In a moment of inspired lunacy four years ago, Kate Harris and Mel Yule, childhood pals since the age of 10, decided to bike coast-to-coast across the USA. We saved money, bought cheap commuter bikes and some panniers, and set off from San Francisco wearing underpants beneath our brand new chamois. Two months later, we arrived at the coast of North Carolina with some ferocious saddle sores, but also with a soaring sense of what is possible on two wheels.
This trip was just a warm-up. The following year, the two of us, along with another friend,
biked over 3,000 miles of China’s cracked and broken backroads, retracing an abridged section of the Silk Road through the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet. As young wannabe explorers who wish maps had more blank spaces, we wanted to experience a hint of how Marco must have felt confronting the unknown Silk Road, with its meanders and dead ends, its high passes and harsh deserts, its ancient villages and booming cities. Four months of cycling and camping across China only stoked our wanderlust. We vowed to someday return and finish riding the Silk Road left untraveled.
After that Silk Road adventure, we went on to graduate school to study earth sciences, transboundary conservation, and sustainable development. Kate wrote a Master's thesis on transboundary conservation and conflict resolution (Oxford), and earned another in earth and planetary sciences (MIT). Mel worked on long-term environmental projects in Ecuador and Nigeria, and earned a Master's in sustainable development and capacity building (Guelph). We now plan to return to the Silk Road and finish biking the entire sweep of it, starting in Europe and riding all the way to Asia. Only this time, the expedition isn’t for the sheer sake of adventure (though we anticipate plenty of it along the way).
Instead, we plan to put lessons learned in the classroom, in the field, and on previous adventures to the ultimate test. To echo the words of 19th-century round-the-world cyclists Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Sachtleben:
"The idea of a trip...had been conceived by us as a practical finish to a theoretical education; and the bicycle was adopted as a means to an end."
Even after countless nights crammed together in a stinky tent following countless days pushing pedals in the harshest conditions imaginable, the two of us are not only still pals, but excited to hit the road again as a team. On this journey, we hope to inspire support for TBPAs and peace parks along the Silk Road and beyond. We also hope to inspire others to not only get outside and explore the mountains, but do what they can to conserve alpine ecosystems and cultures. Join us vicariously on this wild ride, starting in the fall of 2010 and ending at least a year later.
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