Other than knowing his brother, Brandon, 19, Bolick and the others were strangers at the beginning of the trip. Now, they consider themselves a family, “best friends” as Brandon noted.
“It was amazing to see these boys come together, not knowing each other, and within days they bonded and really worked together as a unit,” Annette MacDougall, of Portland, Ore., said.
As a single mother of two boys who also was an assistant scout leader, she is friends with some of the cyclists from when she lived in Fredericksburg, Va.
She decided to join the cross-country tour as the group’s masseuse. She is a certified massage therapist and an online fitness consultant.
“I understand the rigors of biking, as I have been an avid rider since 1990,” she said. She completed a 5,000-mile cross-country tour in 1995 and has put over 35,000 miles on her bike prior to hip replacement surgery.
Among the goals of the trip was the desire to promote scouting adventure as well as healthy living for teens.
Across 15 states, the Scouts passed on a message to “not be afraid of dreaming big.”
Seven of the boys are Eagle Scouts, while the others are working on becoming one. Many of the adults accompanying the boys are also Eagle Scouts.
They met as many other Scouts as possible on the journey, camped in tents, slept on gym floors in sleeping bags, crashed in homes on floors and couches, slept in cabins, at Boy Scout camps and state parks, and occasionally slept in a hotel bed.
Breakfast and dinner were included daily. What they ate varied by location, sometimes prepared by the adult hosts and sometimes prepared by the scouts.
There were also several rest stops each day for snacks, lunch and additional fluids.
The hardest part, according to Amal Mehta, 18, of San Jose, Calif., was the “structured days,” doing the same thing every day. They averaged 75 miles a day with a few days off to rest.
Long days were over 100 miles while shorter days were about 50 miles.
“Boy Scouts has shaped my life greatly from giving me stronger leadership and outdoor skills, life-long friends and great stories from adventures,” Mehta said. “I made several more on this trip.”
Riders wore helmets whenever bicycling. In addition, riders carried at least two water bottles, a spare tube, tools to change a flat tire and a rear reflector light.
Most ESCAA riders have a speedometer, a mount for their cell phone, padded bike shorts and a bike jersey capable of carrying a few snacks.
“Our end point was set each day,” said Parker Dugan, 20, of Fredericksburg, Va. “What happened in the middle had some flexibility.”
It varied to accommodate side trips for sightseeing and to accommodate mishaps like the day the group accelerated around a curve over railroad tracks in Oconomowoc, Wis., and boom: 10 flat tires and a smashed rim.
“What did we do?” Dugan asked rhetorically. “We fixed them and went on.”
For 14-year-old Kai Nguyen, of Dayton, Md., keeping up with the group was the hardest in the beginning.
As the youngest, his goal was to get stronger every day to keep up with the others. He loves biking and has ridden on several century (100-mile) rides since his first one at the age of 11.
Did he achieve his goal?
“Oh yeah,” the group cheered.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.
