By Asad Bhatti and Gemma Smith

Jack Slocum is a sophomore at Westborough High School who participates in a three week long bike trip across the country every summer, and has been since 2014. As a kid, Slocum started biking by going on bike rides with his friends and family. Later on, his dad introduced Slocum and his sister to a biking organization he was involved with when he was younger called Decycles. Decycles is a biking organization designed for the ultimate experience; bikers have to withstand three weeks of grueling biking to get to their final destination.

Slocum has embarked on this journey each summer for the past three years, biking across border after border of different states. During the summer of Slocum’s first year with Decycles, he biked from Bloomington, Indiana to Nova Scotia, Canada. “The trip itself was about three weeks long, in which the other bikers and I traveled anywhere from 60 to 130 miles a day” said Slocum. The next year he biked from Seattle, Washington to Los Angeles, California; both of these trips were over 1,600 miles. The bikers stayed in churches each night after completing their route for the day, where they would rest until the next morning.        

The trip takes place between June and July, but prior to the start, Slocum must undergo months of training. The training consists of weekend bike rides that are 60-100 miles long, and can be either indoors at the gym or at his house. Slocum also prepares by biking to Cape Cod to visit his aunt or will bike to Springfield, MA.  

To most people, biking 1,000 miles could be considered punishment or extremely tiring to spend day after day biking, but when asked why Slocum does the journey every year he responded with “ it’s just for fun, it started off as a physical challenge, but now it’s just for fun.” While this bike ride does require a tremendous amount of training, the feeling of finishing the long trip is indescribable.