I Just Biked from the Top of Alaska to the Bottom of Argentina, +20,000 Miles, +1.5 Million Feet of Elevation Gain, Feeling Dead But Happy

From the top of Alaska to the bottom of Argentina – Prudhoe Bay to Ushuaia, plus New Zealand – it’s finally over!

+20,000 miles cycled
+1.5 million ft of elevation gain

In truth I’m so ready to be done. It’s like reaching your physical and mental capacity by noon each day, with no choice but to keep pushing past it over and over again without end. Things never got any easier. I wanted to give up in Guatemala, in Peru, in Bolivia. I laid down on the rocks and prayed for a truck to crush me, but they never came. I almost quit just days from the finish line when headwinds topped 60 mph [100 kmh]. Winds so strong that I could barely walk the bike upright, never mind pedaling. You just have to find a way to keep going.

Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions for those interested:

1. How did you cross the Darién Gap?

Met up with a Colombian sailor on the Caribbean side of Panama. We lashed my bike to the mast and sailed to Cartagena. This added several hundred miles of extra cycling in the process, but Colombia’s Northeast Cordillera ended up being a highlight of the entire journey. I wrote about it for The Travel Almanac!

1. Did you have any dangerous encounters with wildlife or people?

Daily wildlife encounters up north including grizzlies, moose and rabid wolves (wrote about that for Men’s Fitness magazine, very scary), but no troubles thereafter.

Mexico and Colombia were supposed to be the most “dangerous” countries, but ended up being my two favorite. It helps that I speak Spanish, but so often when I would stop to ask locals for directions or advice as to safe camping, they would invite me inside instead, offering food and a bed [their own bed]. Friendly drivers would get out of their vehicles at stoplights to gift snacks, water, or just plain uplifting conversation.

Petty theft and violent crime do still happen obviously, so I’d read all the horror stories and explored accordingly. Women of course might have a far different experience than a 6’4” white American male too, with exponentially greater potential dangers to balance en route. But the only times I’ve ever been robbed or hit by a car were in the USA.

1. Can I read more about your journey somewhere, and what now?

I’ve been writing a full book en route that tells the linear bike travelogue interwoven with a memoir regarding my estranged mom’s death while I was still in Alaska – with whom I hadn’t spoken since escaping their religious cult as a teenager – and how these two arcs converge in the peripatetic search for familial belonging. Meanwhile, I started publishing a newspaper dispatch called Wayfaring Strangers for printed bits of kaleidoscopic travel writing and photography if interested in more (links ⤴️ in profile bio).

Glad to answer any further questions too if something comes to mind. Immense thanks for everyone’s kind words of encouragement en route 🙌🏼 Let’s get some coffee and go for a bike ride!