TCNJ

7 Prairie WINTER 2024 OCTOBER 8 We are proud to say that we conquered the Hoosier Pass, the highest point of our whole journey at 11,500 ft. We were rewarded with the most scenic downhill into Breckinridge, ski-town USA and one of our favorite destinations by far. "We have seen some amazing kindness and generosity from strangers that make the journey worthwhile." OCTOBER 2 After hundreds of miles on the same road we finally started to see the Rocky Mountains. After 37 days of biking we took our first actual rest day. OCTOBER 5 We're currently 9,000 feet up so I think we found the Rocky Mountains. The views are absolutely incredible, which help compensate for the altitude and it being especially hard to breathe going uphill. Summer is officially over as the cold is starting to set in. SEPTEMBER 23 Day 28, over 1,500 miles in, second day in Kansas, and many gorillas. SEPTEMBER 26 Turns out Kansas is a bit more than an endless summer and barren fields. It also has some really neat towns where we've met some of the most amazing people. SEPTEMBER 28 Unexpected challenges of Kansas include swarms of mosquitoes at dusk, dust clouds, and the apparently never-ending summer heat. OCTOBER 10 The Koerner parents decided to fly out to Colorado to meet us on our route so we couldn't say no to some much needed time off the saddle. We're super grateful for them making the trip and supplying us with warm clothes. "We saw the life of small town farmers and workers. And we met a lot of ranchers and cowboys along the way. It was the real deal." The TransAmerica Bicycle Trail was established in 1976 and each year hundreds of people bike the full route. Most travel west to east from Astoria, Oregon, to Yorktown, Virginia. Koerner and Smith pedaled east to west.

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