A journey of hope

After 105-plus miles of riding, which included a climb over Thompson Pass’ 4,800-foot summit, the Trans America cycling team was more than grateful to pull into Quinn’s Hot Springs and Resort last Wednesday in Paradise.

The Trans America 22-member team is part of Push America’s Journey of Hope, an annual cross-country cycling event that raises funds and awareness for the handicapped. The team departed from Skycomish, Wash., June 11 and had traveled more than 500 miles, when they reached Paradise.

Push America’s Journey of Hope is divided into three teams, team Trans America, team North and team South. And all of the riders are members of the national college fraternity Pi Kappa Phi, that’s based in Charlotte, N.C. With corporate donations and each cyclist’s personal sponsorships the program has raised more than $500,000 this year alone. The money will later be turned into grants for disabled people and organizations.

Wednesday morning the Trans America team had left Kellogg, Idaho for what they anticipated would be an 80-mile ride. Yet, after a few route corrections along the way due to high traffic on Interstate 90, the mileage moved into the triple digits.

Rider Cody Campau from Phoenix, Ariz., felt that the day was the hardest they’d experienced so far. Campau pedaled as long as he could before pains in his ankle forced him to be shuttled to the resort. “After riding over Thompson Pass, the pain was really starting to get under the skin,” Campau said and pointed out that it was better for him to forfeit a half-day on the bike instead of a whole week.

Campau was one of the four cyclists who had to be shuttled because of joint pains. However, despite the strain on the bike, Campau was still grateful just to be riding. “I know there’d would be millions of people who’d kill to be in my shoes, that’s why I can do what I do, why I can fight through the pain,” Campau said.

To get through the 10 weeks of riding Campau said that his biggest motivation are the handicapped people he’s working to help. He remembered being amazed at a dinner the team had with Special Olympic Athletes in Wenatchee, Wash., earlier that week. “It was inspiring to see them, all of them were heavily decorated with medals, many, in a variety of different sports,” Campau said.

When asked about the team’s motivation, Ben Kaufman, the Trans America Public Relations Coordinator from Randolph, N.J., was quick to talk about their cause. “We always say as a team that it’s not really about the cycling at all. The real purpose about our journey is to help people with disabilities,” Kaufman said. He also explained that each day’s ride is dedicated to a specific disabled person who has inspired the team and that helps to fuel the team’s drive to keep going.

Kaufman said that another important thing to know about the team is that they are not seasoned cyclists. The cycling experience for the majority of the riders before the trip was limited to the occasional ride around their college campuses, a big difference considering the team rides an average of 75 miles per day.

Jay Holley, the logistics coordinator from Saint Louis, Miss., said that the scenery was also a definite motivating factor to the team. “As much as I love Saint Louis we don’t get anything like this. I can’t even imagine living here it’s a beautiful part of the world,” Holley said.

Campau also loved the vistas coming into Montana. “When you’re going up those hills, as long as you’re in a pedaling rhythm, the scenery is so beautiful over here that it’s easy to take your mind off the pain.”

This year is the twentieth ride of the Journey of Hope and its three teams will cycle more than 12,000 miles and cross into 32 different states. Throughout the ride the cyclists will attend numerous events from bicycle safety seminars to children’s puppet shows. The teams will also interact with disabled and handicapped people through what they call friendship visits, dinners and activities where they can interact with handicapped people. At the end of the ten weeks all three teams will arrive in Washington, D.C., where the streets will be closed down for their arrival at the capital Aug. 16.

On Thursday, the team left Paradise for Missoula where they arrived to eat lunch at the Adventure Cycling Association and have a friendship visit organized through Opportunity Resources.