Younger shares experience biking across country

By RICHARD JENKINS

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MERCER, Wis. - A small crowd gathered at the Mercer Community Center Thursday to hear Mercer resident Shari Younger tell her experience behind "bars" as she biked across the country over the course of two years.

Younger biked a total of 3,450 miles over 46 days in 1997 and 1998, first traveling from Stevens Point, Wis., to Bar Harbor, Maine and then from Seattle to Stevens Point.

She said the audience was likely broken down into three groups; her friends who were there to support her, people who want more information and are considering a similar trip and those who simply want to see what type of person is crazy enough to bike that far.

While Younger said the two trips were the longest she had done to that point, she was familiar with multi-day trips.

While she, like many people, rode a bike as a kid; Younger said it wasn't until she moved to Wisconsin that she bought a multi-gear bike and began taking her young son on 25-mile bike rides.

From there, the distances grew - including an overnight trip from Stevens Point to the Wisconsin Dells with a friend.

"It was 75 miles," Younger said. "I don't remember training for it. We were young, we did it."

She then stopped biking, taking it up again shortly before turning 50 when she decided to participate in an annual ride along the Wisconsin River.

Regarding the secret to a long-distance bike trip, Younger joked it was fairly simple.

"You push the pedal down on one side and it comes up on the other. Then you push that side down and the first one comes up again. Pretty soon the first day is over, and you start on the second. That's all there is to it," Younger said, reading a quote from an unknown author.

The Wisconsin-Maine trip came about during a teacher conference, Younger said, when she was approached by another teacher who heard she had been biking.

The teacher wanted to get a group of teachers together for the trip, and sent a letter to various teachers throughout the state. Younger said she was the only teacher to respond, so the two of them set off on the journey.

Younger showed pictures from the trip, and shared memories and journal entries from several of the memorable days.

The journey took 22 days and covered 1,500 miles, with 68 miles being the average distance traveled each days.

The next year, she would complete the Seattle to Wisconsin journey averaging 81 miles a day for 24 days to complete the 1,950 mile journey.

While the trip to Maine was done with another cyclist, Younger said she did the second journey alone - however, she did have a friend in a support vehicle.

She said she avoided traveling with the other rider for the second trip, because she wanted the support vehicle rather than carrying all the necessary equipment on the bikes.

Prior to Younger's talk, librarian Teresa Schmidt said the talk was part of the library's celebration of Bike Safety Week. The library's events will continue today, with a bike safety rodeo from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will feature safety checks, prizes, skills training and a helmet giveaway.