His mother was against it, his father didn’t know about it, but a Californian teenager decided to cross the American continent by bicycle alone from Alaska to Argentina.
Liam Garner is an experienced cyclist and this isn’t his first trip of this nature, having previously connected Los Angeles to San Francisco on his two-wheeled companion.
After reading a book by adventurer Jedidiag Jenkins, who had cycled from Oregon to Argentina, Garner decided to do the same but from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, the northernmost point accessible by road in the United States, in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost point of South America.
“I spent the whole month after graduation gathering gear and then I left,” Garner told CNN Travel. “It happened very quickly and wasn’t really planned at the beginning”.
Garner was 17 when he outfitted his mountain bike with a tent, a sleeping bag, food and water for about a day, portable batteries, a first-aid kit and parts for his bike.
He began his journey on August 1, 2021 on the Trans-American Highway, a network of roads that crisscrosses the United States, and decided to document his journey on TikTok.
“There is an official route and unofficial routes,” he explained. I created mine over time. As long as I drove south, I knew I was going in the right direction.”
The young man admitted that his divorced parents were not very playful. His mother didn’t believe him at first and he didn’t tell his father until he was about to leave.
“He called me when I was in Alaska and I told him where I was,” he said, adding that his mom and dad are now his two biggest fans and follow his adventures closely.
“There is nothing better than being self-sufficient and knowing that you have achieved something on your own two feet. I sometimes have the feeling that when you drive or fly, it’s like teleporting. you weren’t outside You didn’t feel anything. You didn’t touch things,” he continued.