Coast-to-coast cyclist hits Sisters

Cindi Rauch pedaled into Sisters on Monday, August 22 — Day 69 of her coast-to-coast trek from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Pacific City, Oregon.

The 53-year-old Vancouver, Washington, resident spent two years planning her adventure, gathering equipment and reading online journals of other cyclists’ treks.

This summer, she was ready.

“I tried to talk my husband into taking three months off to do it, but he owns a business and it didn’t sound fun to him the same way it sounded fun to me,” Rauch said.

Though she has grandkids she watches a couple of times a week, Rauch didn’t have to take any time off work — she just needed family support.

“Pretty much my family gave me the summer off to do it,” she said.

She planned her own route across the country.

“I kind of put push-pins in the map where there were people or family members I wanted to visit and just sort of connected the dots,” Rauch said.

Barbara Harris of Sisters was one of those push pins.

“She and I went to the same church in Vancouver for years,” Rauch said.

Rauch averaged 60 miles a day on her trek, though she sometimes pushed harder.

“In Wyoming it was more like 90 because it’s so desolate you just gotta keep going,” she said.

She camped along the way and stayed with five different families on the “Warm Showers List” — people who open their homes to trekking cyclists. That was a highlight for her; she said she made a lot of new friends.

Two close friends met her in Yellowstone National Park and her husband met her for two days in Springfield, Missouri.

“That was good, but it was also hard,” she said. “It was hard to say good-bye.”

As of Monday, Rauch had three more riding days to the end of her trek. She has held up well to the rigors of the road.

“Physically it has not been as hard as I thought,” she said.

Would she do it again?

“In a heartbeat.”

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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