EXTREME BIKEPACKING CHALLENGE IN AMERICA

This coming June 2025 I will ride from Canada to the US-Mexico border, covering a total distance of 4500kms and 60,000 accumulated positives, which is equivalent to climb 8 everest. The route passes through some of the most impressive national parks on the west coast of the United States and the distances between groceries or water points to resupply are sometimes enormous, so the difficulty of the route lies not only in the grizzly bears, mountain lions, camping where you can and carrying what you need to survive but the great challenge of endurance and planning required to be able to complete it.

In 2022 I started the adventure of a lifetime cycling across 18 countries in Europe to reach the North Cape in Norway, a self-sufficiency adventure that took me 8 months and 9200kms. In 2023 I reached the sahara again by bike after crossing all of morocco and the Atlas Mountains, the largest mountain range in North Africa. Now in 2024 I just finished my route through Japan after 2 months cycling in the land of the rising sun. In spite of all this, I am just a 30 year old kid from Valencia who dreams of fighting for his ideals and live according to what makes my heart vibrate strongly, aware that one day I will be gone.

I am passionate about life, adventures and crazy bike rides. And nothing motivates me more than a good challenge. All these years I have received help from all over the world, people inviting me to sleep in their homes without knowing me at all, gestures of hospitality that have saved me on many occasions and this my project for 2025 is born from wanting to combine this physical challenge that I have been wanting to do for a long time with the need to give back to the world all the help it has given me so far, so I will be doing a fundraising to donate it once the race is over to COOPERATING NGO and more specifically to the project of “Mama Gladys” center in Kenya, helping with the creation of a new school in Ukunda, and thus allowing children who do not have resources to go to school can receive a proper education and even live in the center in many cases that need it, providing them with food and water, something that should be basic for all human beings.

Mama Gladys has dedicated her life to the care of children and their education. More than 30 years ago, she decided to go one step further for those children who could not attend school and began to give them classes in her living room, thus starting the project that today has become the Shechem Academy

There are currently 50 students at the academy, where infant classes are taught. In addition, some of these children sleep at the center, since the conditions at home are not the most adequate. There are currently 16 children living at the center. The ages of these children range from 3 to 8 years old. They all live in the same room sharing beds, next to Mama Gladys' room in very bad conditions, both in terms of health and hygiene. 

Cooperating NGO provides monthly financial support to the center to cover the salaries of the teachers and the children's meals.

In order to cover the needs of Mama Gladys' center, a project has been initiated for the construction of a new house for Mama Gladys and the children. And that is where all the donations and aid that are made thanks to this challenge will go.

We can not change the lives of all people or solve all the causes of injustice that exist in the world, but we can improve the lives of these children. Help me to achieve it.

Do your bit, it all adds up.

With love, your friend Alejandro Zaragoza.