By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
His bicycle rig touched the foamy waters of the Atlantic Ocean today and his wife and daughter joyfully greeted him in St. Augustine, Florida, to celebrate another Jared Fisher command performance on two wheels.
Fisher, the owner of the Las Vegas Cyclery (and two other bike shops) and the Escape Adventures bicycle-touring company, human powered his way across America, coast-to-coast from San Diego to St. Augustine this month. Fisher covered the more than 3,200 miles in a mere 17 days. What makes this two-week-plus odyssey-on-wheels so remarkable is that it was another Fisher solo transcontinental trek without any person in a support vehicle.
There are cyclists and racers who bike faster across the country but they usually have a team of mechanics, cooks and helpers in a big vehicle equipped with beds, bike parts and energy foods. And there are bicyclists who pedal across the country by themselves without a support car, but they typically take at a month or six weeks to do it. Fisher has the speed of an endurance cyclist and the mental fortitude of a solo trans-continental bicyclist, covering more than 200 miles a day thanks to 15 or 16 daily hours on the bike seat.
Fisher texted me photos today showing his bicycle in the Atlantic and his lovely wife Heather and sweet daughter Sequoia.
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If I come out with another edition of my new book, Bicycle Man: Life of Journeys, I would reserve a special section just on Jared Fisher. He’s a true Bicycle Man, an authentic two-wheeling straight-shooter who lets his two legs do all the talking.
Fisher crossed Arizona and New Mexico and then coped with the sheer desolation of west Texas. That state is a lot bigger in square miles than most countries, but Fisher tamed the beast of the Lone State State to reach Louisiana.
Then Fisher avoided the tornadoes, loose dogs and rainy weather of the Deep South before hitting the Florida Panhandle for a 450-mile segment across northern Florida to reach the Atlantic. Fisher learned that the rural South was not keen on leash laws to keep dogs from chasing cross-country bicyclists.
Fisher’s bike mechanic skills also came in handy when some front wheel spokes snapped and he had to fix a gear-shifting cable that broke inside the bike part that changes the chain to different gears. He chatted with one of his bike store mechanics to figure out the details of installing a new gear-shifting cable in the bike part, which he took apart and then re-assembled with the new cable inside.
Fisher is getting used to crossing America. In July 2019, Fisher took 18 days to cross the country solo, covering 3,241 miles across the northern tier of the United States.
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On Sunday I chatted with Fisher as he biked in north Florida, cycling in the dark on U.S. Highway 90 that runs parallel to Interstate 10. Once you buy into bicycling across the country and make up your mind that nothing will stop you from reaching the other side of the continent, the physical part is actually less taxing than the mental challenge of it all.
This ride was hard. Really hard. It was a mental game. The mind plays tricks on you when you ride 12-16 hours a day by yourself. Like when the next town is 95 miles in front of you in west Texas and there is no water or food. When the winds blow against you for 2 weeks. Up to 40 miles per hour gusts. When the rain pours down so hard your waterproof jacket and pants are soaked. When the lightening is 9 seconds away for a half hour and your the only thing for said lightening to strike for miles. When more than 200 dogs attack you from Texas to Mississippi at all hours of the days and nights. When the only food you have is microwave hamburgers and honeybuns or if your are lucky McDonald’s. When your front spokes snap on your bike 300 miles from the closest bike shop or your shifter breaks in the dark in Louisiana 100 miles away from a place to have enough light to see how to rebuild it. When you see flying black cows and black panthers floating in front of you. Or the moment you feel so alone that the voice of your worst enemy would be welcoming….This is what I experienced and it is also what I fought and refused. — Jared Fisher
On Day 16, Fisher tells his story on his ride from Madison, Florida to Palatka (St John’s River), Florida:
Good evening everyone. First of all once again thank you so much for all the comments and the motivation to keep the wheels spinning. This has been a grueling adventure testing me in every aspect. To receive phone calls and get texts and emails from so many of you has been really the only reason I have been able to get through the hard days. It’s nearly impossible to explain how hard it’s been. I had a goal to do this ride in 16-17 days, 18 at most. It’s going to happen and it’s because of all of you. So again thank you!
This was not the hardest day for me but I didn’t want to drain the fuel tank and have nothing left at the Atlantic Ocean I didn’t quite make it yet but I can smell the Atlantic. More importantly Heather and Sequoia are on the plane right now flying to Jacksonville and will arrive before me at the Atlantic ocean tomorrow At Saint Augustine. Yeah that’s gonna be pretty rad.
I’m not gonna say much about today other than it was big enough to warrant two massive calzones a salad a huge Philly steak sub three peanut butter cups 2 diet Cokes and a Partridge in a pear tree… (Actually not the Partridge in a pear tree). I’m rewarding myself to my first real meal in 16 days. However I’m not going to be able to eat it because my stomach has shrunk. I am however going to haul it to the Atlantic ocean because it looks way too good to throw away. Once again everybody I’m so grateful for all of you as friends and I am glad you came along on this journey up ’til now. hope you will finish with me.
Amid all the troubles of a world beset by a deadly novel coronavirus pandemic, upsetting tragedies of Americans being killed by unstable young men firing bullets and even cyclists losing their lives because of distracted motorists close to home here in Las Vegas, there are the Jared Fishers of the world who live their lives by pedaling and pedaling and pedaling and not stopping until that little voice is quieted inside their heads after realizing something joyful while putting a smile on all our faces.
See you back in Las Vegas, Mr. Fisher.