Father and 7-Year-Old Son Take the Long Way on a Bike Ride Across the Country
James Colver and his 7 year old son, Shepherd, are riding 3,300 miles across the United States, from Anacortes, Washington, to the Statue of Liberty in New York. They set out on May 20.
They are looking for Shepherd to become the youngest person to bike across the country, and they’re going about it the long way on the northern tier bike route.
The biggest goal of their tour, though, is to spend quality time with one another.
Children are known for dreaming big, and parents don’t often give second thought to their children’s wild fantasies. But when James Colver’s seven-year-old son, Shepherd, asked if he could ride his bike across the United States-from their home in Seattle, Washington to the Statue of Liberty-Colver said yes.
Colver, 40, had spent the early part of his twenties as a professional bike tourer, raising money for various charities along the way. Shepherd had actually gotten the idea from looking at magazine and newspaper clippings of his father’s journeys.
Instead of brushing the idea aside, or telling his son the standard when-you’re-older response, Colver took it to heart.
“I sat down with him, and he explained his vision to me of seeing the Statue of Liberty,” Colver told Bicycling. “I told him it would be a lot of hard work.”
He knew exactly what it would take for him and his son to accomplish the feat. So he put together a training plan and he adjusted his son’s diet. He makes sure his son is eating enough to compensate for all his riding and is getting enough protein to fuel it.
“A lot of people get wide-eyed when they see my son sitting there eating a huge salad,” Colver said.
They began training by riding almost every day. During the week, they would ride to Shepherd’s school, and after school they’d put in more miles by riding around town. On the weekends they’d do longer rides, sometimes doing mini-tours by riding to visit friends out of town and camping in their backyards. Colver says Seattle, with all its hills, was the perfect training ground for a bike tour of this magnitude.
He also instructed his son on the rules of the road and how to bike safely. Shepherd knows to stop at every stop sign and intersection, and to be conscientious of cars in general. Colver thinks his son is far more safer on his bike than most adults.
Once their training was done, Colver knew they could use some support for their tour, so he and his son reached out to a few companies for sponsorship. Shepherd wrote a letter to Woom, a company that makes high quality children’s bikes, and two weeks later they received a bike in the mail. They’ve also received support from the YMCA: They can use any of their facilities in the country during their trip.
Colver and Shepherd set out on their journey on May 20. They began in Anacortes, Washington, which is the starting point of the northern tier bike route. They’ll stick to that for most of their trip, until they reach Chicago. From there, they’ll take a different route to New York.
He’s estimating it’ll take them roughly four months to complete the trip, and that they’ll have ridden around 3,300 miles when they are done.
While not the biggest goal of the trip, they’re also hoping to finish the ride before Shepherd’s eighth birthday on September 13. Regardless, he’d be the youngest person to bike across the U.S., which is an unofficial title (as Guinness no longer tracks it) currently held by C.J. Burford, who completed the southern tier bike route when he was nine years old.
Their daily mileage varies according to the terrain, the stops they make along the way, and simply how they feel. Colver believes that when it comes to bike touring, the slower you go and the more fun you have, the more likely you are to finish.
He’s also very sensitive to his son’s needs and what he’s capable of doing each day. While they aim for 30 to 40 miles a day, sometimes they’ll only do 25 miles, or they’ll just decide to take a rest day. The furthest they’ve gone so far in a single day is 47 miles.
“As his coach, I really need to listen to him,” Colver said.
Their biggest hurdle so far was getting over the Washington Pass in the Cascades. They took two days to complete the 35-mile ride uphill, at 5,477 feet of elevation. But, browsing through their tour updates on Instagram and Facebook, Shepherd rarely seems fazed by the effort. If anything, he finds creative ways of passing the many hours spent on the bike. One of his go-to methods is singing, including a surprisingly accurate rendition of Adele’s “Hello,” as they rode their way up the strenuous Washington Pass.
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But the journey, not the destination, is perhaps the most important part. Most days aren’t planned, and they stop to see the sights along the way and try out local food. It’s so cheap to travel by bike, Colver noted, and they split their time between camping and staying at hotels.
They’ve made friends along the way and have received a lot of positive feedback and support from the communities they’ve ridden through. They stop to talk to locals about their bike tour, often receiving food and drinks, and suggestions on things to see or better roads for riding. One day, Shepherd befriended a boy who taught him how to fish. They ended up meeting the boy’s parents and were invited over for dinner.
“It’s a real community and relationship-building exercise,” Colver said, about bike tours. “We’re learning a lot about humanity and the good side of human nature.”
It all reinforces the biggest theme of the trip: the importance of spending quality time with your children. Instead of giving physical gifts, Colver believes it’s far better to give what’s known as “the gift of presence”-that is, the gift of being fully present in your child’s life and those your care about.
Riding across the United States with your son might just be the ultimate way of accomplishing that.
“We’re best buddies right now,” Colver said. “I’m learning more about him, and he’s learning more about me.”
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