At close to 3,000 miles, a drive across the United States would take about two days in a car without stopping. On a bicycle, the trip would take two months, but two guys from the University – a senior and a recent graduate – set out to do it anyway, though only one made it to the East Coast.
Matthew Gardner grew up in Lake Oswego, attends the University and considers himself to be a “very Eugene” guy. He loves the South because it provides such a contrast to Oregon. He enjoys the culture, food and even the muggy summer heat.
This summer, Gardner, who is in the School of Journalism & Communication’s advertising program, had plans to visit friends in South Carolina. An outdoorsy person with a natural curiosity and keen sense of direction, Gardner has been exploring on his bicycle for as long as he can remember. He kept riding farther and farther, and after being able to pedal 100 miles without a problem, he decided to take his cycling to the next step: To Columbia, S.C.
“What better way than to do it on two wheels?” he said. “It’s a wonderful way to travel.”
Gardner checked the Web site of the Adventure Cycling Association, a Missoula, Mont.-based group with the mission of “inspiring people to travel by bike,” for riding partners. On June 18, he left Redmond, Ore., with a young couple from California and a mother-daughter team from North Carolina.
Gardner didn’t feel as if he meshed with his group. In Riggins, Idaho, he met John Greenfield, who was reviewing bars he visited as he biked across the country, and continued the journey with him.
Gardner had been looking forward to his trip for months, but on his 16th day on the road, he had to stop.
“I got just outside of Yellowstone and a chronic knee condition I’ve always dealt with ended up blowing my knee out,” he said.
Chrondomalacia patellae, also known as runner’s knee, is a condition characterized by the softening of the cartilage beneath the kneecap.
Gardner – who described his knee as “purple, enflamed and horrible” – said that sometimes during stationary bike classes, he feels bones rubbing together and hears a clicking sound.
He spent that night at the home of some ranchers he met in Twin Bridges, Mont.
“You just meet the coolest people on the road,” he said. “They take you into your homes, feed you, sleep you; it’s perfect.”
The next day, the Fourth of July, he took a hellish 19-hour Greyhound bus ride back to Oregon.
Next summer, he intends to pick up where he left off, traveling back to Montana before cycling cross-country.
“I definitely have something to look forward to,” he said.
Not quite as experienced a cyclist as Gardner, Joe Kadera, who graduated from the University in December with a degree in English, looked at his trip as an adventure during his transition period between college and the real world.
Two days after Gardner departed, Kadera and his friend, J.P. Kemmick, left Seattle for Bar Harbor, Maine.
“I didn’t do much more than the occasional 10-mile road, or biking to class or around town,” he said. “Neither one of us had ever done anything like this before.”
Like Gardner, Kadera, who mostly camped out in state parks and was only kicked out once, experienced the kindness of strangers.
“An older couple (in Illinois) bought us pizza and made us biscuits and gravy and let us sleep over at their place,” he said.
He also stopped briefly to visit with Kemmick’s aunt in Stillwater, Minn., just outside Minneapolis. Kadera rode 58 out of 60 days, averaging 78 miles each day and visiting a total of 14 states and one Canadian province.
“Glacier (Park, Mont.) was consistently the most beautiful,” he said. “But Erie, Pennsylvania of all places was my favorite because they had a blues and jazz festival going on when we got there.”
He said arriving in Maine was an amazing feeling.
The coordinator of the University’s cycling club, Adam Edgerton, wants to experience the thrill of a long-distance bike ride for himself as well. The senior business major primarily trains for endurance with 70 to 100 mile rides.
The University’s cycling club will start training next week before it begins racing in March.
He’s never made such a long trip but is considering going cross-country after he graduates.
“It’s definitely an experience,” he said. “I’m sure (Gardner and Kadera) have got some great stories to tell.”
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Two spend summer biking cross-country
Daily Emerald
September 27, 2007
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