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One Historic Ride

By Laura C. Girardi

In January 1803, President Thomas Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis to explore the Louisiana Purchase, a huge stretch of land west of the Mississippi River. The U.S. planned to buy this land from France. In about 500 days, Lewis and his pal William Clark traveled some 4,000 miles along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean.

On October 4, six students and three teachers, who call themselves the Corps of ReDiscovery, completed the Lewis and Clark Bicycle Trail, a 3,000-mile route through 11 states that follows the historic trail.

In June, before hitting that trail, the team visited Monticello, Jefferson's home in Virginia. Then they rode through Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois. They picked up the new trail, mapped out by Adventure Cycling, on August 1.

The cyclists biked a total of 5,000 miles, sometimes facing 100° heat and 45-mile-per-hour winds. They rode for about 10 hours or 65 miles each day. "At first, it was hard," says Roxy Kurta, 13. She learned about Lewis and Clark in John Boettner's social studies class last semester at California's Santa Barbara Middle School. Boettner and his teacher wife, Lynn, led the team, which included their two sons and a few former students.

Like Lewis and Clark, the cyclists met Native Americans and gave Peace Medals to strangers—some of whom gave them beds and food. They saw a replica of Fort Mandan, where Lewis and Clark spent a winter. They kept journals, posted at americanrediscovery.com.

Roxy admits that the group had it much easier than Lewis and Clark, who "had no idea if they were heading in the right direction." Her team had famous footsteps, and bike maps, to follow.

Next: The Pick of the Patch