Invisible Children Bike Trip Blog

2011-06-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

around town

2008-11-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Scott (Portland)

2008-10-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

The double backflip, Brian and Jim
The double nose hold pencil dive, Suhali and Abby.
Nose stand.
Ejection.

Portland

Big ship.

Thanks to Scott for the pictures and thanks to everyone in Portland, San Fran, Chicago, Montana, Oregon, Cali, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was a great experience and something we'll remember for the rest of our lives.

Yours truly,

Jim

yellowstone and chicago

2008-10-23T17:35:00.001-07:00

Hey all!
So we realized that we only had two weeks to go in our bike trip, which would have ended us in montana somewhere. so we decided to rent a car and drive to chicago where we would get a train to nyc. though this was not our original plan, it allowed us to see a lot which we would have missed on the bike. it also got us back to our homes a bit earlier, which was nice. here's a bunch of pictures.

Sunset over missula montana.

Yellowstone:

This is a shy elk, the only picture I got was of its butt.
We were wondering why the trees were so small. Since 1988, they allowed the trees to naturally reseed, which means that huge sections of the forest are about 7 feet tall.
This is the largest geyser in yellowstone, but it's very irratic and might erupt any time in the next 5 years, but it's like three times the size of old faithful.
boiling sulfur smelling pool + Suhali and Abby
I think this one was the porcelain valley, named for being really white i guess.
Beware! HAHA, I just liked the picture.
waterfall that someone ruined the shot with a soda can.
the girls at the waterfall.
and in a tiny cave.
really sparkily hat, distracting from the majestyof the grand canyon of yellowstone (much smaller than the realy grand canyon, but still very pretty).
grand canyon of yellowstone
grand canyon of yellowstone

a crow taking flight.
Bernie the Bison. we got out of our car and took pictures to find out seconds later that there was a whole herd blocking traffic in front of us.
bison related traffic.

this one got mad beacause Suhali and Abby got a little too close to his baby.

there is a bear in the center of this photo, but this is as close as I was willing to get.

a canyon in yellowstone
waiting for old faithful
old faithful... he was about 10 minutes late.
other geysers.
"depression geyser" looks like an upside down heart.
I think this was the "chromatic pool."
"lion's roar geyser" at sunset.
yellowstone lake at sunrise
again.
again.

bison in the morning.
deer posing for the camera.
this is still early leaving yellowstone. the orange cloud is from a wild fire over the mountain. we passed a firefighter camp, those guys are tough.
Wyoming scenery.
leaving the mountains, heading into the plains.

carving of crazy horse. it's way bigger than mt rushmore, and more expensive to visit. also, it's a 6 mile hike to the arm area. we didn't think it was worth the 25$ we spent and left shortly after taking a few pictures... like the following of the girls pretending to be crazy horse and his horse.
then they realized how silly they looked.

Mt. Rushmore is pretty awesome, we stopped and took picture in the area before you pay, so these pictures are gifts from uncle sam. enjoy.
Porfile of George Washington.
cool cloud shadow at sunset in south dakota.
do you get your own Hertz bus when you travel... didn't think so.
i think "pabst persuit bike" is the best name for this bad-boy in chicago.
the river that cuts through chicago.
Millenium park in chicago. this is a giant bean thing made of steel, it gives a nice warp of the sky line.
and allows for funny pictures.

the train.

the parking meters in chicago are taller than Abby. oh and yes we are all wearing hanes' undershirts, we got a 5-pack and shared.
up close this looks like a balloon, but it's made of alumium i think, from the artist Jeff Koons. He had an exhibit at the chicago museum of contemporary art.
sears tower
weird fountain thing in Millenium park... it gets weirder.
yeah...

i think it looks better from behind at night.

-Jim

2008-10-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

portland 2

2008-10-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

The images for portland are in reverse chronological order. go to the bottom of the post and scroll up to review them in the correct order.

waterfall leaving portland
sunset over portland
sunset
skate board karate...obviously.
voodoo donuts, they were fantastic, hit this place up if you find yourself in portland, open 24/7.
boating and enjoying life

boating
another sunset
block party in eugene or, we sort of just stumbled upon this because i made a wrong turn.
our first night in portland was spent reading a marble notebook that nate found. it had in it the beginnings of genius or a decent into insanity. someone had penned a sock puppet play that is beyond words to describe. i hope the guys turn it into something.
the pacific ocean, i finally made it. i wanted to swim in it for so long on this trip, i put my feet in but it was freezing. the day was beautiful. we got to play a lot on the beach... which will be in the next post because it's on a different camera.

i've totally neglected this, it's been a busy few weeks getting back. i have some more pics from portland. portland OR was one of our favorite cities, the people we met and the times had were unforgetable.

2008-08-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, there's a lot to tel about the goings on with our trip, however, since public library computers only allow an hour of access, i will write more about that later. for now, here are some pictures. the computer is also very slow, and uploading is annoying, these aren't in order, but just a taste f

Crater Lake and Eugene OR

2008-08-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!
While the girls are watching the human experiment known as "woman's" gymnastics (i sware those girls are like 11 years old), i'll take this time to update ye olde blog.

We are in Eugene Oregon, we stayed here for 2 days because we heard this was a nice city and we were not let down. they have countless trees, miles of bike trails and paths and really nice people. last night we stumbled upon a block party that had 30 bands with art and dancing it was really fun. i might have more pictures of that next time.
We're tipping the odometer at about 900 miles, but we have had some help. in northen CA we came to a bridge that we did not feel safe crossing, the highway patrol, Officer Lawerance said "you're legally allowed, if you want to get run over (laughing)." to which i replied "that's really not that funny." he suggested go around the lake, some 160 miles around a 1/2 mile bridge. we biked to the bridge and hitchhiked over. Bob and Gladas were nice enough to pick us up. then since they were going the say way we were, the drove us about 100 miles closer to Eugene, it saved us about a week because it was the roughest terrain yet. from there we biked up our highest pass yet, 1900ft, we foolishly did this at midday when my bicycle computer read 115deg. so from that day we've been waking up at 5:45 and biking only in the morning, when it's 55deg, yes a 60deg flucutation in temperature, crazy weather. at that temperature the mts are a lot easier. but we got stranded at a gas station in the heat and got a ride from a coke-a-cola sales manager about 20 miles to our campsite. we biked to Roseburg, OR and took a day off, rented a car and visited Crater Lake (pictures follow). before we got to the lake, we went swimming in Susan falls, the water was semi cold. Crater Lake was amazing. it's essentially an extinct volcano that the top collapsed and filled with water. the elevation is 6000 ft and the water is ICE cold.
this sign means about 10 minutes of coasting. wee!!!!

it's so hazy because of the woldfires in the area.

the land is so arid, the dirt is like concrete, so some places have cabins for like $10 more than a campsite, which is great cause it gives us a good night sleep.

more mts.

the girls at the top of a pass.

Cow river and our tent. people still pan for gold in this river and i think make decent money, i walked in it but didnt find any nuggets.

i thought these trees were cool with red bark.

this is the Umpqua river, we drove along it to get to crater lake, we could have stopped 100 times and gotten beautiful pictures like this one.

at susan falls

it was a pretty big waterfall.

Crater lake. this is Wizard island, the little tip of the volcano that is left.

the girls' best titanic pose. the views were beautiful, pictures do no justice.

too close?

we hiked down to the lake, it was a 1.1 miles hike that brought us down 750ft. everytime i took a picutre of the lake i swear the water changed color.

90deg tree.

the trail.

rugged eh?

just to give you a sense of scale. this place was huge.

they have boat tours, but they werent going on while we were there.

the trail had to go back and forth just so it was managablly (not sure that's a word) steep.

there was this neon green moss on the trees.

this is the colliding rivers. it is the only place in the USA and one of the few in the world where this happens that two big rivers collide. however, it was night time when we saw it. this picture is taken with like a 30s exposure, we couldnt see too much either.

Thats about all. we'll be in Portland soon, we'll check in again.

Jim likes the tree huggers in oregon

San Fran

2008-08-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from San Fran. We stayed with our awesome friend Vince who graduated with us from Drexel and didn't mind us hijacking his house for a few days. Bridge entering downtown San Fran.
Notice the 17% grade. We didn't get a chance to bike in the city :(
View from the Twin Peaks, top left is downtown SF.
Me and Abby looking very Californian, I think we'll move here and get a loft and start an indie rock band.
The girl's at Fisherman's Warf.
View of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz.
Shadow puppets.
Shadow on shadow violence.
"Never trust a skinny brewer." The sign says it all. (Billboard in SF).
Suhali's "birthday cake." Happy Birthday Suhali!!!

Vince performed from flaming devil sticking in honor of Suhali's birthday, it was really sweet.

This one looks like a heart.
Vince gothed out Abby's hair with vaseline.
Jim got too tuckered out to party any more.

It's been really, we don't want to leave because we know the road ahead will be tough. But we are looking forward to Eugene and Portland and seeing the Rookies. We are going to Redding CA to drop off the car and start biking hard core. We are all healed up and rested.

Thanks for checking in.

Jim indie rock star wannabe.

More pictures

2008-07-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

Long roads
Beautiful morning skies at Fletcher Lake

These ducks provided a lot of entertainment by walking across the street and blocking traffic
Missouri River
Donna inspired pose in Wyoming
Suhali wearing a crazy happy birthday hat outside of San Fran
sunset at Lake Erie
Volley ball at Lake Erie
Terry and Patti at Fletcher Lake
Mississippi River at Muscatine (possibly the worst city ever)
They have a Radish magazine. yeah, we were that midwest

Salt Lake
Salt Flats
San Fran
Action shots
more..
Sunflower field
Nick's kitchen in Huntington, we got in the news paper.

Jim drove 2,000 miles and is tired

some changes

2008-07-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

hey, we've traveled about 700 miles so far and made it to the Mississippi river at Muscatine Iowa. as you may know from watching the weather, the north american jet stream keeps winds and weather moving west to east across the USA. we have underestimated this force and thought that the winds wouldn't be that bad. we were very wrong (nick, you were right). the head wind has slowed our progress to an average of 12mph. we talked to a lot of bikers traveling west to east and they average more than 16mph. traveling at 16 mph as opposed to 12mph equates to 83 less hours in the saddle over 4000 miles. therefore....

we have decided to take the train from davenport iowa to san fran Ca. and ride the trail from west to east. we will be traveling the same amount of distance, but we hope that we will have more time in each city to meet with people and explore. and we may even be able to return a bit earlier. this move will hopefully make our trip more enjoyable and efficient.

Indiana!!!!!

2008-07-16T16:37:00.001-07:00

hey, we just got out of ohio and not a minute too soon. the roads were getting really horrible the more west we got, at one point there were these low frequency bumps, every 2-3 seconds for 2 lumbar spine destroying hours. but now we're in monroeville indiana at a bike only site for FREE. we've been having a cool time and met a lot of great people.

a storm slowed us down, it hit about 1 hours after the last blog, so we had to suit up in our rain gear, here we are looking soggy. then there was a bridge that was out, the detour was miles around, only to find that it was not being worked on because of the storm and the foot path was wide open, so we could have walked across. here's a picture from the closed bridge, and the storm is moving out.

as the day wore on and the miles drifted under us, we were approaching a camp site. i stopped to look at the map at the entrance of Beulah Beach, a Christian camp site. Joel stopped his car and asked if i needed help, when i told him we needed a camp site, he offered to let us stay with them. instead of charging us, they donated the site charge to invisible childern. we set up camp and went swimming in lake erie. they also provided us with a fanstastic dinner, home cooked by the man known as Chef. later in the evening, before their concert, we were allowed to introduce ourselves and our cause to about 100-200 15-18 year olds. all three of us got on stage and told them about our trip and about the child soldiers in unganda and also about invisible children. they were very receptive and kind. we also got a beautiful heartfelt prayer over us and out journey and our cause. after that it was time to enjoy the sunset and play some volley ball.

Joel is on the left and David is on the right. we were very happy to be there and sad to leave. Joel, if you can get one, we saw people taking pcitures, could you email a picture of us on stage. thanks.

happy trails Joel. and good luck on you 1, 10, 50 year plan david.

the following day we got as far a fremont OH, when suhali's knee was hurting really bad. i had stopped and was talking to Donna about biking and life, when suhali caught up in a lot of pain. Donna at first offered to drive her to our next camp site 15 miles a way, but then offered to let us stay at her house. we agreed to the latter and had a great time. Donna and her two dogs Wanda and Charlie were lovely guests. we got chinese food, walked in a park that was Pres. Rutherford B Hayes' estate, then saw part a coutry music show that was in another park. later we ate icecream on her front porch and talked. we met some of her neighbors, who were equally as nice and had a beer. we ended to night with a cup of tea and watched "a river runs through it." the movie was amazing and made us want to get to montana as soon as possible. she put us up in a king size bed (i didnt know they were so huge). after sleeping in that bed, we didnt want to leave and were ready to become surrogate children of Donna's. but we drug ourselves out and on the road. the time we spent at Donna's will not soon be forgotten, thank you so much.

the girls looking presidential...

wanda and charie

we then stayed a night at a camp site before making it to Defiance OH!

this is us being defiant in Defiance...i guess (we were really tired after 70 miles of biking).

so now we're in monroeville indiana staying at a bike only camp place, here's a picture just over the indiana state line.

abby lost a sandel and is currently taping paper towels to her feet. we're going to bed soon.

we miss you all.

Jim you can't know how far is enough until you've gone too far

Trip beginnings

2008-07-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

our riding began on the dreary morning of july 9th from erie PA. the day cleared up and we managed 37 miles. on of the coolest stops was this abandoned garage/diner. the diner had moss growing on the floor and looked like a meadow invading the tile. the upstairs must have been a house but had been vacant for some time, but had a great assortment of items not worth taking.

i can't figure out how to rotate the image with this computer. (rotate head counter clockwise for proper viewing)

we were detoured off of our path by this, a building fell down. don't ask me how, the only explaination we came up with "it's ohio." but that seems insufficient. we stayed the night at a campsite and met this great old-timer names Kenny. he drove us to a spring so we could fill up on great tasting water, he didn't lie, the following day we gorged on the fresh water.

while we were sleeping a spider built a web on my bike, i felt bad destroying all of his hard work, but i have a feeling he'd be confused if i transported him to cleveland.

we stopped in a small town called paynesville (or something like that). we figured it was supposed to be "pain's ville" cause there was a huge hill entering the city limits. however, at the peak of the hill a farmers market was underway. we met some cool people a bought a homemade cherry pie. we couldn't find ice cream... i guess small towns don't have ice cream... "it's ohio." but we devoured the whole pie in the park before biking for 20 more miles on a fantastic sugar high. here's us in the park.

paynesville was pretty adorable. the next day we made our way into and quickly out of cleveland. this is a picture of our approach with lake erie on the right. lake erie is big, we've been passing it for 4 days.
i guess that's all for now, we are going to have lunch in avon lake, OH. then push on west to a campsite.
thanks for checking up on us.
we miss you all.

jim even at our swiftest speed, we couldn't break from the concrete.

Sponsers !

2008-05-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hey!
So we really cannot do this trip alone. We've already sent out emails to companies and such to try to get some help, I'm sure letters will follow. I'd like to ask anyone reading this if they know someone we can get in contact with, someone who can help our chances of sponsorship above blind emails. Any help is extremely appreciated. The following are a list of companies already contacted, edits will be made to this list as responses come in.

Sierra Dawn Products - Responded, will donate Campsuds for the trip. Thanks to our first sponsor!
Blick Art Materials - Donation of ink for making t-shirts. Thank You!
We also would like to thank Pyali's friends from Tuffs U. and our friends and faculty at Drexel Boimed.

For an address to send real mail, please email me at jtk34@drexel.edu

So some wheels are in motion, Thanks to everyone for their donations, help, advice, encouragement. A calculation of the approximate distance that will be traveled will follow shortly.

-Jim king of the mountain

also extra t-shirt and DVDs from the Drexel screening of the Invisible Children documentary have been returned, please see their website to order more, or wait until we make sure and check them out.

The riders

2008-05-05T19:30:00.001-07:00

It occurred to me that some people may find this site and not know who we are. So without further delay.In order from left to right, Jim Kolb, Suhali Kundu and Abigail Casals. This picture was taken at the Philadelphia Museum of Art after the February Critial Mass. We are all biomedical engineering students at Drexel university, graduating in June of 2008 representing the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.
Short Bio:
Suhali - Undergrad, with a concentration in Neuroengineering, she does research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on traumatic brain injury and how it affects memory centers of the brain. She spent her freshman year at Bryn Mawr as a math major, but she has been at Drexel for the past 4 years. Suhali loves to travel and meet new people. At the conclusion of the trip Suhali wants to be a part of Engineers without Borders (http://www.ewb-usa.org/) and go to medical school.
Abigail - Undergrad with a concentration in Tissue Engineering, she is ending her 4 year program at Drexel and did her co-op at GlaxoSmithKline. Abby plays guitar, piano and is a fantastic singer/song writer. At the conclusion of the trip Abby will be working and going to medical school.
Jim - Graduate student in Drexels combined Bachelors/Masters Program with a concentration in Biomechanics and Human Performance. I did Co-ops at Precision Medical Products and Synthes and am currently working on my Master's thesis with Dr. Papazoglou, developing a near infrared system to characterize hydrogels. When I'm not doing school work I like to draw, read and take photos (which I will do along the trip and post on this blog). At the conclusion of the trip Iwill get a job and rest my tired legs.

We all love to bike and explore but we are really doing this because we want to help the Invisible Children Foundation. The filmmakers are raising money to help the children, but a big part of this trip is to also spread the word. People should feel outraged that these atrocities continue. This summer some of these topics will gain national attention. China, the host of the summer Olympic Games is the major financial backer of the Sudanese Government and war in Darfur (just something to keep in mind).
This is a short article describing some recent activity about the war in Darfur. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/04/22/darfur.holmes/index.html

-Jim

Donate !!!

2008-04-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

Please use Paypal when possible. All donations will delivered to the Invisible Children Charity when we arrive in California. We thank you for any amount you can give. If you wish to be a sponsor for us by helping us get supplies and equiptment, please contact me at jtk34@drexel.edu.

Thank you all!!!

More Stuff

2008-04-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. So we decided to explain some more about what we're really asking. When we get to California, we want to deliver all of the money raised directly to the Invisible Children, which means we will have to raise some money for them. We would like to have donations based on the miles that we ride, something on the order of 10-20 cents per mile, or any other donations. The second purpose of trip is to raise awareness for the cause. The Invisible Children film documents one of the least publicized humanitarian crisis of our generation. So in addition to talking to people everywhere we can, we'd like to make and sell t-shirts along the way in an attempt to keep the conversation going even after we've left. But we will need money for shirts and ink. So we are looking for any donations (there's still some t-shirts and dvds from the movie screening) and we are looking for sponsors to help us with making shirts and other things we'll need along the way (like food).

Stuff we will have:
Bikes - Abby, Suhali, Jim(not yet), Nick(not yet)
Racks and bags (we'll have to carry our whole life across the country) - Not yet
Camping/Living gear - not yet

Stuff we'd like to get sponsors for:
Blank t-shirts
Ink and screen printing accessories
Living expenses
There's probably more I'm forgetting, but that's the basic idea. We'll try to get a paypal account going and linked to this blog so anyone can donate anytime.

Thanks all!
Cheers.

First Entry

2008-04-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
So this is the first entry in our official Bike Trip for Invisible Children blog. Thanks for checking it out. I guess the first thing I should do is explain what Invisible Children is and what we are trying to do. In 2003, group of 3 filmmaker students went to Uganda and recorded the tragedy of children who are abducted to fight as child soldiers. To escape abduction, children must leave their homes in the villages and commute to large cities every night to sleep. These night commuters travel many miles to sleep in hallways, parking lots and verandas. My friends and I were moved by the documentary and decided to bike across America to help raise awareness and money for their foundation. Over the next few months we will get sponsors and prepare for our trip that will take us from the east coast to California to deliver the money we raised directly to the Invisible Children Foundation.I modified a picture from invisible children and added our information and blog.

Our first event was to screen the documentary at Drexel. We held it on April 10th at Drexel's Nesbitt building. There was a decent turnout and we raised almost $300 in donations and merchandise sales. Thanks to everyone for helping and coming out to see it. Thanks to CAB for helping us out.

Through this blog we will document our journey. Check back for updates and pictures.

For more information on Invisible Children check out their website at www.invisiblechildren.com

I found the following picture and edited it. I thought it was pretty cool. Pass along our story and info to everyone you know, we can use all the help we can get. Edit: I was informed that the "I want change" guy was a piece done by a graf artist named Meek. Thanks Meet, great work. Thanks Nate.
Thanks!