Bond Almand IV, 20-year-old grandson of Dan and Sandi Burkard of Fincastle, set out from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on August 31 to bike the Pan-American route that runs roughly 14,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina. On November 15, after a grueling 75-day ride through snow, ice, mud, headwinds, drenching rain, and suffocating heat, he reached Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego province, and southernmost city in the world. He transversed some of the most challenging and diverse landscapes imaginable, through 14 countries and two continents.
In the process, Bond set a world record for bikepacking. He beat the previous record on the Pan-American route by a little less than nine days; a feat that required him to gain 600,000 feet in elevation and sent him through ice fields, mountains, prairies, rainforest and desert, and along dangerously chaotic highways. He averaged 179.5 miles per day and 16.2 miles per hour. And most amazing, Bond did it solo, without the help of a ride-along support crew.
As if the route wasn’t challenging enough, Bond endured many setbacks that would have sent the average person home. On day 26, in Mexico, he avoided a certain fatal collision with a moving tractor-trailer by barreling into a parked one at 25 mph. Amazingly, he didn’t suffer any major injuries. However, he did crack his front carbon rim. Although shaken badly, he managed to ride into the next town and get his damaged bike in for service.
On day 35 in Nicaragua, the most catastrophic mechanical event that any cyclist fears happened. Bond broke his Time ADHX carbon fiber bicycle frame after hitting a pothole. Almand wrote in his detailed blog account of his journey, “Clearly, disaster has struck. This is not a post I ever wanted to write. In terms of mechanical issues, this is the worst-case scenario. I have managed to crack my frame. The frame is almost unrideable. Although I rode 50 miles on it today after it cracked, riding it was incredibly dangerous and only done as a last resort. I will need to find a new bike to ride.”
Incredibly, a bike mechanic in Managua sold Bond his personal Giant TCR frame that happened to be the same-sized road bike. Bond spent the next day swapping all his parts over and continued the record attempt journey.
These were not the only major obstacles for Bond. He suffered two additional collisions with vehicles, three cases of food poisoning, six flat tire punctures in a single day, and many consecutive days of absolutely crippling headwinds. He also survived the mental challenges of cycling over two months while experiencing trauma, loneliness, and little human contact. Such moments were balanced by an experience he had on day 62 when he “rode across the crest of the Andes into Argentina. The pass, Paso Jama, took me up to 15,853 feet. Today was one of the most remarkable and stunning rides of my life.”
Bond, who is a junior at Dartmouth College studying climate science, sustainable energy, and environmental law, funded the trip using his own money and with help from Dartmouth alumni. Outdoor gear companies donated his biking and camping equipment.
Bond has been preparing for this journey all of his life, according to his grandparents. “He grew up in Tennessee, traipsing around and running the trails in the Great Smoky Mountains. He took his bike wherever he traveled, whether it was in the United States or another country. In fact, this summer, prior to the start of his Pan-American journey, he rode his bike from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., to our home here in Fincastle. He did it in two days. While here, he did a series of short training rides, one being from Fincastle to Buchanan, past Peaks of Otter, through Bedford, back to the Blue Ridge Parkway and returned to Fincastle.
“He said that he loves the mountains and rolling hills around Fincastle because it is perfect for endurance training. When we questioned him about biking such long distances, he just smiled and said to us, ‘It is like my bike is a natural extension of my body.’ His endurance and resilience are remarkable. He dreams big and achieves with passion.”
He undertook this daunting challenge not only to test himselfs, but also to raise money for the environmental causes he espouses.
Working with the Honnold Foundation, founded by rock climber Alex Honnold, Bond is raising money that will support the installation of solar panels in indigenous Amazonian communities in Ecuador and Brazil. His passion for cycling and his passion for nature and the environment, he wrote, “would exist independently, but they were fostered together. I think it’s nearly impossible to spend so much time outside and not feel an attachment and sense of urgency for the protection of our natural world.” Rossi Kerr, Sustainability Director at Dartmouth, said that Bond “is not scared of things that make an average person pale. He is not scared of physical discomfort; he’s prepared to endure it in pursuit of a goal.”
About the Pan-American record, Almand stated, “I didn’t really know what to expect from my trip. I didn’t know what trials the road held or what successes the world had to surprise with. In preparing for this trip, I embraced my naivete. I prepared to be unprepared. My mind was taken in a greater journey than my physical one.”
Now returning to his schooling at Dartmouth, Bond sums it up by adding, “I cannot begin to unpack everything that has happened to me. It will take me months to come around to what I have done. I believe I will be unpacking some of my mental wanderings for decades. I am so unbelievably grateful for this opportunity. At the end of the day, I just rode my bike. It doesn’t feel that special. I would have done this regardless of any record or attention. I did it because it is what I love to do.”
Bond’s comprehensive daily blogs of his journey may one day be published in a book.
~ Submitted by Dan and Sandi Buckard
