Wellsboro newspaper

Cyclists enjoy excellent adventure


(photo by Natalie Kennedy) Bicyclists Mike and Bonnie O'Donnell took a day to rest in Wellsboro as they neared the conclusion of their cross-country trek.

by Natalie Kennedy

It's been a long road - 3,100 miles of it - and a long time getting there - over six weeks - but it's been an excellent adventure for cyclists Mike and Bonnie O'Donnell.

The Flagstaff, Ariz. residents began their cross country trek on July 20 in San Francisco, Calif. They plan to continue biking to Norristown, possibly even New Jersey. They'll return home by air on Sept. 13.

So, why does one decide to bicycle from ocean to ocean?

"It's something I always wanted to do since I was a kid," said Mike, a psychiatric social worker.

Our 15 minutes of small town fame!

09/16/2008
Life Cycle
By: GARY PULEO , Norristown Times Herald Staff

Bonnie and Michael O’Donnell ride their bikes in East Norriton last Wednesday. The married couple rode their bikes cross-country from California to Michael O’Donnell’s mother’s residence in East Norriton.

EAST NORRITON - To a hard-core biker, pushing off from San Francisco to East Norriton, fully loaded and ready for the road, means something.
To Michael O'Donnell, the 51-day trip back to his hometown meant that in his early 40s and weighing in at 165 pounds, he was still up to the task.
It also meant that for he and his wife, Bonnie O'Donnell, a dream that's been put on hold for a couple of decades could come to fruition.
"I've been racing bikes as a hobby but in the last year it's been getting hard to do that - and I've always wanted to do this trip," O'Donnell said while visiting his mother in East Norriton.
"This winter we started talking about it because you don't know what the future holds. So we made it happen. But one of the fascinating things we found out is that there are a lot of people older than us, in their 70s, doing these bike trips.
"At that age they have the time and the money and it's something they've always wanted to do."
O'Donnell hadn't tackled any "loaded" touring for at least 20 years, he said.
As the term might suggest, "loaded" means you don't require a lot in the way of outside help, he explained.
"On our honeymoon we did a bike trip with support, which is not the same thing at all because you don't have to carry anything; you just ride during the day while a van follows you in case you break down or have problems. This was a lot different."
Self-sufficiency on two wheels depends on more than packing enough protein bars, O'Donnell said.
"Everything you need the whole time you're out is carried on your bike, down to your water filter," noted O'Donnell.
Though the couple lives in Flagstaff, Ariz., they chose to embark on their 3,500-mile journey from a more geographically compatible location.
"My wife has an aunt in California, so we rented a car one way and started there so we could go coast to coast," O'Donnell explained.
Bikers are apparently an important demographic in that state, he added.
"They have these tunnels just for bikers in California and it's just mind-boggling because it's like having your own road. There are even call boxes every mile for bikers ... it's like nothing I've ever seen."
The trip was fairly evenly divided between camping - "sleeping on the ground isn't easy when you're in your 40s," O'Donnell said, laughing - and staying over at people's homes and motels.
Between chatting with folks across the country and keeping an eye on tire tread, the O'Donnells detailed their route and some of their experiences on the Web site, www.crazyguyonabike.com.
Rabbit Ears Pass in the Rocky mountains of Colorado provided the setting for "high drama," O'Donnell remembered.
"We climbed up for maybe 13 miles when the weather changed halfway up. We heard thunder and the sky got dark - you don't want to be out in the high mountains during that because it can get pretty nasty very fast. We were able to beat that storm but it was our closest call to potential disaster."
Closer to home, when confronted with the potential horror of riding through rush hour traffic, the couple was thrilled to stumble upon an unexpected detour that saved the day.
"We were on the Perkiomen Trail, and up around Upper Perkiomen High School we found the Skippack Township Trail.
"We didn't even know about. It wasn't on any of the research I had done. So I called home and talked to my sister and they found it on the Internet and found out that it goes right to Evansburg State Park," O'Donnell said.
"This was during rush hour and we were thinking we didn't want to have to get off the trail and deal with rush hour traffic, but then we didn't have to because we hit this trail, which took us all the way to Skippack Creek in Evansburg Park."
Winding through the back roads by Methacton High School meant no brushes with impatient drivers anxious to get home after a long day at work.
"We rode through Southeastern Pennsylvania and never hit traffic because we were always on bike paths on country roads.
"It's really a viable way to get places if you live in that part of the county. Before we saw that trail, what we were thinking of doing is taking the Perkiomenville Trail to Oaks, at which point you can actually get on the Schuylkill River Trail and go all the way to Philadelphia and not have to deal with cars."
Planning for a long bike trip of this intensity involves some sort of physical training, which the couple credits to bike rides several times a week.
"We both ride three or four times during the week, and in the summer we both ride back and forth to work," O'Donnell said.
"It's about seven miles - downhill the whole way there and uphill the way back. So it's very easy to do.
"And for us, riding our bikes is also making a political statement," he added. "It's always been that way for me, long before the Iraq war. Riding bikes doesn't pollute the air."
Gary Puleo can be reached at 610-272-2500, ext. 205, or at gpuleo@timesherald.com.