First Black Woman to Complete TransAmerica Trail

[spuello]

Hello everyone:

It was suggested to me that I post on here to try get a question answered or maybe be pointed in the right direction. I biked the TransAm last summer with my boyfriend and I was hoping to figure out if I was the first Black woman to do so. If I'm not, I would like to know who was or if there's a way to find this information. I, of course, spoke to Greg Siple, the now-retired Historian of ACA but he was unfortunately unable to confirm, and the Adventure Cycling office does not/has not previously noted this kind of demographic information.

That said, does anyone know of any resource to help me find this information? Or does anyone happen to personally know another Black woman that has completed the TransAm or another cross country trail? Thanks in advance everyone! Feel free to also reach me via e-mail at spuellon@gmail.com.

Stephanie

[zzzz]

Hi Stephanie:

That would be both sad that it took this long and worthy of congratulations if you turn out to be the first. It has struck me when out on my trips the dearth of african-americans out there, & hispanics as well. I've seen in the ACA magazine they are aware of this lack of diversity and are trying to change that.

I tried typing "african-american/female" into the search engine over at CGOAB and nothing came up about the trans-am. There was a young black women who's journal on Crazy Guy I followed for awhile, but if I remember properly she was going from DC to NO.

Good luck w your search but if I were you I wouldn't be too reluctant to take the mantel and make it known. Maybe it will inspire someone else to follow in your path.

Best of Luck,

Pete

[DaveB]

Good luck w your search but if I were you I wouldn't be too reluctant to take the mantel and make it known. Maybe it will inspire someone else to follow in your path.

Great idea.  Make the claim you were the first.  If you are correct, congratulations.  If you weren't the first, you will certainly hear from whoever was.   

[staehpj1]

Hello everyone:

It was suggested to me that I post on here to try get a question answered or maybe be pointed in the right direction. I biked the TransAm last summer with my boyfriend and I was hoping to figure out if I was the first Black woman to do so. If I'm not, I would like to know who was or if there's a way to find this information. I, of course, spoke to Greg Siple, the now-retired Historian of ACA but he was unfortunately unable to confirm, and the Adventure Cycling office does not/has not previously noted this kind of demographic information.

That said, does anyone know of any resource to help me find this information? Or does anyone happen to personally know another Black woman that has completed the TransAm or another cross country trail? Thanks in advance everyone! Feel free to also reach me via e-mail at spuellon@gmail.com.

Stephanie

First congrats on your ride.

It is always hard to determine much about who (or how many) have done the TA or other routes.  That said, I'd be surprised if you were the first black woman to do the route.  A lot of folks have ridden the route over approximately the last 40 years, so it seems likely that most demographics have been represented at some point.  Many of those folks just did the ride with no public journal or other available record of their ride.

You might try asking on the crazyguyonabike.com forums.  There are a lot of folks there that follow or have read many TA journals.

If I stumble across any info I'll let you know.

[BikeFreak]

Please remember:

This forum is very small with a very limited number of contributors. Limited compared to how many actually travel across.

1. A vast majority buy the maps, travel the route and you will never hear from them again. I belong to that group. I am active here but never made a webpage, no blog and no contribution on crazyguyonabike.

2. Some people buy a supported trip from Adventure Cycling - I think there are 2 in each direction each year. I guess you never hear anything from most of these people.

3. Some people do a supported trip with another organization, like fund raising or something similar.

4. Some people find the maps too expensive. They either borrow some old ones or start planning their trip using google maps

5. I usually met a few old persons doing the trip. They would travel alone while their spouse was driving the car (supported trip). It had been their life long dream to travel across but for some reason the spouse cannot do the physical part of it and drives the car. These people have usually reached an age where they are not profound using computers. You will never hear from these people.

If I were you I would ask Adventure Cycling for the guides they have been using and see if they have some contact information. These guides will probably remember each of the riders.

Lucas