Good News

August 22, 2009

Teacher has a wheel adventure

Hazleton man spins across U.S. on recumbent bicycle

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Steve Mocarsky on Facebook   |   @TLSteveMocarsky on Twitter

HAZLETON – Pleasant Valley High School teacher Keith Bast spent his summer vacation in a reclined position. And it wasn’t in a hammock or lawn chair.

The 34-year-old Hazleton resident eased onto his recumbent bicycle in Astoria, Ore., on June 3 and began pedaling to Yorktown, Va., where he finished his 4,272-mile trip on Aug. 3.

Think of a recumbent bicycle as a lounge chair with pedals – only not quite as comfortable – with a large wheel under the seat and a smaller wheel up front.

“I’m using a recumbent bike (because) when I was hiking the Appalachian Trail 11 years ago, I ended up with nerve damage in my shoulder in Virginia. I can’t ride a regular bike without my arm going numb,” Bast said.

An avid outdoorsman who grew up hunting, fishing and camping with his parents, Ray and Mary Bast, also of Hazleton, said he’s not afraid to take life to extremes. In addition to hiking the Appalachian Trail 1,300 miles in 1999, he canoed 1,200 miles of the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories in 2005, ending up about 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

And the question everyone always asks: Why do it?

“The challenge of it. The adventure of it. I wanted to see the country in a different way.”

Bast said he had been dreaming about riding a bicycle across the country for about six years. And completing the trip gave him a personal accomplishment of hiking more than 1,000 miles, canoeing more than 1,000 miles, and biking more than 4,000 miles uninterrupted.

So, with 40 to 50 pounds of gear, including a tent, sleeping bag, camera, extra clothes, rain gear, food, tubes for each tire, patch kits and spare parts towed behind in a small trailer, Bast bid farewell to his parents and hit the open road.

He followed the TransAmerica Trail and U.S. Bicycle Route 76, and at some points, the path famous American pioneers Lewis and Clark blazed in their 1803-06 expedition out West and back.

And what did he see?

“Indian war battlefields. It was kind of sad when I read about it as I was going through. On the Oregon Trail, I saw ruts in the rocks from the steel wagon wheels, places where they had Pony Express stations … Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace … (Thomas) Jefferson’s house in Monticello … plantations in Williamsburg. I finished in Yorktown, where the British surrendered to Washington. There was a lot of history, a lot of neat things,” Bast said.

He couldn’t choose a favorite state or states “because there are favorite parts of each state.” But the states that surprised him most were Missouri and Kentucky “for how beautiful they were.”

“And it was like a roller coaster going through both of those states. Some people don’t like it because you just constantly go up and down. But it’s a lot of fun, especially leaving Kansas, which I can unequivocally say is the state that I hated, that I did not like the most,” Bast said.

Through Kansas, between Eads, Colo., and Golden City, Mo., Bast encountered approximately 800 miles of completely flat terrain and anywhere between 15 and 35 mph sustained headwinds, he said.

“There was one day when the wind was coming completely sideways at me and was whistling as it went through my spokes. … I went two miles in 45 minutes, that’s how bad it was. … It was 105 degrees with 70 percent humidity all day long,” Bast said.

“Missouri and Kentucky, the scenery is amazing and the people were so nice. I think I had a shower almost every day in Missouri and Kentucky, the places that I stayed,” he said.

And what about the trip impressed him the most?

“The kindness of the people you meet.”

Many opened up their homes, and several churches opened their doors as well. When his back tire spokes began breaking, someone gave him a lift to a bicycle repair shop, he said.

Bast said some of his former 11th and 12th grade students followed his progress as he posted his daily adventures on his blog.

And he plans to show his new photos from the trip to his new students this school year and share some of his experiences. He wants to teach them a little more than environmental science and biology.

“There’s a lot out there for them to see and for them to do. And as long as they have a dream in mind, they can do it. Whatever they want to do in life is possible as long as they have the drive and ambition to do it and as long as they stay with it,” Bast said.

And as for the rest of us?

“If there is something you want to do, don’t wait around to do it,” Bast said after giving it some thought. “If you have the ability and resources, try to live your dream.”

TO LEARN MORE

Read Keith Bast’s blog from his cross-country trip at www.crazyguyonabike.com

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