The cyclists of the Big Ride Across America learned this firsthand. Powering their own passages over the Continental Divide brought home the intensity of the struggle of previous centuries' westward-bound settlers. Endless hours under a merciless prairie sun beat into meaning the labor that has made America America. And at the speed of a turning wheel, they couldn't help but meet the people an amazing variety of people that define American character. You will never be the same when you are done.
Some people never take the low, paved road.
From Roosville, Montana, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, this beast climbs a total of 200,000 feet and passes through the natural, frontier-land America that is steadily disappearing. It's a challenging, equipment-battering skirmish with the elements that has been described as nothing short of spiritual. Sounds like reason enough to get away. Even adding the barren stretches of the Alaskan highways and the long road through British Columbia wouldn't complete the picture. We're talking about the whole Pacific Coast Highway running from Alaska down through the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the length of the Andes to its terminus at Puerto Montt in southern Chile.