Bicycling Beyond the Divide: Two Journeys Into the West

by Daryl Farmer

Book Overview

On a journey begun twenty years earlier, Daryl Farmer, a twenty-year-old two-time college dropout, did what lost men have so often done in this country: he headed west. Twenty years later and seventy pounds heavier, with the yellowing journals from that transformative five-thousand-mile bicycle trek in his pack, Farmer set out to retrace his path. This is his story of pursuing that distant summer and that distant dream of home, where home is endless space, a roof of big sky, and a bed of dry earth. Just as the years altered the man, so, too, have they altered the West, and Farmer's second journey affords a unique perspective on these changes--as well as on what lasts. Whether caught in a Colorado snowstorm or braving a Yellowstone herd of bison, kayaking with orcas in Puget Sound, trading Ninja moves with a homeless man in San Francisco, or getting the lowdown on aliens on Nevada's Extraterrestrial Highway, Farmer charts a moving landscape of people and places. This is the West where the natural world and personal character are inextricably linked, and where one man's ride into the past and present takes us to the heart of that ever-evolving connection.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803220340
• ISBN13: 9780803220348
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 331 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

INSPIRING AND ENVY

THIS IS A WELL WRITTEN BOOK ABOUT A MAN TRYING TO RECONNECT W/HIS YOUTH. I AM CLOSE TO THE SAME AGE AS DARYL. I HAVE NEVER ATTEMPTED SUCH A FEAT. I DO A LOT OF RIDING. MY GOAL IS TO DO A CROSS COUNTRY RIDE SOME DAY. THIS BOOK WILL GO ALONG WAY IN GIVING ME THE MENTAL TOUGHNESS TO ENBARK ON SUCH A JOURNEY. THE ONE THING THAT I WOULD HAVE INCLUDED IN THE END IS WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE AS A 40 YEAR OLD GOING BACK TO WORK. THANKS DARYL FOR YOUR INSPIRATION AND GIVING ME LONG DISTANCE BIKE ENVY.

One Great Book, Even if you don't ride

This book is enjoyable in so many ways. First it is a great bicycling read, if you ride, you will enjoy it. Second, it is a great travel book for those that have the constant "itch". It is also a superb adventure book. If you enjoyed "Into the Wild", this is another book that takes you along and you do not want it to end. For those of us that can not venture out and take the time needed, this book keeps our minds wide open. I read a review that it was "a great vacation" reading this book and I could not agree more. This book puts you along the ride and adventure with Mr. Farmer and it could have been twice the amount of pages and I would have not wanted to put it down. The West from a view few seldom will get to have the privilege. Thank you Daryl Farmer, may I someday be able to experience what you have shared with us.

enjoyable read for those interested in the modern American West

I have not been on a bicycle since I was thirteen, but no matter. This book was an enjoyable and enlightening tale of one man's second journey through the American West (Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Utah) over the course of a summer in 2005. He made the same journey 20 years earlier. Great armchair traveling!

Bicycling Beyond the Divide by Daryl Farmer

Bicycling beyond the Divide: Two Journeys into the West (Outdoor Lives) This is an adventure story that is as much about how people in all the small rural towns and parks have changed from 1985 to 2005 as it is about bicycling through the Western United Sates. This book is made up of many portraits of people met and images of the American landscape as described by a shy traveler who is a great listener and neutral absorber of everyplace he peddles through (as well as the places he doesn't make it via bicycle) as this country is no easy ride. Making this book a really interesting read.