Challenges-especially those that require a bicycle

By Brett Feldman

Brett in mask biking on the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis.

Toward the end of March 2016 my friend Steve Cook challenged me to take the 30 Days of Biking Pledge. Steve is the driving force behind the Hutchinson to Winsted segment of the Luce Line State Trail and he’s a Parks & Trails Council (P&TC) board member.

The pledge is a commitment to ride a bike—rain, shine, blizzard, ice storm or heat wave—for all 30 days of April. Those with an online presence are asked to share their adventures using the hashtag #30daysofbiking.

I bounced the idea off my friend Mike Tegeder, P&TCs past president and the guy who wrote this column before me. Mike had just received a pretty grim cancer diagnosis, and he was gearing up to give that cancer hell. We made a plan. I would ride my bike every day until Mike was well enough to join me. With commitments to both Steve and Mike, I got on my bike and started riding.

When Mike died on July 9, 2016 my rides took on a new meaning. That first day I could barely see the ground because my eyes were raining. But on subsequent rides I started feeling Mike’s spirit—our plan had been to ride together again.

Never could I have imagined that nearly three years after it started, my streak of riding at least three miles a

day would still be intact. Nor could I have imagined all of the trails, places, bikes, people and stories that have been part of this adventure.

I’ve ridden the majority of state trails in Minnesota, and I’ve pedaled in and around several Minnesota state parks. I’ve ridden bikes in Russia, Finland, Scotland and Amsterdam and in several cities in the U.S. I’ve

ridden my own bikes, I’ve rented bikes, and I’ve benefited from bike share programs embedded in a multitude of cities across the globe.

I’ve also experienced several moments that I can only describe as magic. Like on Day 808 of my biking streak. I was in Moscow, and for unforeseen logistical problems, it looked like my streak was about to come to an abrupt end. But then Nikolai, a guy who knew me for all of 12 hours, used his credit card and unlocked the city’s bike-share bikes, meaning that today I can now count 1,051 days of consecutive bike riding.

On Day 498 a woman named Emily approached me as I walked my bike through a market in Amsterdam. She had been drawn to the “I LOVE MPLS” t-shirt I was wearing and wondered whether I had ever heard of #30daysofbiking—the campaign her brother Patrick and his friend had created! Several months later I got to join Patrick on a group ride he organizes in Minneapolis.

Bicycling connects people to places and people to other people. If you are looking to meet some people and visit some places, perhaps you should take the pledge by visiting 30daysofbiking.com. You never know what you’ll discover.

Brett and his partner Elizabeth (left) have chance encounter in Amsterdam with Emily (right), the sister of the creator of #30daysofbiking.