Mike Samuelson, 67, doesn’t “fear the force of the wind, the slash of the rain.” He “[faces] them and [fights] them . . . to walk like a man.”
These are the words of Samuelson’s favorite childhood poem, “Do you fear the wind?” by Hamlin Garland, that are inspiring him to bike 3,000 miles on the Continental Divide Trail from Canada to New Mexico.
Samuelson grew up in South Africa. He was a very active boy and teenager, always playing sports. In 1970, at the age of 20, he made aliyah, after volunteering during the Six Day War.
He moved to Kibbutz Revivim in the Negev and became a farmer; Samuelson stopped playing sports. Some years later, he became involved with the Kibbutz’s industry, producing automotive fuel valves and molds production. His new job led him to a less active lifestyle. Add smoking and poor eating habits and Samuelson was no longer the healthy youngster he used to be.
In 2002, Samuelson had a heart attack.
“It was a huge wake up call. It was a knock on the head,” he reveals.
While in the intensive care unit, he had what he describes as his first lucky break.
“The intensive care manager came to me one morning and he said ‘you don’t have a heart illness, you just had an accident and you have a mechanical failure. If you take care of yourself, you can be healthier than 90% of the population who haven’t had a heart attack. It’s up to you.’
“He didn’t wave his finger, he didn’t stamp his foot,” said Samuelson.
Samuelson believes that this non-accusatory attitude helped him change his lifestyle. When he was moved to the semi-intensive care unit, he heard many moaners and groaners. The dying sounds were not for him and he decided he wouldn’t let himself get to the point of those around him.
Three days after the heart attack, he was sent home from the hospital. He immediately quit smoking.
Later, a doctor came to see him, who was careless. He didn’t read Samuelson’s file correctly and gave him wrong information. Subsequently, he changed doctors. This was his second lucky break.
“I turned to another doctor who was very straightforward. He said ‘Start exercising.’ That’s what I did. I started exercising. I began to swim regularly and ride my bike. He just let me go and said ‘go further and go faster and go longer.’”
Bike riding became his plan to get healthy again; it turned into a hobby.
Two years later, in 2004, he felt “fit” and started riding longer distances. The longest bike ride Samuelson has previously ridden was six days, in Israel, with Jewish supporters of Israel from Denver and Boulder.
In 2009, Samuelson had another setback. He lost the cartilage in his shoulder. “I don’t exactly know why [I lost the cartilage] but I couldn’t run or swim anymore. Biking became central, mainly because [my] legs [could] still work.”
Samuelson continued bike riding, throughout Israel.
On average, he rides five times a week for two to three hours. His speed can range from one mile an hour to 40 miles an hour.
“[Biking] gets you places. The discovery of places you have never been before and getting there your own way, there’s some kind of magic in that.”
He has no comfortable speed but rather a “comfortable range of effort. I’m not a guy who can expend a lot of energy suddenly. I’ve got to do it gradually over time.” It’s a matter of continuing on.
He has never broken a bone, just acquired bad bruises.
During one ride, he did crash. He got right back on the bike but realized he needed to call his daughter to pick him up. Two days later, he was back on the seat, riding.
Last summer, in 2012, Samuelson was reading a magazine and came across an article on the Continental Divide Trail.
“I decided to see what it was all about, on Google. Since I was going into retirement this year, this year is the opportunity. Next year, I’d just be older.”
The Continental Divide Trail runs from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, N.M. and is the longest off road bike trail in America.
He decided to bike this terrain because “it’s not close to home. It’s new. It’s something I’ve never tried before.
“I’ve never been in the Rockies and it’s completely different than what I’m used to — the altitude, the climate.”
A member of the Adventure Cyclist Association, the company that created the route, he went on its website to find people to ride with, after he obtained his visa in late January.
Immediately, he found one Englishman and one German. He knows them only through email. They were scheduled to meet for the first time in Canada at the beginning of August.
Samuelson bikes because he enjoys it. In preparation for this ride, he didn’t put in much time above and beyond his daily journeys.
“A few months ago, I thought maybe I’ll do some more preparation for this trip. [However], I didn’t enjoy it. I worked [out in a gym] for two weeks but I asked myself ‘What are you doing? You are not enjoying this.’ I went back to my regular schedule.
“I might have been able to get stronger or fitter but I’ll handle [whatever comes] as it comes.”
Samuelson doesn’t have many worries for the trip besides weather and bears eating his food.
“The weather window, in theory, is the better one. I’ve ridden in rain and in very dry sand but never in snow.”
On the other hand, Samuelson’s wife and two sons are a little bit worried. His two daughters said, to quote Nike, “just do it.”
The trip is self-sustained; everything he needs will be on his person, bike and BOB Ibex trailer. He shipped the bike and trailer from Israel. Samuelson will ride in woolen clothing as it is the best at absorbing sweat.
Excluding food and water, he’s carrying 90 pounds. That includes the bike, trailer, tent, sleeping bag, and a small gas canister stove.
“You have to take what you need. My experience is that you take about two and a half pounds of food for a day. We will need 4,000 calories a day,” he says.
Samuelson, in a day, can drink up to four gallons of water.
“When you are in a condition where you are expending more energy than you are eating, it really doesn’t matter what you eat. You need the calories, period.”
He doesn’t have a special diet but knows that people who do this trip always lose weight and find it hard to eat enough. Red meat is his go to after a long bike ride.
How much food and water he will carry depends on how far apart the next available resources will be.
“When we hit Banff, we’ve got to assemble our bikes and buy food. We don’t know how much to buy because the beginning of the trail was washed away two months ago. We don’t know exactly where we’ll be going and how far it is between stops.”
For example, in the Great Basin and in southern New Mexico, the water supply is rare, so more water will be hauled at one time in that stretch.
The plan is to ride about 45 miles a day, for 70 days; they will not ride everyday.
The trail criss-crosses the Rocky Mountains 30 times, going through Alberta, British Columbia, Mont., Idaho, Wyo., Colorado and New Mexico. The ride will take the three men from 4,200 feet above sea level in Glacier National Park to 14,720 feet at Grays Peak in Colorado.
Look for them in Helena and Butte, Mont., Steamboat Springs, Colo., and Silver City, NM.
“I might make a detour to Jackson, Wyo. because the guy who made my tent lives there. Then I can tell him whether it was good or bad.
“The end of the trail is Antelope Wells. From there, I plan to make my way to Deeming, NM. In Deeming, there is a bus to Phoenix. Then I’ll fly from Phoenix to Newark to Tel Aviv.”
Samuelson is doing this trek for himself. He has nothing to prove to anyone.
“I’m looking forward to accomplishing it. I hope to take lots of pictures.
“I rarely take pictures of my other trips, but this one is special.”
In 2002, when Samuelson had his heart attack, “I was just happy to get out of the hospital.” He didn’t picture himself being where he is now.
Samuelson knows he’s much more athletic that many people his age. How much longer he will ride, he doesn’t know.
However, he will absolutely never smoke another puff.
“No way, no way.”
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
