SMETHPORT — In less than a week, Eagle Scouts Cycling Across America, a biking tour group, is scheduled to leave Washington State enroute to Fredericksburg, Va., via Washington, D.C., with a scheduled stop in Smethport and an overnight stay at the Elk Lick Scout Reserve on the Bordell Road in Keating Township.
“Our scouts will be riding bicycles from a June 17 start in Seattle to a finish August 21 in Virginia,” said assistant tour director, A. D. Carson.
Tour director Bruce White of Fredericksburg told The Era, “Boy Scout Venturing Crew #641 of Great Falls, Va., a co-ed program of the Boy Scouts of America for members 14-21, with Gary Pan, crew advisor, is sponsoring the ride.”
Approximately 12 to 14 scouts met for several days last week at White’s home before heading out to Seattle in two vans and an escort truck. “We plan to arrive there June 15,” said White, an Eagle Scout who will be riding in his second cross-country bike ride.
All adults riding with the group are registered as assistant scoutmasters with the BSA. Among them are two Eagle Scouts who are bicycle mechanics.
“The ECSCAA message for this ride revolves around personal fitness and the core values of the scouting program, and it’s best delivered by the Eagle Scouts themselves,” according to the organizers. “The bottom line is that we want to share this message with as many scouts and scouters as possible along our journey, and there will be some flexibility to encourage our mission.”
Trip officials have driven the planned route to verify the road quality before this adventure begins. Organizers also have researched the location of nearby Boy Scout summer camps and towns that have Cub Scout packs and Boy Scout troops and Venturing crews. “This always puts us on paved, secondary roads, that are for the most part, very quiet,” officials said. “We will experience some traffic as we pass through major cities, but the riders avoid congestion wherever possible. Most roads have shoulders and low traffic.”
Of course, any trip of this distance requires intensive training. That began more than two years ago. The organizers said, “We exercised three or four times a week. In the winter, we cross-trained with swimming and aerobics classes or tapes.”
With the arrival of spring, the group organized three bike rides a week and tried to ride as a team.
The group plans to maintain at a leisurely pace. On the flats, the speeds can be 15 to 17 miles per hour and slowing down to about three to four miles per hour on hilly or mountainous conditions.
On June 17, the group will become a “Floating Jamboree of Eagle Scouts serving as ambassadors of the scouting program as they ride to raise awareness of childhood obesity plaguing our country.”
White and Carson plan to ride the entire distance. White, who initiated both cross-country rides, rode in the first one and this marks the twentieth consecutive year that he has ridden on at least a ten-day trip. Milwaukee resident Carson, who was the artist for the tour maps, builds recumbent bikes and plans to ride one throughout the trip.
On normal days, riders will be on the road between 8 and 9 a.m. and be finished by 3 to 4 p.m., but on those days when heat can be worrisome, the start can be as early as 7 a.m. The support vehicle will typically provide a rest stop every 20 miles and be sent ahead after the lunch stop to check in at the daily resting spots. On long days, the support crew will drop the trailer after checking in and return to provide the group with an additional rest stop.
The riders will break into groups and allow the faster riders to break off from the rest of the pack. No one rides alone or is left behind. The buddy system is always in play, and everyone carries a cell phone in case if there is a mechanical problem.
Rest days have been built into the schedule. Along the way, the riders plan to enjoy whitewater rafting, tour caverns and stop at national parks, scout camps and other well-known tourist attractions, such as the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota
No riders are required to ride the entire trip, and White and Carson invite Eagle Scouts to ride with them for any part of the trip. Riders may join the ride anywhere along the route and leave any time. Moreover, riders are not required to be Eagle Scouts.
“On Friday, August 9, our group comes to Smethport,” Carson said.
“During their brief time in town, they will be guests of the Smethport American Legion Post #138, where they will be treated to a meal,” said First Vice-Commander Courtney Cole, who is also the treasurer of the Allegheny Highlands Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
From there it’s on to the Elk Lick Scout Reserve for an overnight stay.
“The next stop is about 76 miles away in Wellsboro, where a contingent of Vermont Boy Scouts will join the group for the Pennsylvania-New Jersey leg of the tour,” White said.
What kind of impact are the organizers hoping for with this ride?
“While it would be nice to believe that our core ESCAA group will meet hundreds of fellow scouts, scouters, cyclists, reporters, politicians and community citizens… and or message of personal fitness and nutrition will make an impact on their lives…and a huge difference in at least one life…but what we are certain of is that the entire group of ESCAA will have their own lives changed,” agree the organizers.
“The effort, the teamwork, the planning, the fundraising, the focus and desire each member has invested into this journey will change each of their lives in a positive way forever. The ESCAA team will forge a bond that will never be broken.”
