By: Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

One Bucyrus man took the great biking adventure to the next level when he decided to ride a bicycle across the country and part of Canada to Bucyrus.

Mike Price, who graduated from Bucyrus High School in 1964, rode his bicycle over 3,000 miles to attend his class’ 50 year class reunion. While en route to Bucyrus Price said there were a few times he had almost given up.

“The first month coming down through the Yukon I had very strong constant head winds it was grueling, and it just ground me down,” Price said. “While I was still trying ride myself into better shape and I was still pretty loaded weight wise too, because I was carrying extra things because of the remoteness of the area, so it was really difficult”

While there were moments of bleakness along the way, Price said he found that the people he met on his journey kept him going to finish his trip.
“There was one defining moment in this ride, and it sort of changed the ride the rest of the way, it almost added a new theme for it. I had only had two days of rain. The second day it rained I was in the Yukon, I was approaching a town called Teslin, which is a native community for the Tlinget Indians,” Price said. “It was a cold rainy day, and I was about 8 miles from Teslin, and a car came from Teslin towards me, and pulled over to the side of the road. An arm came out and handed me a white box that was in his hand. It was a native man, and he said ‘I passed you about 30 miles ago and it really was cold and wet, so I thought you could use this.’ Before I could thank him he drove off. I opened up the box and it was a box of fried chicken. It was so good and so timely. That act of graciousness was so moving that it set a theme to the rest of trip that I made it a focus to go out of my way and meet people as I went on.”

“The world is full of really nice people, even though we are coached to be afraid of everyone with fear and suspicion, but that is not who we are. That was maybe even a defining moment for the rest of my life; because that is the kind of person I want to be,” Price continued.
During the trip Price said that he had seen many forms of wildlife including a multitude of bears, and a wolf, but it wasn’t until Indiana that he had to use his bear repellant spray.

“I had three different attacks by farm dogs, so their owners may wonder why they are orange,” Price laughed.

While taking breaks during his journey Price would blog updates on www.crazyguyonabike.com which he finished updating after entering Bucyrus.

“I made my last post and closed it, and that was emotionally a first. I made it a point to go out of my way to make entries, respond to e-mails, and post photos, and so to close it down was the official end of the trip was kind of emotional. It was like reading a good book, you are glad to finish the story, but you don’t want it to end in a way,” Price said.

During his free time in the area Price said he wants to explore the area, and return to old haunts he used to visit as a kid.

Price said that his next adventure will be to go home help his wife move into their new home, and to keep her happy.

To get a glimpse inside the 88 day 3,863 mile trip visit Price’s blog at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Reunion50