'Experience of a lifetime': UNM students bike across United States

For some, riding your bicycle across the United States sounds nearly impossible, but for The University of New Mexico Senior Connor Donovan, it was a challenge he and his buddies were willing to take.

Donovan, an Albuquerque native studying theater design at UNM and working at the Lobo Bike Shop on campus, biked cross country with his team, 'The Future Cowboys',this summer.

The group is made up of four friends, Donovan, Lars Larsen, Ezra Duree, and Francis Packard, three of them UNM students, "Cowboys ride horses and we felt like we were riding futuristic horses," Donovan explained.

They started in Seattle, Wash., on May 20 and biked north until they reached Coney Island, New York, in mid-July. Donovan says they hit 12 states within 56 days, adding up to more than 3,500 miles.

"It was the experience of a lifetime," Donovan said. "I have never really been to many of those northern states but going across the country on a bicycle is one of the best ways to experience a place. You notice so many more things around you, and I think that is something I want to experience again."

While the four started the trip on the West Coast, only three made it to the East Coast. Donovan said Duree dropped about 600 miles in after an injury.

Donovan, a longtime avid biker, says the trip had been an idea for years and finally became a reality.

"We had talked about doing it, and it was always this thing, oh will do it in a couple of years when we get some free time and then one day Lars came to me and said, I'm going to do it, so if you want to come, you should come along," Donovan said. "We did this because Lars and I had family members who wanted to do it and they didn't get the opportunity to go, so we didn't want to have those regrets."

Donovan said it took a year to plan the trip. First, they had to make sure their bikes were in tip-top shape. Then, they had to figure out meals and how they would pack food on the ride. Plus, planning sleeping arrangements. Donovan said they packed tents on their bikes and camped most nights.

"We had everything packed on our bikes that we needed whether it was a towel, change of clothes, all your food and water. By the end of the trip, my bike weighed like 100 pounds," he said.

Between trails, highways, and bridges, in rain and sunshine, the group averaged around 70 miles a day.

"When we did finish there was this real sense of friendship and togetherness, like we have done this, and we didn't bite each other's heads off," he said.

Donovan says he'd love to do the bike ride again, but next time, differently. On the next cross-country adventure, he says more hotel stays and a car following along would make the trip much easier.