Mike Garland did not think his return to the area would be especially emotional. That is, until he saw the caravan of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances that lined up to honor him with an escort to the Becker Community Center around 6:30 last Friday night, where a crowd of family and friends awaited him at the Celebration of Freedom event there.
“It’s a good thing they all had their flashing lights on,” Garland said, “because I teared up so much I could hardly see from Edgewood Ave. all the way to the Becker Community Center.” There he was met with a sea of supporters all wearing the bright yellow “Mike’s West Coast Ride” T-shirts. Mayor Lefty Kleis introduced him to the crowd, and Garland managed some words of thanks to his supporters and spoke a bit about his adventure.
No doubt those tears came when Garland, 57, began to realize just how extraordinary his accomplishment is. To raise funds for the Becker Relay for Life® and the American Cancer Society®, Garland rode more than 3,800 miles on a bicycle, departing from the driveway of his Clear Lake home May 2 and returning last Friday after riding to Oregon and back.
And once he left home, he was on his own. No support team following behind in a van filled with spare parts and emergency supplies. Just what he could carry on the back of the bike, which included a total of 50 pounds of tent, air mattress, sleeping bag (too thin, he said), tools, a couple of shirts and some spare parts. And a cell phone to keep in touch with his daughter, Melissa Luethmers, who spotted campgrounds and potential motels for him as she followed his progress on the map each day.
Garland followed the route of the Oregon Trail out to Ashland, OR, and then mirrored the Lewis and Clark route on the return journey. The trail took him through Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon on the way west and through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota on the way back east.
He stopped in many diners and small cafes on his way, needing to stop and eat every 60 miles or so to maintain energy. People would see the writing on the bike, or read the message on his “Mike’s West Coast Ride” T-shirt and just come up and start talking to him about his endeavor. He said he urged his audiences to donate to their local Relay programs, so that people in their local areas would get the benefit, though more than one retired farmer or rancher he encountered would just walk up after one of his talks and press some cash on him.
He found it difficult to buy lunch in many places, he said, once people there learned about what he was doing. And others were moved by the same impulse, like Zach at the Two Wheeler Dealer in Spearfish, SD, who closed his shop and drove 20 miles in pouring rain and hail with the parts needed to fix the bike. Garland said he was able to “force” the man to accept some money that time, though the gentleman who fixed the broken pedal at Miles City Bikes would take no money at all, regardless of what Garland said to him.
“If you doubt humanity,” Garland said, “get on a bike and ride across the country.” Some supporters had donated motel rooms along the route, he said, but there were other places where he still had to set up his tent and camp, regardless of the weather. Exhausted from a 125-mile day near Yellowstone, he planned to set up his tent until he learned from park rangers that he was in a grizzly bear-rich area where tenting was not advisable. That was when Ronald and Betsy Regan of Kansas City stepped in. Once they learned Mike’s story, they invited him to stay in their fifth-wheel trailer for the night, and sent him off with a hearty breakfast that included “the best pancakes I ever had,” he said.
He encountered many other natural obstacles along the way, including road encounters with animals, a sudden tornado he managed to photograph from a mountain top, driving rains, sleet, hail and desert heat. Climbing the steep Bighorn Mountains in 15-degree weather, all of his water bottles froze, leaving him parched at the summit and longer until they thawed out on the sunny downhill side of the mountain switchbacks.
Garland arrived in Ashland in time for the local Relay for Life event, where he addressed an audience of 600-800 people for the first time. As his bike was being tuned up, he had a chance to see some of the sights, including a performance of “Antony and Cleopatra” at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, an outdoor venue at which, of course, it rained.
He pushed hard to get back, he said, because he was determined to ride in the Freedom Days parade this year. Family member Laura Hamacher had been diagnosed with breast cancer just days before Garland began his trek, and her being able to ride in a car in the parade with him was a powerful motivator as he logged some 150+ mile days on the return journey. And, as luck would have it, Friday was also his and Peggy’s wedding anniversary.
His welcome included hugs from family, reunion with his two dogs and an endless round of handshakes and hugs from old and new friends.
The effort has raised just over $11,000 so far, though the actual total will not be official until this fall, when proceeds from other fund-raising efforts will be added.
Though donors did supply some motel rooms and other things, the trip was basically self-funded, Garland said, and 100 per cent of the donations raised are going to the ACS. He had done considerable research into a variety of cancer research organizations, he said, and he found that the various programs run by the ACS meet the broadest areas of need for patients battling the disease.
The card he handed out on the journey says on the back that he is making the effort to support the Becker Relay for Life and the ACS in honor of his father, grandfather, uncle and friends and family lost to the disease over the years. He also said that, statistically, some of his immediate loved ones stand a strong chance of encountering the disease in their lifetimes, and that research is the best way to eliminate it forever.
Garland rode 2,300 training miles as he prepared for the journey, including a ride to Duluth last summer. He said that the training and the trip were hard on those at home as well, since all of the things he would usually be taking care of had to be done by others, most often his wife.
Buoyed by the success of this venture, he does have an idea to complete the picture by making an East Coast Ride a reality, possibly even next year. He also has it mind to write a book about his trek, and is looking around to find a professional to help make that happen.
