Did You Know Some People Ride Their Bicycles Across the United States?

Listen to the riveting story of how a passionate cyclist, at 70 years old, tackled the grueling challenge of riding his bicycle from coast-to-coast — even setting an uphill record for his age. Eric Jeppesen shares his experience with Crow’s Feet Podcaster Lee Bentch, explaining his training and motivation to make the trip, along with the ups and downs of tackling multiple mountain ranges, weather changes, illness, and forest fires. 

Transcript

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Unknown: Eric: 0:00

That's just digging yourself into the dream that you have living it in your mind preparing for, and then doing it if you fail, so what?

Pre-recorded open: 0:11

This is Crow's Feet, a place where we ponder the question, Are these our golden years or does aging just suck? Well, yes, getting older is not for the faint hearted. But aging also brings wisdom and humor, a finely tuned perspective on life. In our podcast, you'll meet writers and others rethinking our later years, people who inspire us to reimagine our future.

Lee Bentch: 0:37

My name is Lee Bentch, a Crow's Feet writer and podcaster. Today I'm speaking with Eric Jeppesen. Eric is a retired attorney. Most importantly, he is an avid cyclist. I'm excited to talk to Eric because he recently finished a bicycle trip across the United States, a feat that many of us would never consider. But Eric did this at the age of 70. While managing his asthma and celebrating his birthday on the road, Eric broke an age and elevation record. Eric, your story is awesome. Let's begin with how you got started cycling and what was the inspiration to tackle a long haul trip.

Eric: 1:20

I started cycling in about 2005. I met a friend of a friend who was a road cyclist, I had a crossbike at the time, we rode quite a bit and my wife that year suggested I get clip-in pedals. And I did that and I just kept riding mostly on the trail here close to my home. And I just got to feel invigorated again. I used to run a lot but I had to give up running because of my feet and my knees. It really became more of a an addiction when my wife and I learned that my youngest son had a health crisis. And while away in school in Arizona, getting on a bicycle after work was a good stress reliever and it helped clear in my mind and relax me more. So I just kept that up.

Lee: 2:15

Sounds reasonable thing to do. In the past earlier than that I probably would have gotten outside and run three miles or something like that. But I enjoyed being n the world, the tires on the road surface and etc. One day when I came back from work, I noticed my next door neighbor had his bike out and he had a bicycle kit on and I I stopped and I said, "Where are you going?" And he said, well, he was going to go for a ride. He's done several Ironman competitions. At the time. I didn't know that he rode a bike and I asked him to come with you. And he said sure. So I heard him and changed into my cycling gear and got on my bike and went out met him and we went out and rode probably only about 25 or 30 miles and gee, I thought that was fun.

Eric: 3:02

And he introduced me to another friend who's become a very avid, avid cycling buddy of mine. His name is Gary, my next door neighbor who I just referred to, his name Pat. And Gary and I still ride quite a bit, although not so much during this time of year because of the weather. One day I asked Pat, if he had ever done the SDP, which is Seattle to Portland. STP is what it stands for. It's 200 miles. You can do it in one or two days to set he had always done it in two. I said, Well, I'd be interested in doing it in one Do you know anybody else that could ride with us? And he suggested Gary,. I've ended up doing it every year since. And after I'd done that about four or five times I used to at the time go to a indoor cycling club in Seattle that's called cycle University and I would take indoor cycling classes and power meters. And I would usually go three days a week, I mentioned to one of the individuals I said, Gee, I'm interested in maybe riding the bike across the country with my bike and my tires would stand everything. But I started reading about individuals that had ridden across the country and I just like being on my bike. So I signed up for the southern tour in the year 2000. But of course that was the year the pandemic and ultimately was canceled.

Lee: 4:25

You mean the year 2020?

Eric: 4:29

Excuse me? Okay, yeah.

Lee: 4:31

So you signed up in 2020. But that one got cancelled, right?

Eric: 4:36

It was cancelled due to COVID. I mean, there just weren't enough hotels and motels and restaurants that were open and cetera. So they canceled that tour. And I thought, well, maybe I just blown my chance. I didn't really want to do it with other groups or organizations that I'd read about primarily because many of them just took too long. Maybe their average daily ride was only 55 miles or something like that. But a couple of months after the tour was canceled, I got an email from Pachter that indicated that they were going to do the northern tour in 2021. And they would allow me to shift my registration over to 2021. I asked my wife about it, I was a little concerned about the price tag. But she encouraged me, she's always encouraged me about my cycling. So I signed up for it, paid my deposit and kept indoor training, which is now in my garage and really got outside training hard around March and April.

Lee: 5:38

Sounds to me like you really enjoy the long days, like 100 to 120 miles per day. Is that about right?

Eric: 5:47

I've often wondered kind of why. But I do enjoy being on my bike for a long time. I enjoy the long rides. And if they're less than 60-80 miles, I won't even bother that I don't mean to disparage anybody that goes on those shorter rides. I am not. When I was in high school, and I used to participate in track, the quarter-mile was my long event. But as I guess I've gotten older, I've got more endurance rather than speeds.

Lee: 6:20

Let's go back to the tour on the northern route. So that took you 30-33 days maybe? I think it was 34 days total ended up to be a little over 3,800 miles. 34 straight days. There were not any rest days. The long days were approximately 147 miles. We had a couple of days that were shorter in the 80 to i 70 miles. It was an endurance issue. You started in Seattle,

Eric: 6:51

Actually we started in Everett, Washington, which is just about 25-30 miles north of Seattle.

Lee: 6:57

And you ended up where?

Eric: 6:59

We ended up in Rye Beach, New Hampshire. Wow. Now that was in July time frame. We started on July 10. We ended on August 12. I think it was

Lee: 7:10

How many mountain ranges did you have to crawl?

Eric: 7:12

We went over the North Cascades down the second day, which was 126 mile ride with about 8000 feet of elevation It was over Highway 20. It was a beautiful day. Fortunately we we missed being cut off or delayed by a fire that had been up there that year. But anyway went over the North Cascades and obviously over the Rockies somewhere another we crossed the Continental Divide, but I can't tell you exactly where.

Lee: 7:45

That's okay. So you put in a lot of miles. So 8000 feet was the highest point.

Eric: 7:51

That was one of the longest roads. That was actually the most difficult day for me, was the day we were out from Powell, Wyoming to Sheridan, Wyoming. That was about day 12, I think it was, I had suffered from asthma and the smoke from the fires got me. So by that time, I knew I had bronchial infection. I actually went to a clinic in Columbus the day ahead of time that from Powell to Sheridan, Wyoming, it's 122 miles, about 7300 feet or more. And they call that the Bighorn climb. I had heard many of the veterans who had done this route, talk about this climb and how they timed everybody. I didn't want to be timed. I just wanted to frickin make it. It's funny to me, it may not be the listeners. But every day I would usually set an alarm on my watch. I usually get up at four o'clock in the morning, but I have a routine where I shower, shave, stretch. I have a morning, big glass of amino acids and beet powder, I drink and go down for breakfast, blah, blah. But that morning, I haven't set my alarm. And my wife sent me a text message, and I wear an Apple Watch, so I feel this buzzing on my wrist and I wake up and it's my wife wishing me good morning and hope I have a good day. And I thought well that's odd because I usually text her first. I looked at my time on my watch and it said 455 and my immediate thought was okay, well it's just shortly before four and then I

thought Oh no, that's 4: 9:27

55! Breakfast, they're gonna start breakfast in less than an hour.

Eric: 9:34

So I bounced from one wall to the other getting ready. I ran down had breakfast and but anyway, and I was a nervous wreck and when I start off on the bike, I just felt pooped. I was mentally and physically wiped out and I didn't know whether it was mentally or whether it was physically. I was just tired. And I think it's about 20 miles into the ride. They had the first rest stop start there and I feel up and fill my water bottles. Before I get started, I find out that the mud that I've stepped in is like concrete and have to scrape it off my pedal cleats to the top of the climb. That's about 8000, 9000 feet. It was the most grueling climb I've ever been on. Whether it's because of my bronchial infection and asthma, or what it was, but I made it to the top and lon Haldeman calls over to me while I'm sitting with my head hanging down trying to drink a soda. And he says, "How old are you, Eric?" And I said,"I'll be 71 and eight or nine days". And he said, "So you're 70?" and I said, "Yeah, I'm 70." I didn't know what he was getting that. And he calls over to me and he says, You just set a record for over 70 up the big warm climb. It still brings tears to my eyes. I just can't believe it.

Lee: 11:02

You are listening to the Crow's Feet podcast. Our guest is Eric Jeppesen, sharing his story about crossing the United States on a bicycle at age 70. So you weren't feeling 100% And you still broke the record?

Eric: 11:18

I wasn't feeling 100% There were times so it was just grueling. I would actually gauge my progress and tenths of a mile. I kept telling myself, Eric, you've never stopped on the climb. Don't stop on a client. And about approximately, I would say halfway up. I just unclip my brain just shut off. And I just without even thinking about it. I don't quit my pedals. I know. And I felt devastated for a second. I probably wasn't 30 seconds later, I just tried to clip back in and get gone. It's a pretty steep uphill. So it was slow getting my feet in the pedals again, power until I reached the top.

Lee: 11:56

You had a birthday while you were on the road.

Eric: 11:59

It was great. I don't even remember how he knew but I used to ride or I did ride on that cross country trip with a nice gentleman named Michael Robertson from Indiana, retired CPA and he was wonderful to ride with is significantly younger than me. I think he was in his mid-50s. He apparently learned it was my birthday. And so we were in La Crosse, Wisconsin that night and the next morning, his mother and I think his grandmother or mother-in-law, they had arranged to get me a dozen cupcakes with candles. And so they gave them to me at breakfast. So that was my 71st birthday the night before. When I checked into the motel, I found out that the clerk had a package for many. And they went and grabbed a box and handed it to me it was heavier than heavy. It was from my wife and she had sent me a care package with cookies and my kids and grandkids had filled it with some brownies and jerky things like anice card. So I had a great 71st birthday celebration.

Lee: 13:04

That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, so overall, the trip exceeded your expectations.

Eric: 13:11

Yeah, you know, I did a lot of training, I rode quite a bit, rode probably an average of 200 to 300 miles a week ready for the ride. I thought in the beginning that recovery would be the worst problem, you know, would my body just physically be able to recover day after day. As I said earlier, I'd done 200 mile rides before, but I hadn't done many back-to-back 100 mile days. So that was worrisome to me. But that didn't turn out to be the problem. It was the daily regimen. It was logistics of it every day that actually I wouldn't say wore me down, but were the most difficult when I got on the bike. I was like, Okay, I just got 100 miles it goes 120 miles, I think once I knock off 20 It's only 100 miles to go. Not that big of a deal. But the daily routine was simply it was

something like this: 14:03

You finished a ride, you'd wash your bike. Well, you might grab a soda or chocolate milk or something like that, the trick is to hydrate yourself, you haul your bike up to your room, if your room was ready, come back and get your gear bag and your computer case then haul them up to your room. You'd shower and do your laundry whether it was in the motel washing machine or whether they had to wash it in the sink or the bath and then you'd find a place to eat. You know we don't often think about this and I didn't that was still the tail end of the pandemic. And sometimes there weren't places to eat. I know when I was in Cooley City my dinner was I walked across the parking lot to a chevron station and got a breakfast sandwich which they warmed up in a microwave. It was my dinner. And then you know after eating and go back to the room and I tried to call my wife, maybe answer a few emails and write a little bit on my blog for the family members and try to post some pictures, go to bed wake up in the morning at four o'clock go through that routine, be on the road, usually

somewhere between six and 7: 15:10

30, depending on the day's route. So it was that daily routine that was harder than actually writing for me.

Lee: 15:20

Is it something you would do again, You know, I've been asked that many times that I have to hammer on how, in a way, I would. The only reason I would be reticent about doing it again, is the routine other than being on the bike. I didn't do this in the beginning to prove that I could I just literally just enjoy being on the bicycle. It was something fabulous. I didn't discourage anybody who has a dream of ever doing it to do it. Seeing the country on your bicycle is marvelous. I've been across across the country several times by automobile, doing it by bicycle is amazing. So I have a friend of mine who made a similar trip. But he did it solo with a chase car. And he said the same thing. He's just being out in about a month of the people, the cities, the country.

Eric: 16:16

So as it is, you know, I was stopped a few times whether it was in a convenience store or in a park where we had a SAG stop, and somebody would come up to say, Where are you headed? Well, I'm headed to Rye Beach, New Hampshire. And they'd look at me, he goes, where's that? That's it all. It's on the East Coast. And I might be in someplace and like in South Dakota at the time, and well, really on your bike. And it did, yeah. Or other days. I remember once in the Bighorns, we were we stopped to take a few pictures, and somebody came up to me says it was a hot day and somebody said, how many miles you're going today, said about 146. And you go, and this way you met a lot of great people.

Lee: 17:01

That's an awesome story. So do you have any advice for an aging population about tackling, you know, similar types of things> We all have visions of running marathons, and triathlons and Iron Man's and big bike trips. But you know, sometimes physically and mentally, it just can't be done. So what's your advice? What's the kernel of motivation?

Eric: 17:27

I think about that quite a bit, too. What is it that motivated me? And I think it was a desire to do something I just wanted to do, whether you'd see a dream that you have, whether it's something that you think you should accomplish, I'm not so sure what it is. One saying that, or phrase, that I often think about is something to the effect of, you don't stop moving, because you get old, you get old because you stop moving. I've thought about that for a long time. Plus, I enjoy being outside, I enjoy the physical activity. And I'm 72 Now turn 71 on this ride, My body hurts and a lot of places I'm sure there's people that can identify that, you know, my back hurts as I'm sitting here talking to you, my knees crank, it takes me a while to get moving out. There's something about overcoming those things that that sparks me. So I would just say, if there's something that you want to do, whether it's reading a long book, whether it's taking a long walk, taking a hike, ride your bike across the country, do it. To me, the success of it is not so much as doing it as it is to prepare for it, to plan for it to train for it. And so that's where they're really success comes in the right across the country was easier than I thought it would be in many ways. Now it was an arduous trip. Don't get me wrong. But again, I was worried about recovery. It wasn't recovery. It was a day to day routine, which I hadn't planned for I hadn't anticipated. And it's true that when you finish something that you've planned for you do feel good about it. There's this an emotional high that you get. I distinctly remember the last five miles that we wrote into rye Beach, New Hampshire, and it still almost brings tears to my eyes. Because I fought back and I thought about all the people that had encouraged me, my I'm gonna choke up now. My wife was a great supporter of my cycling addiction for years. She texted me every day, she sent me multiple care packages. And those thoughts as I thought about when I started, you know, over 30 days to go and when I first got a glimpse of the the Atlantic Ocean, I mean, I could have just started crying out loud, and I had to shake my head, maintain it. upright posture. So success does mean something, but the support that you get from family members or friends as an enormous amount of help. But it's also just digging yourself into that. That dream that you have living it in your mind, preparing for, and then doing it if you fail, so what you can try again or you can pick something else but trying for it. Really this success. You're still continuing on with your cycling routine. I am yeah. All right in the garage and right outside when I can. Eric, we we truly appreciate it. And you've got about 30 seconds. If you'd like to finish off with a with a statement or two, that'd be great. Well, I just come back to that old adage that I don't stop moving because you get old you get old because you stop moving.

Lee: 20:58

You've been listening to Eric Jefferson recount his story of crossing the United States on a bicycle, and accomplishment that many would never think of especially at age 70. I would like to thank the Crow's Feet podcast team. Nancy Peckenham, our executive producer, Rich Halton our Production and Sound Engineer Nancy Franklin, our marketing and public relations expert, with additional support from various Crow's Feet writers

and podcasters: 21:27

Jan Flynn, Melinda Blau, Elizabeth Allen, Jean Feldeisen Catherine Dunn Gilbert and Warren Turner.

Voice Over: 21:42

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Crow's

Feet: 21:45

Life as We Age. Don't miss any of our great stories. Subscribe to Crow's Feet wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to tell your friends and family to give a listen to and leave a rating or review. You can read more Crow's Feet stories online at www.medium.com/crows-feet. So until next time, remember to savor every moment.