Geography instructor bicycles across America’s heartland
Roman Chacon
Steve Bass, MCC geography instructor, traveled across the country by bicycle this past summer. Bass shared his experiences in a presentation called “Bicycling Across America: a Geographer’s Prospective.”Bass traveled over 3,000 miles that took him through 16 states from Portland, Ore. to Boston, Mass. He averaged about 60 miles a day, taking one day off a week.
Bass was surprised by the amount of attendees for his event.
“I was floored that so many people showed up,” he said.
During the presentation, Bass discussed the problems he faced along the road and shared stories of the people and places he came across.
In regards to the difficulties on trip, Bass said, “It was tough being away from family for so long. It’s a lot of time alone. Thankfully, for the second half of the trip my family traveled along.”
He stated that the hardest leg of his journey was the weather in the mountains of Wyoming. He recalled encountering a vicious ice storm that pelted him with hail.
Bass said there were many things he enjoyed while on the road.
“Meeting people [and] learning about people’s communities from their own perspective.
“I had done research beforehand on the towns I was going to pass through, but listening to people describe it themselves was much more meaningful.”
Bass traveled alone most of the way, he still managed to meet many other bicycle travelers from all over America and around the world. He met people from as young as twenty to as old as seventy.
Bass came across many diverse places as well, from a ghost town built to small communities were the entire economy was based off a prison.
MCC student Jeffery Watts attended the presentation.
“Bass is a great speaker and he’s really an interesting person with a lot of great stories to tell,” Watts said.
Bass had some words of advice for those interested in embarking on similar journeys.
“First prepare well, that means both physically and mentally. Visualize what conditions will be like and prepare for the worst. You have to be mentally strong when things don’t always go right,” Bass said.
The second piece of advice he had was to just take your time and enjoy the scenery around you.
“It’s not a race. The whole purpose of traveling is to learn along the way,”
“If you race through it you miss the beauty,” Bass said.
For anyone interested in cross-country cycling or similar journeys Bass suggested visiting adventurecycling.org and crazyguyonabike.com for more information and resources.
