Cross Country for a Cause

Part one: The Maine Event - By: Jesse Kipp

By KAVU

September 8^th, 2020

We found a parking spot at the far corner of the pier in Bar Harbor, pulled our gear out of Jenny’s car, and began packing up our bikes with everything we’d need to camp, cook, and ride our way across America.

Drew and I were about to begin a 5,000 mile bike trip from Maine to Washington, and Drew’s girlfriend Jenny was doing a great job of hiding her concern behind a nervous smile. Drew and I grew up in Ohio and have known each other since preschool, so we’ve shared quite a few adventures over the years, but this was going to be a big one. A few months earlier I never would have thought I’d be setting out to ride my bike across America with one of my childhood best friends, but when I lost my job in early April, the wheels started turning.

I lost my job; I found my bike....

I moved to Seattle a few years ago after landing a job on the marketing team at a small ship adventure cruise company. It was a sweet gig that took me all over the world, but in late winter after returning from a work trip to Antarctica, I watched as the pandemic toppled the travel industry and took my job down with it. It was a nice spring in Seattle and my bike became the perfect outlet as I tried to figure out what to do with my life. The job market was crap, and the idea of doing a big bike adventure felt appealing, especially since biking and camping were found to be some of the more responsible ways to recreate during the pandemic.

But I still wasn’t sure.

Riding for a Reason

The reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s murder was the spark. I wanted to do my part, and if I couldn’t make money traveling, then I would raise money traveling. I decided to ride for the American Civil Liberties Union because of the meaningful work they do through their Racial Justice Program, and set up an online campaign on their website with a goal of raising $5,000. I’d been trying to sell Drew on the idea of a cross country bike trip, and now we had a reason to ride. Drew is an artist and lives in Hudson, New York, and we’d talked about doing a big adventure together for years, so pulling him away from his easel for a few months didn’t take much convincing.

It was time to start planning.

Planning the Trip

Adventure Cycling has been creating long distance bike routes throughout North America since the mid '70s. Our plan was to combine the Northern Tier with the classic TransAmerica Bike Trail and ride from Maine to Washington through fifteen states, finishing back on my doorstep in Seattle. I’d been putting in the miles since losing my job, and Drew had been exploring the Hudson River Valley on a new bike. We felt ready. In early July I flew to Pennsylvania for an east coast quarantine at my sister’s, and then met up with Drew and Jenny for the drive to Maine. I’d launched the ACLU fundraising campaign before I left Seattle, and we were already close to our $5,000 goal, so the night before we left, I doubled it! And on the morning of July 13th, we set off across America.

Maine

On our second day, we were coasting down a hill into Lincolnville when a red Suburban pulled up alongside me with the window down. I looked over expecting a few curse words, but it was just our buddy Shawn, and thirty minutes later we were at his house grilling cheeseburgers. That set the tone for New England, which was equal parts cycling and seeing friends. Our friend Kristin put us up on Megunticook Lake that night, and it was back to Shawn and Kirsten’s house that evening for another meal.

We would eat well in Maine.

The next day we stopped for a midday visit with Greta in Thomaston, and from there it was off to see my uncles and aunts in Boothbay for some backyard camping and a lobster roll dinner. In Bath, we camped at Grace’s house and feasted on more lobster, and the following day we met up with our childhood best friend Adam and his family for lunch in Brunswick. From there we left the coast and rode into Maine’s Lake Region, and after a night on Long Lake, we crossed into New Hampshire. Our first of fifteen states was full of friends and family, and that was just the beginning.

The White Mountains were waiting for us when we crossed into New Hampshire, along with some 90 degree heat, but before tackling them we decided to work on getting a hangover. Conway was our first stop and my friend Dani met us after a hike to kick off state number two over afternoon beers at Tuckerman Brewing Company.

After a couple of rounds the three of us crossed town to see Kelly and Mike and set up camp in the backyard of Mike’s mother's house at the base of South Moat Mountain. It was a family affair, and we prepared for the next day’s climb by feasting on tacos and drinking beers around the campfire late into the night. The next day, another friend, also named Mike, was waiting for us on the other side of Kancamagus Pass. We were tuckered out by the time we sat down to eat, but the hair of the dog got us up and over the next climb to our campsite.

After descending out of the White Mountains, we cruised south through the bucolic Connecticut River Valley before crossing into Vermont. Meeting up with my cousin Tyler that evening was challenging with no cell service, but he happened to see Drew outside a gas station while I was inside asking for directions to a nearby campsite. Tyler treated us to a picnic dinner before driving back home to New Hampshire, and the next day Drew and I rode up and over Middlebury Gap and coasted down through some hilly Vermont farmland on our way to the New York border. The planned bike route had us ferrying across Lake Champlain, but it was closed due to COVID19, so we detoured along dirt roads through a dreamy pastoral Vermont, and crossed into state number four over the Lake Champlain Bridge.

New York & Pennsylvania

We kicked off New York with a rest day. Jenny drove up and shuttled us to her cousin’s place on Saranac Lake where we checked out Lake Placid, got out on the boat, ate s’mores around the campfire, and looked at the stars. It was an ideal respite, and we set out to conquer the Adirondacks feeling well-rested, up and over the mountains, along lakeshores, and through forested marshlands.

In Old Forge we had a run-in with a hungry black bear that sniffed around our tents at night, and then sauntered by the next morning as we were packing up. From the Adirondacks we rode west to Lake Ontario where our friend Bob met us for a night of free camping in a residential trailer park.

We rode along the Great Lakes for several days, first Ontario, and then Erie. The Erie Canalway Bike Trail was a gem, and took us around Rochester where my friend Jack joined us for a few hours of riding. Our old best friend Travis drove all the way up from Pittsburgh and joined us for a night of free camping in Middleport’s town park, and from there we toured Niagara Falls on the way to Buffalo where we splurged for a downtown hotel. Our last night in New York was spent at Lake Erie State Park, where our campsite neighbors invited us over for dinner outside their RV.

In the morning we crossed into Pennsylvania. It was less than fifty miles across our fifth state, and we tackled it in a day, but not without getting caught in a downpour and having to fix our first flat tire of the trip. It was a rough one, but we were nearing Ohio, our home state, and we had a lot to look forward to. Our ACLU campaign was growing with every mile, and we were already nearing our updated $10,000 goal. Plus our biker gang was about to double once we got to Cleveland.