PORT ANGELES — A post-college bicycling odyssey across the nation to Port Angeles gave Matthew Casey and three friends a chance to converse and bond one last time before entering “the real world.”
Casey, the son of Peter Casey, director of Peninsula Community Mental Health Center, had just graduated from the University of Vermont, which he attended for four years after graduating from high school in Newark, N.J.
His companions were Alexander Johannesen, a wildlife fisheries major; Seth Ross, a natural resource planning major; and Stephen Hannaford, a psychology and geography major, and Matthew Casey said the group managed to get along throughout the three-month trip.
“Me and the three other guys have been living together as roommates in college for the last two years,” Casey said.
“We have been trying to figure out what to do after college and graduation that didn’t involve immediately trying to get employed and going into careers.
“We built up the idea of trying to bike to Port Angeles as we were getting more into biking.”
Casey, who graduated with a double major in English and Asian studies with a minor in Chinese, said he and his roommates wanted some time to think about what they wanted to do in the so-called “real world” after graduating.
The trip was delayed slightly by a biking accident in May. Casey was riding down a hill and crashed his bike, breaking his collarbone.
Surgery required six weeks of recovery, which meant the group couldn’t leave in June after their May graduation as planned.
Ultimately, they left July 9 and arrived in Port Angeles on Oct. 7.
The group traveled between 3,500 and 4,000 miles, Casey said.
Casey’s and Hannaford’s bikes were used after being worked on to make them more suitable for a long trip.
Ross built his bike up from scrap.
“He found his bike frame lying around in some Dumpsters, and we as a household had an old tandem bike from the 1970s that fell apart, so over the course of time, he used parts from that — like the handlebars — so his bike was all recycled parts,” Casey said.
Johannesen’s was a new bike.
“Alex didn’t really have any biking experience,” Casey said.
“He likes to say that the longest trip before this was 10 miles.”
The journey was one full of adventure.
“We had tons of breakdowns the whole way,” Casey said.
“We were coming over the Cascades on [U.S.] Route 2 over Stevens Pass in a ski area, and two of us — Alex earlier in the trip had a big bike crash outside the Badlands in South Dakota and I had broke my collarbone — we have a little bit of post-traumatic stress disorder when going downhill.
“The other two are really speed demons.”
So, when Casey’s bike came up with a flat tire, he had to ride 15 miles down the hill with the flat because the two who were ahead had the repair kit.
“That was the first time it took me longer to get down a mountain than to get up one,” Casey said.
The group stopped for several days in Chicago, at Badlands National Park, at Yellowstone National Park and other points of interest, Casey said.
“We tried to spend some time at places that were more of interest,” he said.
Now that they have arrived at Casey’s parents’ home, the bicyclists are looking for jobs locally while they decide how to proceed in their careers.
“I guess at least for now, we’re in it for the long haul now that we’re in the safe haven of my parents’ house,” he said.
The group kept up a blog at squalortour.wordpress.com throughout some of their journey.
“Some places were harder than others to get on a computer,” Casey said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
