We crossed over the Peace Bridge from our launching ground in Buffalo, New York. Strangers came together from nearby and far to be trained as bike tour leaders for this year's group of teens trekking across the US, Canada and Europe. Immediately after the border crossing, Canada opens it's arms to bikers through the quaint and picturesque Friendship Trail. The dreamy trail is as whimsical and beautiful as the name entails, winding through quiet neighborhoods, lush farmlands, and vast waterways like Lake Erie and Niagara Falls. This is my third time crossing this trail, and every time it unfolds into a more magical place and experience than the time before. My first solo bike trip began on this trail. The fields greeted me with wild strawberries and colorful flowers while the people I interacted with through the open window of bike traveling, sealed the warming association the trail's namesake implies. It's been seven years since I've led a bike touring trip, but there are little experiences which have shaped me so drastically as this. Perhaps, that's what called me back. Teen Treks is the Buffalo based organization training leaders and sending kids out into the open road for a self-supported adventure. They exist to provide teens with an opportunity to discover nature and communities, through a form of transportation open and exposed to the world around them. Responsibility, independence and travel experience are some of tools the teens walk away with, but my favorite thing to see kids discover is a positive outlook on humanity. Bike touring dates back to the 1930's, and became increasingly popular during the American Youth Hostel Movement. But things have changed, people have become more fearful over time, less willing to allow their kids on a 400-500+ mile trip, carrying their own gear, sleeping in campgrounds and hostels, no phone or way of communication- trusting two 20-something year-olds to safely keep their kids out of harm. Road biking is a risk, as is other parts of bike touring, like fixing flats on the side of the road, toting around an expensive bike, carrying all of your belongings into busy cities and public spaces, trusting strangers when everything goes wrong.
There is something about that risk, though, that forces you to see what happens when you take a chance. Like watching yourself overcome the physical strain of day-to-day biking, realizing independent resourcefulness found while problem solving complicated situations, or placing faith in the hands of a stranger who might just be the key to a seemingly impossible situation. I personally was changed while taking risks through bike touring, and I came out realizing beauty on the other side. I've watch kids in desperate disdain towards bike traveling, ready to give up and go home, only to find themselves on the other end of the spectrum the final day, wishing the journey would never end. I've seen an eagerness arise in teens on these trips to lead, share responsibilities, help one another, greet a stranger, navigate through a city, sleep under the stars, fix their own bikes, make their own fires, cook their own meals, buy their own food, manage a budget, and engage with the history and culture of the communities they travel through. I see an experience I wish more could have, and wonder what the world would be like if more people immersed in the world in such a bold and open way.
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AuthorKatie Elizabeth: Writer, Wonderer, Wanderer. Archives
April 2022
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