Cyclist Pete Lietz will ride his bike to Cape Flattery today, completing a journey of more than 6,000 miles across the continental United States.
“It feels a little bit strange. I don’t know how I’m going to feel after tomorrow, waking up and not having to get on a bike,” Lietz, 57, said Monday, standing with his bike in front of the Port Angeles Wharf. “I think I’ll probably go for a couple of days before I start having the urge to want to get back on it again.”
A native of Auckland, New Zealand, Lietz said he’s been living in New York for the past eight years, and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he decided it was time to act on an idea that’s always been in the back of his mind.
Lietz said he’d been a recreational cyclist and followed others who’d made cross-country bike trips.
Locked down during the pandemic, he started to plan his trip.
Lietz started at the southeasternmost point of the continental U.S., in Key West, Fla., on March 23, and he’s made his way almost all the way across the county.
Cape Flattery — his final destination — is the northwesternmost point of the continental U.S.
But he’s not alone. Deidre Rooney, a friend of Lietz’s originally from Dublin, Ireland, is driving an RV that meets Lietz daily at an agreed-upon location. Lietz said the RV provides a place to sleep and is carrying spare bikes and parts for maintenance along the way.
Lietz said he’s ridden about 2,000 miles on his backup bike due to issues like broken spokes with his main bike, but there have been no serious breakdowns along the way.
In fact, Lietz said, the vast majority of the trip has been quite enjoyable.
“I was coming out of Portland the other day, and it was just one of those horrible rides,” Lietz said. “Just an industrial area and massive trucks and busy area and that kind of thing, but I really could count on one hand where I’ve felt like, ‘Ah, this isn’t that nice.’ Out of 89 days of cycling today, you know, five of those have probably been not so nice.”
Lietz said he’s funding the trip himself and along the way he’s raising money for the Movember Foundation, a charity that supports men’s health issues. He set out with a goal of raising $6,000, roughly $1 for each mile of his journey, and he said Monday he’s raised about $4,000.
“So we’ll see how we go with the last few days, but I’ve been pretty happy with that,” Lietz said.
It’s possible to get across the continental U.S. in less than 3,000 miles, but Lietz’s route has doubled that, coming in at more than 6,000. With the extra mileage on his trip, Lietz said he felt like he had an opportunity to use the journey as a platform to raise awareness, as men’s health is something near to his heart.
“Getting to my age, obviously men’s health is quite important,” Lietz said. “I have a couple of friends, my good friends, that have been through two different types of cancer recently, so that’s on my mind. I have two sons back in New Zealand. I like to think they’ve always got people to talk to if they have issues.”
Started in Australia in 2003, the Movember Foundation raises money for causes related to mental health and suicide prevention, and testicular and prostate cancers. According to the foundation’s website, Movember has raised hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide and has funded things like cancer research and men’s therapy programs in multiple countries.
His fundraising page for the organization says Lietz has raised $4,201 so far. He set up a website for the journey — inpursuit2022.com — and Lietz said he’s raised money through social media or just from people he’s met along the way.
“It’s been amazing just how generous complete strangers are along the way,” he said.
Lietz said once he reaches Cape Flattery, he and Rooney will drive back to Florida where the journey began. Both Lietz and Rooney said being able to travel the country slowly — Lietz said he averages about 75 miles a day — has been an amazing experience. They’ve spent the night alongside rural rivers or in Walmart parking lots, Lietz said, and at times the ride has been difficult, but the beauty of the journey has made it worth it.
“Just seeing the country in slow motion, there’s so many beautiful parts of the country, you kind of only hear about them,” Lietz said. “Just getting to see them is spectacular.”
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached by email at psegall@soundpublishing.com.
