By Peter Burns '04

What do Saligman, Arizona; Sallis, Mississippi; and Slapout, Oklahoma (Population 8) all have in common? They are all stops on a three-thousand-mile bicycle trip across the USA organized by Overland and led by Deerfield's own Peter Nilsson. Contrary to popular belief, Mr. Nilsson is much more than an ivory-tickling English teacher. He is a tough and determined adventurer who seeks to do what he loves: to bike.

Sixteen bikers set out from Savannah, Georgia, in late June with one goal: to reach Santa Monica, California, in six week's time. Before they would reach the sunny beaches of California, the bikers would pass through eight states, two mountain ranges and one desert.

"The American Challenge," as Overland calls it, is the most grueling bike trip offered. 3,000 miles at an average of 85 miles per day, with some days reaching 115 miles, all after waking up at 4:45 a.m., not to mention the heat that reached 126°. Yet to Mr. Nilsson, this grueling journey was not a punishment at all. He found something he loves doing, and managed to convince someone to pay him to do it.

After dipping their rear wheels in the Atlantic Ocean, Mr. Nilsson, his colleague, and fourteen kids (ages 15-17) began their quest that would take them through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Throughout the South, the riders slept in community centers and churches, "anywhere that had air conditioning," Mr. Nilsson said.

The many different types of people The American Challenge encountered on its journey were just as interesting as the terrain they covered. During their journey through the Southeast, Mr. Nilsson and his fellow voyagers learned the true meaning of the word "hospitality." For example, when one of the boys pitch-poled his bike and needed medical attention, a woman in Thomaston, Alabama, offered the use of her car; the hospital was sixty miles away, a three-hour drive. In Sallis, Mississippi, a neighborhood July 4th BBQ was rained out. Shortly after, sixteen exhausted and starving bicyclists arrived. The food was quickly offered to the riders and instead of a dreary July 4th the riders feasted like kings on BBQ Ribs, BBQ pork, home-roasted peanuts, and corn on the cob. They left Sallis with full stomachs, new friends, and a desire to carry on.

Once through the humid South, they ventured over the Mississippi out to the Midwest for one of the hardest legs of the trip: Oklahoma. The steady crosswind and tedious landscape made for an exhausting ride. After completing Oklahoma and a 105-mile day with a 40-mile, 2,000 ft vertical rise, it was on to New Mexico, through Taos and the Southern Rockies, past the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and on to California. The Mojave Desert, a 25,000 sq. mile expanse of arid land stretching from the Colorado plateau to the Sierra Nevada range, is one of the hottest places in North America. On the leg of the trip from Needles, California to Ludlow, California, the riders woke up at 2:00 am, and by 3:15 am, the temperature had reached 97°F.

By noon it had reached 126°F. Once through the desert, the last hurdle for the riders was the Sierra Nevada Range, and from there it was an 8,000 foot descent in under 50 miles to the Santa Monica Beach. The street numbers descend on Santa Monica Boulevard, 15, 14, and 13-almost there. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and there are all of your friends and family waiting for you on the pier. Nor could the crowd of onlookers understand why all these kids had ridden onto the pier with their bikes, detached their front wheels from their bikes and stood with them momentarily, staring at the Pacific Ocean, before simultaneously sprinting for the ocean. One of the riders said it best, "I'd never anticipated anything so much in my life, and then had the actual moment surpass all of my expectations".

Ask Mr. Nilsson about his trip sometime, and he might tell you that "riding through the desert is like having someone point a hairdryer at your face and sprinkle sand on your head at the same time."