Their mount is named Blackjack, and the goal is to ride Blackjack across North America.
For the past two weeks a Niwot, Colo. family pedaled steadily across the Northwest until, on Tuesday, July 1, they arrived in Sun Valley with 800 miles of the massive journey completed.
"We're going to take three summers to go from Astoria to D.C.," said Ryan Ferrero, 39, the father of Riley, 9, and Dylan, 7. For this charitable effort coined Ridin' for Rotary, the three are pedaling a special tandem hybrid bike produced by the German company Hase. The bike is called a Pino Tour.
The front child sits in a recumbent fashion while dad sits in a traditional tour geometry. Trailing behind is the Hase Trets recumbent trailer. All three riders are equipped with pedals and gears.
With their combined body weight and gear the outfit weighs 480 pounds, Ferrero said, and they make between 7 and 10 miles per hour on the flats, more like 3 to 5 mph on climbs.
While the ride is an obvious opportunity for father and sons to bond, it is also a fundraising effort for Rotary. Every third-grade student in the Thompson School District and Niwot Elementary in the Saint Vrain School District of Colorado will receive a Heritage full-color dictionary each of the three years of the ride.
The family seeks to raise more than $5,000, and the boys gave presentations at Rotary meetings and worked at school to raise money.
"I don't know," Riley said. "I just did my part. I took some buckets to school. I can't remember, but I think it was a little more than $200."
The three camped some and stayed in hotels some during the first leg of the trip. And despite some difficult days in the saddle, the boys "never complained," Ferrero said.
"It was really the little things that made the trip," he continued. "Dylan yelling 'I got one. I got one'" when he caught a fish at Farewell Bend State Park in eastern Oregon, for example. "You can talk all the way through a thought."
Also, the boys were far more resilient than Ferrero might have guessed.
"It was fun to see the progress," he said. "Toward the end of the trip (the combined pedaling power) was noticeably stronger. They were really pushing the pedals. You don't think of a 9 and 7 year old as getting in shape, but it was noticeable."
The heavy bike posed difficulties on hills.
"We did have to bag a few hills," Ferrero said. "I was surprised with how well the guys pedaled."
Although the first leg this summer was likely the most mountainous, Ferrero pointed out that they will face Teton Pass on the Idaho-Wyoming border early on their journey next summer.
Dylan, an apparently understated boy in the presence of a reporter, said he enjoyed visiting waterfalls in Oregon.
Both boys expressed great joy at catching abundant fish while camping. There was also a visit to an Oregon Trail interpretive site and countless memories of the scenic Northwest and fun stops as the country passed beneath their tires.
And, certainly, the journey will continue. Next summer the three will set out once more, beginning in Sun Valley and pedaling east, their trusty mount, Blackjack, beneath them.
A Niwot, Colo. family is taking three consecutive summer vacations to pedal across the United States. The first leg of the journey ended in Sun Valley on Tuesday. From left to right are Dylan Ferrero, 7, Ryan Ferrero, 39, and Riley Ferrero, 9. Photo by David N. Seelig
