Documentary inspires cycling trip to raise funds for Big City Mountaineers
When the documentary "Take a Seat," which follows Dominic Gill as he cycles 18,449 miles from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Chile, the southernmost city in the world, was screened on campus at the 2010 Banff Mountain Film Festival, the sense of awe at Gill's feat was palpable. But where some found awe, others found inspiration.
Those "others" include South Carolina alumni Michael Hunter, a 2011 graduate in marketing and global supply chain and process management, and Brent McCauley, who graduated in 2011 with a master's degree in education, who were inspired by the film to undertake a 25,000-mile journey to the geographic high point of all 50 states — all under human or renewable power.
They estimate that their undertaking will take between a year and a half and two years, though Hunter said "there are a lot of variables that will come into play," including breakdowns, winter conditions and their pace. Along the way, Hunter and McCauley will summit some of the nation's most daunting peaks, including New Hampshire's Mount Washington, known for its bitter winters and its world-record wind speeds, and Alaska's Mount McKinley, the highest point in North America.
After cycling through the mainland 48 states, though, comes one of the trip's most ambitious undertakings: sailing from California to Hawaii, where they will set to climb Mauna Kea, itself a commanding volcano.
All of this is backed by the pair's goal to raise $50,000 for Big City Mountaineers, "an organization that provides resources to underresourced urban youth" by pairing them with individual mentors and exposing them to wilderness areas in the Pacific Northwest, the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains, among others, on weeklong expeditions, McCauley said.
"Many of these youths are from single-parent households and have never left their county of residence in their life," McCauley said, adding that the program will "hopefully encourage them [and] inspire them."
The two have information about donating to Big City Mountaineers, where money will be earmarked to directly support youth expeditions, and to their project for food, bike repairs and other expenses, on their website www.cycleforthesummit.com.
Visitors to the site will also have the option to sponsor a peak for between $50 and $500. Among the peaks' sponsors are USC President Harris Pastides with Mount Washington in the Presidential Mountain Range and the Office of Outdoor Recreation with Sassafras Mountain, South Carolina's highest point, which sponsored the mountain in the memory of late USC President Andrew Sorensen.
Hunter and McCauley also suggest the website as a place to keep up with the project as they cycle throughout the country and to find details about prelaunch events, which they hope will include a laid-back evening with a silent auction and bluegrass music on Sept. 9 at Cool Beans and a bike race and concert on Sept. 10, though details are not yet available.
The trip begins on Sept. 11, but in the meantime Hunter will head off to climb Africa's highest point, Mount Kilimanjaro, in what appears to be a manifestation of the team's overarching goal.
"We hope that we'll inspire people to do things for the first time, things they never thought about," McCauley said.
In that regard, Gill's example is one they're wise to follow.
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