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*

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Old Highway 30 (Day 61)

Today was a very interesting day! Instead of being on highway 84 to Portland we were able to ride bike trails and the Old Highway 30. When I was in Walla Walla and I use to go to Portland we always went on 84. Being on 30 was a new experience. It was really cool because the highway was a narrow two lane road that would climb out of the gorge and then descend back down to the river again. The views up above the gorge were really cool! It was fun to get a different perspective of the gorge.

The bike paths that we also road were really cool too! They were green and moss covered! It made for a really unique riding experience. Riding on the mossy trails we road a lot more cautiously. It was really easy to skid out the rear tire on turns, and when we braked. It was almost like riding on ice. At one point in the trail we hit a staircase that had about four flight of stairs. This was a very interesting obstacle to get up. The staircase was equipped with a bike groove to roll the tires up. One at a time we pushed our bikes up the groove in the staircase. At one point I was fearful that I would drop my bike sending it crashing down to the bottom.

Eventually we made it to our destination in Happy Valley, OR. There we stayed with Paul and his wife. Paul was a good friend of my dad's when they went to college together. We ate a really great supper that night and then prepared for our last ride to the ocean.
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