A “crazy adventure” had been on Liam Garner’s bucket list for a long time, and as the day of his high school graduation neared, the teen was more determined than ever to escape.
Garner, who is from Long Beach, California, is an experienced cyclist. He had previously cycled from Los Angeles to San Francisco and realized that if he wanted to, he could easily pedal across the continent.
Garner decided to cycle from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, the northernmost road-accessible point in the United States, to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost point in South America, after reading a book by adventurer Jedidiah Jenkins about his journey by bicycle from Oregon to Argentina.
And while a lot of his friends from school were getting ready for college, Garner started getting ready for the adventure of his life.
Epic adventure
Garner tells CNN Travel, “I spent the entire month after I graduated just getting the equipment, and then I left.” It moved very quickly. It didn’t take much planning to begin with.”
When Garner set out on his KHS Zaca mountain bike at the age of 17, all he had was a tent, a sleeping bag, a medical kit, some portable batteries, a day’s worth of food and water, a tent, and some extra parts for his bike.
On August 1, 2021, he began his journey along the Pan-American Highway, a network of roads that runs across the Americas.
The adolescent made the decision to document the journey, which saw him cycle through 14 countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. His TikTok video series had already garnered a significant number of followers.
He explains, “There is an official route, and then there are unofficial routes.” As I went along, I basically chose my own [route]. I knew I was heading in the right direction as long as I was daily traveling south.
Garner acknowledges that his separated parents were uneasy about the prospect of their adolescent son traveling all the way to South America by himself.
He claims that his mother initially refused to believe him and went through “probably eight months of terror.” However, he did not actually tell his father until after he had set off because he was so certain that he would oppose it.
Garner says, “He called me while I was in Alaska, and I told him where I was.” He goes on to say that both of them are now his biggest supporters and follow his progress closely.
Biking benefits
In spite of the fact that Gather at first started cycling since he didn’t have a vehicle, he presently thinks of it as the most effective way to travel, and could not have possibly needed to do this excursion differently.
“It’s the most close method for voyaging,” he says. “You go at such a leisurely pace, and you need to genuinely attempt to will places. So you truly gain a connection to the most arbitrary little towns and bends in the street.
“Something doesn’t add up about being independent and realizing that you got some place on your own two feet. I feel like now and then when you drive or fly, maybe you’re simply magically transporting to a spot. You weren’t outside. You weren’t smelling things. You weren’t contacting things.”
The young person spent around four and a half months trekking across Mexico and portrays the experience as one of the most critical of his life.
“My entire family is from Mexico,” he makes sense of. “I grew up going [to Mexico] yet I never educated the language. So it’s one thing to visit consistently, and living there is a certain something.
“So crossing the whole country on a bicycle and reconnecting with my way of life and remaining with my family and learning the language in the spot my family is from was so profoundly essential to me.”
Unfortunate setbacks
Garner claims that he has been surviving on a monthly budget of approximately $430 and left California with very little money.
He is keen to point out that this simply isn’t the case, noting that he has heard people say that he is only able to do what he is doing “because he is a straight white, rich guy.”
“I am an immigrant from Mexico, first generation. And I am not wealthy,” he asserts. This was done on one’s own. Additionally, this doesn’t really necessitate a lot of money.
I don’t want people to think that going bike touring requires a lot of money. I’ve met people from all walks of life.
“I’ve seen people literally just have trash bags on the back of a bike. People can do it and stay in hotels every night.
In every country I’ve visited, I’ve seen people of all ethnicities alone and with partners. I’ve also met a lot of amazing, strong women. It truly is accessible to everyone.”
Earn had a riding friend named Logan for close to eight months or so of the outing. But when they got to Colombia, he left, and Garner went on his own the rest of the way.
He was particularly surprised by El Salvador, which he describes as “one of the most peaceful, nicest, quietest countries,” among the numerous nations he cycled through.
Throughout the trip, Garner experienced a number of crushing lows in addition to the incredible highs.
He claims to have been robbed at least five times and spent a month in the hospital after falling off his bike and hitting his head in Colombia.
He continues, “The idea that you might get hurt and something really awful might happen is in your mind traveling so much.” He goes on to explain that he needed plastic surgery to repair his ear and stitch it back together after receiving approximately 40 stitches.
“Be that as it may, it wasn’t exactly a reality until I got injured in Colombia. I was completely unconscious for about 15 minutes, and it took me several hours to even speak again.
After the incident, Garner decided to write a will and claims that having to stand still for weeks was very hard on him.
He admits that after he was robbed in the south of Mexico and had to deal with extreme heat, he thought about giving up for a moment.
“For around more than about fourteen days, me and my accomplice Logan had no association with the rest of the world,” he makes sense of.
We were without cell phones. The weather was challenging. Each day was over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). That was when I got sick.
The two, according to Garner, were only able to bike for a short time before they had to stop because of the heat, and they talked about taking the bus home once they got to Central America.
He recalls saying at the time, “There’s no point in torturing ourselves.” This is unpleasant.
When they got to Guatemala a week or so later, the weather was much cooler, so they decided to keep going.
Final push
Garner’s only thought during the final month of his journey was of his “wheel crossing the last inch of pavement” and, at times, he would “start crying on the bike for no reason, even though it hadn’t happened yet.”
After cycling 32,000 kilometers (nearly 20,000 miles) over the course of 527 days, he finally reached Ushuaia on January 10.
In any case, Earn, presently 19, says that the second he had invested such a lot of energy envisioning felt to some degree paltry.
He elaborates, “It [Ushuaia] was a really touristy town, and there were so many people.” I didn’t really get any time to myself. I was also somewhat disappointed.
He decided to travel to a national park for a few days and reflect on his travels, feeling a little depressed.
“I understood that I didn’t mind what the last town was,” he says. ” It was only beginning to arrive. Also, I know that is very buzzword, yet that truly was the thing I arrived at the finish of.
Garner’s only thought during the final month of his journey was of his “wheel crossing the last inch of pavement” and, at times, he would “start crying on the bike for no reason, even though it hadn’t happened yet.”
After cycling 32,000 kilometers (nearly 20,000 miles) over the course of 527 days, he finally reached Ushuaia on January 10.
In any case, Earn, presently 19, says that the second he had invested such a lot of energy envisioning felt to some degree paltry.
He elaborates, “It [Ushuaia] was a really touristy town, and there were so many people.” I didn’t really get any time to myself. I was also somewhat disappointed.
He decided to travel to a national park for a few days and reflect on his travels, feeling a little depressed.
“I understood that I didn’t mind what the last town was,” he says. ” It was only beginning to arrive. Also, I know that is very buzzword, yet that truly was the thing I arrived at the finish of.
Inspiring others
When he gets back, Collect intends to compose a book about his excursion with expectations of rousing other youngsters to take on an excursion like this.
He says he consistently gets messages from individuals who’ve seen his story on Instagram or TikTok and have felt a sense of urgency to accomplish something almost identical.
“I’ve really received such countless a greater number of messages than I at any point figured I would,” he says. “Furthermore, individuals are truly getting it done.
“I follow a portion of individuals that informed me, and they’re really trekking from The Frozen North to Argentina now.
“An astounding inclination to realize I’m getting more individuals into it, since there were individuals that were liable for getting me into it. What’s more, it encourages me to do likewise.”
While he’s a lot of anticipating finding his loved ones, some of whom have been occupied with examining while he’s been away, Earn has positively no second thoughts about following an alternate way.
“In the event that I had remained at home, and I had gone to junior college, or something like that, would I have truly been a preferred individual over I’m presently?” he inquires.
“Could I truly be pretty much as receptive as I’m presently? I unequivocally feel that I wouldn’t be. That is the reason I think this was the most equipped choice I’ve made in my life. I’ve never been all the more certain about something I’ve done.”
