“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” Chinese Proverb
“Begin with the end in mind.”- Stephen Covey
We’re walking to the park. To be more specific, my wife Emily and our six-week old daughter are walking to Grey’s Lake in downtown Des Moines. Just a short walk in the midst of a global pandemic that’s kept us mostly at home, conducting all social gatherings through video calls as the deadly effects of this virus spread their way through the nation. But anyway we’re just walking to the park. That’s how this whole quest is beginning.
What is “this whole quest” anyway? It’s to travel by land -be it by foot, bike or vehicle- the length of the Americas from Des Moines to Panama and from Des Moines to Alaska and eventually all the way down to the southern tip of South America, Ushuaia, Argentina.
But this couple mile walk won’t end with us entering Missouri, crossing the vastness of southern Texas, or descending into Guatemalan jungles or gliding along Costa Rica’s Pacific coastline. Nor will it have us riding Nebraska’s Cowboy Trail, admiring Yellowstone National Park, huffing and puffing into Calgary or pedaling through the long expanse of the Alaska Highway through the Yukon territory. No, like I said, this is just a walk to the park.
We are planning on accomplishing this epic journey piece by piece over the course of Penelope’s childhood. It’s a journey that may take us 18 years to complete, taking an afternoon to get to Grey’s Lake, or a Saturday ride from Des Moines to Osceola, Iowa. Eventually we’ll have to use our time off of work to take two weeks to bike from Nicaragua to my old haunts in Costa Rica or two weeks to bike some lonely stretch across northern Canada.
How long it will take is incredibly up in the air. I can and will spend time punching mileage counts from Google Maps into a spreadsheet and come up with detailed plans for each leg but the truth is life and travel are messier than that. Maybe we’ll reach Panama in 2027 or maybe we’ll focus more on getting to Alaska first. It doesn’t matter. We’ll see bison and bears as we head north and we’ll see monkeys and iguanas as we head south. We’ll eat great tacos, mediocre pizza and hastily prepared camp meals. All of this is to be worked out later.
Penelope will grow during this journey. This picture of us on the front porch will change. She’ll be standing on her own quicker than Emily or I can imagine. She will ride in a vehicle as one of us bikes for her first year and then in a trailer as she gets older and eventually she’ll bike the last legs of this journey on her own as an adolescent. She’ll go from a passive rider, sleeping as we pedal, growing into a woman stronger and more capable because of this journey.
So, we know where we’re going. And here is day one.
Linden to Great Western Trail
April 4, 2020
Distanced: 3.54 Miles
Our first step on our journey to Missouri, to Mexico, to Yaviza, Panama started today with a 3.5 mile hike to the trailhead of the Great Western Trail. I’d parked my car there and jogged home so we’d have a way to get home. We packed up Penelope in her stroller and headed south, crossing Ingersoll and Grand, ascending the steep hills south of Grand before descending into a back entrance to Water Works Park.
We followed this rocky trail, entering into the wide open meadow Emily and I had biked to a couple weeks before. We crossed the meadow and saw a true sign of the times with a request not to stop on the bridge due to Covid-19. We had pavement the rest of the way as we crossed a busy park, full of bikers, walkers, fisherman and picnicers.
As we walked through Water Works we marveled at how Penelope can sleep through anything when she’s moving. If she’s riding in a car, she’s out. Going on a walk, she’s out. It will be interesting to see if this holds once we have her in a bike trailer. How much of this journey is she going to sleep through? At an hour and eight minutes in, she started crying. I picked her up and walked a bit with her and she fell right back to sleep.
We ended at the Great Western Trail trailhead, where we will start the next stage of our journey biking towards Cumming and then Martensdale, where the trail ends. Only another 4,726 miles until Panama City.