Welcome to Bike for Haiti By Erik and Abdiel

The idea of this trip began ten years ago on a family road trip. As the sights of the United States passed by me I dreamed of riding my bike across the country. I brought the matter up during our road trip. I remember saying something like “Next time lets do this by bike...” Of course at the time everyone thought I was crazy. Then five years ago on another road trip I discussed my dream with Abdiel, a friend of mine. He thought that a bike trip would be crazy, but also a great experience. Overtime the idea slowly started to develop and take hold.

While this bike trip will be a great learning experience for Abdiel and I we eventually decided to ride for a cause. We not only wanted this adventure to mean something to us, but to serve a purpose for others. This is why we have decided to ride for Partners in Health (PIH), and Haiti. As many of you know it has been about a year since the earthquake devastated Haiti displacing people out of their homes. Even more then a year later people are still living in tented communities. PIH is not only dedicated to continue to help those harmed by the quake, but has existed in Haiti for many years. As a co-founder of PIH, Dr. Paul Farmer has been revolutionizing how medicine is brought to those in need throughout Haiti. The mission statement for PIH states “When a person in Peru, or Siberia, or rural Haiti falls ill, PIH uses all of the means at our disposal to make them well... Whatever it takes. Just as we would do a member of our own family - or we ourselves were – ill.” This means that PIH is very adamant about helping those who fall ill upon their doorstep. (To learn more about what PIH is doing for Haiti visit PIH Stand for Haiti website)

Any donations are greatly appreciated. We hope the links to our blog will help better inform you about PIH and Haiti. A great book to read is “Mountains beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder. You can make a one time donation to our cause and give our ride purpose by going to our PIH Fundraiser Page or if you would like to donate an X amount of money per mile we ride that can be done by going to Pledge per Mile. Remember even the smallest contributions help.

* Your donation can: give a years worth of tuberculosis medication for one person that costs about $10-$20 dollars in poor countries such as Haiti. Antiretrovirals for HIV range from $70-$80 per year, per person. *All donations will go to PIH*

Friday, April 1, 2011

Biking from Gardner, MA to Deerfield, NH 3/18

If you didn't figure out by the title it is true! We rode the route backwards from Massachusetts to my house in New Hampshire. For those who haven't been following Abdiel and I have started to ride legs of the trip that are close to home. This has allowed us to figure out problems we might have before our official leave date of April 1st (Yes, April Fools lol). We decided to ride reverse in order to save money on transportation to and from our houses. Plus that evening my family was having a neighborhood get together.

In total the bike ride was 76 miles. This is the longest we have ridden loaded with our gear. Overall the trip was great! We had a lot of downhill until we got to where I live. I also rearranged my gear allowing me to go about 35mph without getting speed wobbles. Navigating through the traffic of Manchester was also interesting... The weather was fantastic with it being sunny and about 66 degrees.

Along the way I discovered that for $1 you can get eight fun sized Milkyways that contain about 640 calories. So far this has been the most calorie dense food for the money. Since this ride was the longest we've been on it has been helpful in teaching us when to eat or drink. I think a good general rule is eat before you're hungry drink before you're thirsty.

At the end of the day when we finished we were tired, but glad we had made it! The true test is how we will holdup riding high mileage day in and day out.
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