Biking across America - Introduction

This summer the Red tail Conservancy will take flight!

Or at least two Red-tail supporters will carry the dream of the Red-tail conservancy with them as they bike across the United States.

Helen Steussy and her daughter, Al, will be biking 3,630 miles from Oregon to New Hampshire to raise money and awareness for land conservation across our country. It will take them 50 days and many thousands of feet of elevation to traverse the Cascades, the Rockies, the Black Hills and the Appalachians in their journey from Pacific to Atlantic. Tough going for two flatlanders!

Their route will follow many great rivers including the Columbia, the Snake, and the Missouri. They’ll cross the mighty Mississippi up in Minnesota and the Great Lakes by ferrying across Lake Michigan. The Port authority will close the bridge at Port Huron for the bikers to cross into Canada and then two days later it will be back to America across Niagara Falls.

Along the way Helen and Al will be visiting local land trusts like Red-tail Conservancy. In fact, they will cross the boundaries of 34 land trusts – all very different in the lands they protect, but similar in their passion for lands close to their homes. The Columbia Land Trust in Oregon has already offered Helen and Al a send-off celebration, snacks along the way and some of their biking members as a support team. The Parkdale Valley Land Trust has offered an overnight stay and breakfast.

In some ways their journey will begin in Astoria, Oregon – but in their hearts this grand adventure begins in New Castle Indiana on 125 West where their family has a conservation agreement on their land planted in tall grass prairie and trees. This is where their love of land began and they are biking across America in celebration of this land and the Red-tail Conservancy.

If you want to support Helen and Al’s effort you can make a donation to Red-tail Conservancy noting Flight for the Land in the memo field. You can donate a penny per mile for $36.30, a dime per mile for $363.00, or a dollar per day like Sheryl Myers has pledged. Be creative and be supportive of our two intrepid bikers.