Friends plan to take long bike tripBy David Frownfelder, Daily Telegram, found at lenconnect.com
Jun 14, 2010
Chris Hudson of Blissfield, a 2009 Lenawee Christian School graduate,
and Chris Holland of Adrian, a 2009 Adrian High School graduate, plan
to cross the country on their bikes in a month long trip from Adrian to
San Francisco, Calif. Anyone interested in tracking their journey can
join “Chris & Chris go to Cali” on Facebook. Photo by Vicki Schmucker.BLISSFIELD, Mich. - More than 30 years after his father made similar trips, Chris Hudson, 19, and his friend Chris Holland, 19, will ride bicycles from Lenawee County to northern California.
Hudson, of Blissfield, and Holland, of Adrian, plan to leave Thursday, June 17, and make the trip to San Francisco in six weeks. The pair will save money by camping on their journey.
"We’ve been talking about taking a road trip this summer," Hudson said. "We were talking about my Dad and his trips and decided to do this."
Dan Hudson, 54, is a no longer an avid bicyclist, though he still does some riding. After graduating from high school in Sylvania, Ohio, Hudson and his twin brother, Dave, took their senior trip as a bike ride from Sylvania to Miami Beach and Cocoa Beach, Fla.
"Nowadays, I just ride my bike across town to Frosty Boy," he said with a laugh. "I’m a building contractor and roofer here in Blissfield, so I do a lot of climbing and stay in pretty good shape."
Chris Hudson said he and Holland will be camping along the way. They will leave Adrian and head toward Hillsdale. The pair will then bike to the western part of the state and skirt around Lake Michigan.
"We’ll go through Gary, Ind., and then through a lot of corn fields till we get to Colorado," he said. "From there, we’ll go straight into San Francisco."
While in college, Dan Hudson and five friends biked from Cocoa Beach to Los Angeles in 1976 as part of a church-related activity. That trip took about 5 1/2 weeks to complete, Hudson said. In 1977, he and 10 friends rode through 10 countries in Europe.
"You want to talk about mountains," he said. "It was beautiful, though."
Chris Hudson and Holland are making the trip between their freshman and sophomore years in college. The plan is to travel 500 miles per week.
"We’ve been training for a couple of months, taking shorter trips. We are trying to ride 30 to 40 miles a day," Hudson said. "We will have racks on the backs of the bikes and (sidebags) to carry stuff."
They expect to arrive in northern California and fly home from San Francisco on July 21.
"The only thing we’ve got planned is to go whitewater rafting in Colorado," Hudson said. "We didn’t want to plan a lot of things to do because we didn’t want to get tied down to the calendar."
"I told him to be wise and realize that he is on a bike and cars don’t always see them," Dan Hudson said. "I said to have a good time, but realize they are going to be in the saddle for 10 to 12 hours a day."
Chris Hudson played soccer at Jackson Community College last fall and will be playing at Huntington University in Indiana this fall.
Telegram Sports Editor Brian Calloway contributed to this story.http://www.lenconnect.com/topstories/x1887286399/Friends-plan-to-take-long-bike-trip
