PITTSBURG, Kan. — One thousand, six hundred and seventy-seven miles down. Two thousand, one hundred and eight miles to go.

In the span of two months, a group of 20 men and women will go from sea level to 11,000 feet to sea level again. They’ll endure rain, wind, desert temperatures above 100 degrees and mountain temperatures hovering near 30.

Traveling by bicycle, they all have their reasons: Some want to see the country; others heard about the ride from friends or co-workers, and thought it sounded like a challenge. The commonality is raising funds and awareness for multiple sclerosis as part of the trans-America tour, “Bike the U.S. for MS.”

Jennifer Cherry, a 48-year-old from Illinois, is riding in honor of her mother, Elizabeth Pauken, who was diagnosed with MS in 1997 after experiencing years of symptoms. She lost mobility after two years, and after three or four years she was unable to play her beloved piano.

The family was told that she had chronic progression, and she was given “10 good years,” Cherry said Tuesday afternoon during the group’s annual stopover at Wheat State Pizza in Pittsburg.

Volunteers had once again arranged for lunch, a banquet Tuesday night, lodging and showers. Mayor John Ketterman proclaimed it “Bike the U.S. for MS Day in Pittsburg.”

Cherry said her mother made it 14 years; she died last December.

“She had determination and a lot of support,” Cherry said.

Cherry said she likewise has relied on determination and support to make it from Yorktown, Va., to Pittsburg since June 1, particularly through the mountainous Ozarks of Missouri, and she will depend on those factors to reach San Francisco on Aug. 1.

“Those hills,” she said. “I see one in front of me and I think, ‘It’s not nearly as difficult as what people with MS deal with every day.’ I know the hills will end. For them, they won’t. That’s why we’re here.”

It’s not the first time the group has come through Pittsburg; this marks the group’s fourth year to stop here before it heads west across Kansas and into southern Colorado. Each year, the reception grows, led by Gina Peak, a Scammon woman who was diagnosed with MS in 2004.

Peak enlists the help of friends, each of whom has other personal connections to MS. The riders were so impressed that last year they created the Peak Award; Peak was the first recipient.



AH, KANSAS

Route leader and 2010 participant Dale Johnson, a 60-year-old from Maryland, said Kansas is the group’s favorite segment to ride.

“If you had to ask people on the ride their favorite state, I know at least 50 percent of them would say Kansas,” Johnson said. “The people here are so nice. We go through all these small towns, and people wave, they talk to you, they are so glad you’re there.”

The riders stay wherever a community can offer a spot. Tuesday night, it was at Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium, where auditorium employee Terri Steele took a vacation day to help prepare the banquet and then stay overnight with the riders as a host. Other nights, it might be a campground, a park or a church.

The tour’s four to five rest days don’t involve rest, said rider Alex Solomon, a college student from Illinois — merely a day off the bike.

“On our days off, we go to the homes of MS patients and do chores they aren’t able to, like mowing lawns, trimming hedges, landscaping, washing cars,” he said. “It feels good to meet someone with MS; it is really good motivation. We’re not riding for ourselves, we’re doing it for others. The hills are hard, but that softens them a little.”



HISTORY

The annual ride was started in 2007 by Virginia native Don Fraser as a tribute to his mother, who has had MS his entire life.

“It started with some friends, three roommates of mine who rode with me from Seattle to Maine after I graduated from college,” he said during the Pittsburg stopover in 2010.

Their initial efforts raised $20,000. Their website attracted many hits through Google, and others began expressing interest in continuing the ride in the future. This marks the ride’s fifth year.

To participate, riders must raise at least $3,000, $1,000 of which goes to ride support, camping costs and bike repair. This year’s group raised $217,759, which will fund home modification projects across the U.S., and support research and treatment in Charlottesville, Va., Seattle and St. Paul, Minn.





Next stop



THE RIDERS TODAY will head to Chanute, Kan., where they will be feted with another reception and meet those living with MS.