During this summer, four friends — the “Future Cowboys” team made up of Connor Donovan, Lars Larsen, Ezra Duree and Francis Packard — set out on a trip that would take them from Seattle to New York over the course of 56 days, all on bicycles. Three of them are University of New Mexico students.
“We knew that we wanted to do coast-to-coast,” Larsen said. “The first day, (we) dipped our back tire (in the west coast) and then the last day, dipped our front tire in the east coast.”
The group traveled through 12 states, staying together the whole way. Duree dropped out about 600 miles in but said he plans to do another backpacking trip in the future.
“A lot of people that do it usually do lose a teammate in general, no matter what group it is, but a lot of times the whole team will just split up,” Donovan said. “And I think it's just pretty impressive that we did kind of stick together.”
Sometimes members of the group would bike ahead or behind depending on the day, spacing out and giving each biker a moment alone before coming back together, Donovan said. The group dynamic did not detract from the quiet and solo biking time while they averaged 70 miles per day.
“You're just sitting there with your thoughts day after day. You're not really distracted by anything besides the scenery, and sometimes even that can get like 'same old, same old' every day,” Packard said. “But I think that is why it was interesting to be with myself for so long, just kind of with my own head.”
While there was a lot of time alone and with each other for the Future Cowboys, they also met many new people along the way, including a truck stop owner who let them camp there overnight.
“You meet so many people and so many characters. In the weirdest towns, too, towns you've never heard of that you never thought you would have been to and that have barely any people,” Larsen said. “And then you meet the coolest guy who's so excited to meet you, and he gets your phone number and texts you the whole trip. We met lots of people like that.”
The trip was filled with many memorable moments and people on and off the trail, including trying out new tricks on the bikes, the Future Cowboys said.
“My greatest accomplishment throughout the whole trip was that I balanced half of a watermelon on my handlebars and ate it,” Packard said. “And also cut parts of it off for my friends to eat while we were biking and moving the entire time. And it was one of the greatest days of my whole life.”
Now, after their trip, the group members are still biking daily and plan to go on future trips. Looking back on the trip, Packard said he has only one thing he would tell himself at the start of it.
“It's gonna be a fun two months; chill out and enjoy it, and it's gonna be totally sick … I’d tell myself, ‘Just enjoy the trip,’” Packard said.
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Elizabeth Secor is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @esecor2003
Elizabeth Secor is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted on Twitter @esecor2003
